GB listings for March, 2015 - Romanian

[running-man]

Let's see how try #2 goes.  After all that work on putting up the single Albanian gun for March, I may have bitten off more than I can chew trying to get these two Romys up in this post!! 

And Board searchable text:
Item Number   Auction Page   Description   # Bids   Final Price   Year   Arsenal Condition   Current Condition   RM's Notes
472492448   http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=472492448   1958 Romanian SKS EC Matching russian chinese yugo   11   $426.00    1958   Refurb   Good   Replacement stock, mismatched bolt.  Considering the paucity of Romy's in this list and the 11 bids on this item, I'd be hard-pressed to say this was a bad deal.  Still, a matching, fair condition gun with a proper sling could be had for this price if one is patient.
473744439   http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=473744439   1959 Russian SKS Rifle w/ Bayonet- All Matching   15   $580.00    1959   Refurb   Very Good   I was going to comment "Man, I've never seen a '59 Russian...Let me at it!" Alas it's just a '59 Romy.  It's a nice one albeit.  Stock is a replacement or at least has been reworked with a horizontal S/N.  Someone needs to pull that commercial Chinese sling off and put on a nice Romy leather dog collar style before LC has an aneurism though.

[Greasemonkey]

472492448   http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=472492448   1958 Romanian SKS EC Matching russian chinese yugo   11   $426.00    1958   Refurb   Good   Replacement stock, mismatched bolt.  Considering the paucity of Romy's in this list and the 11 bids on this item, I'd be hard-pressed to say this was a bad deal.  Still, a matching, fair condition gun with a proper sling could be had for this price if one is patient.

[Loose}{Cannon]

You must have a thing for bent barrels and refinished stocks.   

[running-man]

Romanian analysis:

[Loose}{Cannon]

I want another Romanian.   cry1q

[Indy762]

Those prices seem pretty high to me, are they? Reason I ask is that the gun I bought, even though NONE of the numbers match, it has a freak bolt carrier, and is missing the cleaning rod and sling, was a lot lower $ than these.  Is there $150 - $300 dollars difference if it has matching numbers?

[running-man]

There is certainly a price difference between an as-issued or even a refurbished Romanian and a mixmaster like you described.  If I saw something with a modified bolt carrier on GB, I would likely classify it in the Bubba category.  As a shooter it's probably just fine, but the collectable value is pretty low and it would only fill a spot in a collector's collection until a nicer specimen came along.

Now is the spread between a bubba shooter and a refurb romanian $300?  I'd guess closer to $100-$150 myself, but that's where all the criteria that make any particular gun valuable come in.  There are lots of different criteria that determine price: rarity, arsenal condition, current condition, that particular type of gun's reputation, how it fit's into a collector's niche, and finally what part of the country it's being sold in.  Also note that we only have a sample size of two guns this month. Hopefully more Romanians show up in April and the numbers become more representative of reality.

I agree with you though, I think the $580 gun was extremely high.  The $426 gun I think was right in line though.

[Loose}{Cannon]

+1