Just my observation: military surplus firearms rocketed up in 1994 for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy landing and the end of WW2 in 1995, and have been kept there by people demanding higher and higher prices for junkier and junkier rifles. In 1985, we were buying WW2 Mauser 98s for $50 each and stripping them for the actions, which we drilled and tapped for scope bases, cut off the bolt handles, welded on new bolt handles, polished and blued, and then sold for $120 to people who wanted a Mauser sporter (because a commercial 98 cost $180). In 1994, those same K98k rifles jumped up to $300. Nowadays you can't hardly give away a fine sporter Mauser (and get accused of "ruining a valuable piece of history" when you do), and beater 98s that spent their whole life in South America sell for $600. Is it a bubble? I think so, because the generation of men that fought that war are pretty much dead, and their kids are retiring now and they want a rifle "just like the one Dad brought home from the war" (never mind that Dad probably got it from the local surplus vendor). In a decade or so their grandkids will dump them so they can buy an AR and then there will be WW2 Mausers on the market again. But I will not be here to see it. I saw it the first time.