bulk buying a crate of mosins?

S

ssbo

New member
I'm looking into getting a crate of Mosins, justifing that I'll one day sell them for a mint (yeah, right like I'll ever sell the set :rolleyes: ) , but the only place I could find was this http://www.classicfirearms.com/mosin-nagant-rfile-by-the-crate and for 120 per I'm not sure if it's the best price. I know that they aren't as cheap as they were (wow saying that made me feel old) and I did hear that supplies were shrinking so would it be a good idea to buy this or is there a better deal else where?
 
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Well I can't tell you much about the pricing for a crate, but when I decided to buy a Mosin a few weeks ago I did some googling about crate purchases out of curiosity, a few things I found are probably relevant to you:

-The crate is massive, and heavy. Has to be shipped by truck and shipping will probably run you at least a few hundred bucks.
-No guarantees about quality. You might open the crate to find that a third of the rifles are in terrible shape or are fit only to be wall decorations.
-Most places won't ship a crate to a C&R holder because they don't want to raise red flags with the ATF, so unless you have a FFL you're going to lose a lot of money on transfer fees.

In short, I don't think you're likely to make any money off of a crate (unless something happens that makes mosins rare and valuable :eek: ).
 
In short, I don't think you're likely to make any money off of a crate (unless something happens that makes mosins rare and valuable )
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It isn't that somethings going to happen over night, but I wonder if the SKS craze is repeating itself... I heard that supplies of the Mosin dried up a couple of years ago, but than rushed back. Should I be waiting for another couple thousand crates to be 'found' again?
 
They do have to dry up eventually, heck, I bought an m44 at big 5 for $75 plus tax and now they easily sell for $200+. Try to buy a 440 round tin right now, its either sold out or the price has been increased from what it was a few months ago.

There will always be mosins because naturally people will sell them at gun shows and pawn shops and such, but I think they are starting to dry up because the prices have steadily grown over the past few years. About 3-4 years ago, $120 was a HIGH price for a mosin, now its more the mid to bottom end of the price range.

Please do not think that I'm saying they are going to be all gone and you should rush out and buy 15 of them, im just saying the prices are going up and they are becoming a little harder to find in some cases.
 
If you are approaching this as a "roller coaster" approach of buy low and sell high.... you might have started too late. I've had a FFL for over 25 years and we used to get Mosins for about 30 bucks each and sell em for 50 with 30 rounds of 7.62 X 54 ball. They were a real bargain at those prices and quite easy to sell but those days are long gone. Current pricing has risen so much that the potential for any significant profit has been negated to the point of high risk / low yield. Sorry to say but that ship has sailed.
 
Yeah i think you would do better spending that money on fewer more valuable/collectable rifles. A handful of remingtons and N.E.W would be better than a whole crate of rack grade m/n's.
 
the rifleer:

Yesterday Ammoman had 880 rds. of Russian/Bulg. surplus x54R ammo for "$250 shipped".
I first noticed it there almost two weeks ago, for the same price.

ssbo: I'm not a businessmen but can't see haggling and spending time with each rifle for a small profit, and as people mentioned, not knowing the condition.

The true MN afficianados usually seem to prefer the much pricier Finn M-39 or Polish MN 44, as you probably know.
Some claim that the sights are (somehow) better than those on Russian 91/30s.
 
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Three things...

1. $120 isn't terrible, for a LONG term investment (say, 25 years). But, I wouldn't pay more than $100 per rifle, if you're hoping to make any decent profit in the next 10-15 years.

2. Whoever changed that webpage is mentally deficient. $120 x 20 rifles = $2,400 per crate ... not the $2,500 they're claiming. :rolleyes: (I say "changed", because they had them listed for $1,800 per crate last year.) At $2,500 it's actually $125 per rifle + shipping (at least $5 per rifle).

3. Unless you think you can make a decent profit with rifles that are slathered in cosmoline, you need to consider the time and labor that will be required to clean them all up in the future. It's a lot of work.
 
AIM still sells them for $120 each...they just sold out again, but actually were in stock this time for quite a while- used to sell out in hours.

I think the crazy stupid period is subsiding. So, if you can buy them individually for the same price as a crate full, where's the "discount" (unless you want the crate, I suppose...)

Aside from just "owning one" (and every C&R collector should), for me it's all about shooting them. Converted one to a capable long-range stick with a ton of mods- but obviously it had a decent barrel to make the project worthwhile.

Arsenal refurbs are often the best bet in my experience- they've been gone through and wouldn't have been re-arsenaled if they weren't in good enough shape to justify it.
 
I tell ya...

Back in the late 80's, SKS's were being brought into VT by the container load from China, and the going rate was $99 per...Buy a case, and you could get them for less than $90 per...I found an old sales slip the other day with a plant 26 SKS packed in cosmo wrapped in rice paper, 100 rds of ammo, 10 stripper clips, oil bottle, tool kit in butt, bandoleer, and tax, out the door for $115 and change...

I wish I knew now what I did not know then...
 
well buying anything with the intent of reselling constitutes trying to sell firearms commercially without the proper license but assuming that they are sold over a long period of time like selling one at each gun show or something would be alright so long as you weren't making a living off it. regardless of what many will tell you the mosin nagant has greatly appreciated in value over the last 2 years. I got one last spring for $80+FFL+S&H so it came out to $125 and bought another in the store for the same total cost. that was the last time I saw a mosin nagant for less than $150 and right now anything lower than $200 is starting to seem like a rarity. unless you have a C&R license and are able to get the FFL discount there really isn't such thing as a super cheap mosin anymore. there is a type 53 mosin at my LGS for $150 but the wood is rotten and splintered and doesn't have a single matching serial number.
 
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