Sweet...I would be tempted to get the consecutive one...it was also nice to show the wife what folks are asking for them.
I didn't tell her how off base that asking price is though. Letting her see one priced for more than double what we paid a month ago...priceless.
Mine is nearly 400 rifles later than yours....but doesn't look quite as nice. It does sport the handguard that looks to be from a completely different species of tree like yours. It sat for years, got marked down and the wife made a ridiculous lowball offer that ended up only going up twenty five bucks. I was embarrassed at what she offered. It was on consignment...all said and done I would think the seller just walked away with no profit.
Honestly I was shocked to still find it..I had wanted it for some time. Luckily the city planners totally whiffed on the section of town where the shop is...it is less traveled because it is just a pain in the neck to get to that side of the street. They have quite a few cool milsurps in there...I am glad it is hard to get there enough to keep me out of trouble. There is a beautiful 59/66A1 there...but the seller has lofty ambitions like your Gunbroker guy.
I wonder if your guy has had to relist that...it is pretty astronomically out there in price. Perhaps explaining the situation with the serials would convince him to get a little realistic on a price, and you settle privately and can skip some fees. It would take a pretty significant reduction in price to get into the neighborhood though....I would say it is about $300 overpriced...in a gun panic price market...which, it isn't.
The value of two consecutive ones is kind of more bragging rights than what you might get over the standard value should you sell them. Buying two guns at once takes out a lot of the market. I have five rare guitars out of a run of only 123...two of mine have the
same serial... I cannot get a premium or even an offer on them....but a totally different market, kind of. Another of them has the lowest serial known, and another has no serial at all...I have those four NIB waiting for the right buyer....it has been about eight years.
I would be tempted to overpay up to $500 to have consecutives...and I would hate myself for doing it. M59s are pretty uncommon...and more are very unlikely to hit the US market..if the already all haven't. It would be SO cool if you could make that happen though...