Mitchell's Mausers 1944 CE K98

Been over a year ago, I accompanied a fellow range member to a gun show in Houston. He wanted to buy a military rifle that he could shoot in our monthly surplus rifle competition. While not an expert on them, am fairly knowlegable about them and own some decent surplus military rifles. So I was his adviser on what to buy.

At the show we found a dealer with three Mitchell's Mausers, still in its box and etc. We'd visited most of the dealer tables by then and hadn't seen anything I could highly recommend for him to buy. Ones we saw were either in too bad a condition or just too darn high priced.

The Mitchells were in very nice condition and one wasan early WWII manufacture and had what I thought was an Oberndorf code on the receiver. As I recall, all parts numbers matched on it and its bore was in very good condition. Told him to buy this one, so my friend haggled with the dealer. Dealer will throw in 3 boxes of 8mm non-surplus ammo and reduce price too. Think he paid around $425 for it.

When I got home I would check on the rifle's Manufacturing code to make sure I was correct. Ooops, I was wrong, it wasn't an Oberndorf made one, but a Sauer and Son. LOL, If I'd realized that I would have bought it because I already owned a darn nice Oberndorf.
 
Listened to my better angels

All,
Thank you again for the wealth of insight and information! I thought it only fair to let you know what happened when I went back to the shop.

With all of the points provided here and the rest of my research (including other forums, gun stores, and even a conversation historic arms curator) I went in prepared to negotiate a fair price somewhere between $400-$500. I asked for a manager, went over the rifle point by point, and showed them MM original pricing and several comparable rifles sold for much less than the $700 they were asking. (German marked k98s, didn't try to pass off a yugo price or anything)

Unfortunately, they clearly didn't understand or care for my evaluation and "facts". They argued, "It's collector grade with a certificate" (which I already pointed out the actual value from MM), "It's numbers matching" (which I already explained the Russian handling), and "It also comes with these pouches and service kit" (which all MM come with).

They wouldn't budge so I asked for my deposit back. I'm disappointed that they didn't even try to negotiate; it was taken in on trade so I know they didn't even have half of what they were asking invested in it. Knowing what I know now, I feel bad for the person that drops $ for the asking price. I'll be hitting some local gun shows and will probably pick up a Yugo at a reasonable price. Thank you for saving me hundreds of dollars!
 
I'll be hitting some local gun shows and will probably pick up a Yugo at a reasonable price.
Click to expand...

You should be able to find these in the 300-350 dollar range for the 24/47s, probably the sub 500 range for an M48. #s matching of course.
 
You did the right thing but in reading your description of how they responded to your argument, I have to play Devil's Advocate.

They are a business, and they may or may not agree, accept, understand or believe your succinct argument, but it is their rifle and they are marketing it in the style they choose. And as for "what they have in it", yeah, wholly irrelevant... or perhaps, as relevant as your annual household income.

You did very well and I am with you... bummer for the next guy that buys it, but then again, maybe that purchase will be HIS lesson on how to investigate a possible purchase as well as you did.

Gun dealers are good, bad and in-between but ya can't do anything more than play your hand. Whatever their ideas or methods, they must be at least somewhat successful at their trade since the lights were still on and you were able to ponder a purchase. And this is no small thing here in 2017 with the online market.

I can assure you that I have had many far worse gun store experiences than what you report, but the bulk of them were in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
 
Unfortunately, they clearly didn't understand or care for my evaluation and "facts". They argued, "It's collector grade with a certificate" (which I already pointed out the actual value from MM), "It's numbers matching" (which I already explained the Russian handling), and "It also comes with these pouches and service kit" (which all MM come with).
Click to expand...

Guessing they don;t care, and are counting on someone coming it that falls for the MM bullshiat and pays what they are asking, which will probably happen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top