Author Topic: GB listings - 2017 - Romanian (AKA What's my M56 worth?)  (Read 4694 times)

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Offline running-man

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GB listings - 2017 - Romanian (AKA What's my M56 worth?)
« on: July 12, 2015, 11:23:17 PM »
This post will keep track with a grand running total for Romanian M56 SKSs sold on Gunbroker since the beginning of the year.  While you can't pull individual gun sales info out of the chart you will be able to quickly and easily identify what the going rate is for a specific gun such as a poor condition, refurbished 1958 gun.  I will update this table after every monthly report.

-RM

Key:
Arsenal Condition:
As-Issued: All matching guns with original stocks and no hint of refurbishment.  Current condition may be varying, but gun must be all matching.  This is basically the configuration the gun would have been in when it was issued to the military the first time.  Perhaps it was never given out to troops to use in the field and simply sat unused until it was decommissioned.  Perhaps it was only lightly used and was still in great shape, escaping the need for major refurbishment when the time came.  There is considerable debate in the collecting community as to what constitutes an "As-Issued" gun.  Some will say that an import stamp that is required by US law invalidates the 'As-Issued' designator and this category should instead be 'unrefurbished' or 'non-refurbished'.  This is nit picking in my opinion.  No the import stamp was not there during issue, but the addition of a stamp that is required by law does not fundamentally change the arsenal condition of the gun.  I will say however, that non/unrefurbished is a 100% misnomer as it is impossible to prove.  To think that we as a collecting community are good enough to know the provenance of any particular gun is ridiculous hubris when there is so much we don't know about the Romanian refurbishment process.  We simply don't know the refurbishment status of many of these firearms and to pretend that we do is not something I want this site to promote.  Note there are few Romanians that will grade this way. 
Refurbished: Guns with any kind of factory or field refurbishment.  It could be a swapped out receiver cover, a simple replacement stock, or a swap out of any minuscule unserialized component such as a non blued rear sight leaf or non matching electro-pencilled gas piston.    Current condition may be varying but note that refurbished guns often match but do not have to be all matching.  Most Romanians in this category will have swapped stocks.
Bubba: Plastic anything, Tech sights, swapped out handguards, anything drilled and tapped, duracoated/non arsenal painted anything, banana mag w/o the original shown, anything Chinese on the gun, chopped "Paratrooper" modifications, FSB modifications, etc.  It doesn't matter if the gun can be put back close to 'original' condition easily, if it's a bubba gun when it sells, it's a bubba gun.
Uncertain: This is the designator I give when the auction is horsetrashy (not a word) enough for me to not want to guess at arsenal condition.  Photos were blurry, taken from 1000 miles away, or were of parts of the gun that nobody cares about (like 10 shots of the bayonet...hint hint).  Could be a gem or a lump of coal.  Anyone who bought it w/o seeing better photos took a gamble.

Current Condition:
Very Good: In perfect working condition, no appreciable wear on working surfaces, no corrosion or pitting, only minor surface dents or scratches even though the gun has certainly been fired.  May or may not have the box and all accessories. 
Good: In safe working condition, minor wear on working surfaces, no broken parts, no corrosion or pitting that will interfere with proper functioning.  Fired often, likely doesn't have the box, manual or any accessories. 
Fair: In safe working condition but well worn, perhaps requiring replacement of minor parts or adjustments which should be indicated in advertisement, no active rust, but may have corrosion pits which do not render article unsafe or inoperable.  Heavily fired to the point where wear may begin to be an issue.  No box or original accessories.  Because of the beaver chewed stocks, this is the category that the majority of Romanian SKSs will list under. 
Poor: Extensive repair needed; metal deeply pitted with active rust; may have principal lettering, numerals and design obliterated, wood badly scratched, bruised, cracked, or even broken; could be mechanically inoperative; generally undesirable.  Fired to the point of needing barrel replacement.  These type of guns should be checked by a competent gunsmith before usage.
Uncertain: This is the designator I give when the auction is horsetrashy (not a word) enough for me to not want to guess at condition.  Photos were blurry, taken from 1000 miles away, or were of parts of the gun that nobody cares about (like 10 shots of the bayonet...hint hint).  Could be a gem or a lump of coal.  Anyone who bought it w/o seeing better photos took a gamble.




« Last Edit: February 16, 2018, 11:36:05 PM by running-man »
      

Offline running-man

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Re: GB listings - 2017 - Romanian (AKA What's my M56 worth?)
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2018, 11:46:28 PM »
2017 is in the books and the Romanian SKSs are by far, the least popular SKS out there based on the number of guns that traded hands.  While the Albanian SKS had 45 sales on GB in 2017, the Romanian M56 sold a paltry 39 guns at an avg. price of $439.23.  Low price for the year was $205.00 while the most expensive gun topped out at a meager $785.00.

Of the 39 that sold:
  • 4 were as-issued sporting a $511.75 average price.
  • 13 were refurbshed going for $486.57 avg. price.
  • 15 were bubba'd going for a $374.00 avg. price.
  • and 7 were unknown going to a $449.64 avg. price.
Of the 39 that sold:
  • 15 were good condition guns at $476.96 avg. price.
  • 19 were fair condition guns at $409.18 avg. price.
  • 5 were unknown condition guns at $440.20 avg. price.
Romanian SKSs continue to get zero respect in the collecting world.  Lump them with the Yugos I guess.  The trendline is negative meaning that a typical Romanian SKS was worth more at the beginning of the year than at the end.  The y intersect of the trendline looks to be $467.84 with a negative slope of $6.19 loss per month.  Very disapointing data if you want to sell a Romanian, excellent news if you want to buy one!  thumb1
      

Offline Bacarnal

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Re: GB listings - 2017 - Romanian (AKA What's my M56 worth?)
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2019, 11:48:12 PM »
Any updates on this thread? Thanks.

Offline running-man

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Re: GB listings - 2017 - Romanian (AKA What's my M56 worth?)
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2019, 08:12:39 AM »
No, I stopped tracking guns on Gunbroker long ago after they changed their listing formats and broke my data collection method.  The time required went up from about three hours a month per flavor to ten and I couldn’t justify spending that amount of time anymore.  I’d suggest The Gun Stock Market for a synopsis of recent prices.  He doesn’t break down into categories unfortunately, so the value you see will be for an ‘avg Romanian’ with no way to know what premium as-issued good condition guns are bringing.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2019, 12:27:45 PM by running-man »
      

Offline Bacarnal

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Re: GB listings - 2017 - Romanian (AKA What's my M56 worth?)
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2019, 09:05:29 AM »
Roger that. Tango mike!