GB listings for January, 2016 - Russian

[running-man]

A decent 48 SKS45s to start off 2016.  $350.00 low, $586.00 avg., $1,000.00 high, $865.25 as-issued avg.

Please feel free to post up any feedback (good or bad) to any one these entries.

If you have an objection or observation to add to anything I've listed, by all means call it out.  Let's all look at it long and hard (I only look at each listing for a minute or two at most, I miss things all the time and as I continually try to remind people: we simply don't have all the answers, no matter how good we'd like to think we are) and maybe everyone can learn a thing or two including me! 

-RM

Item Link   Description   # Bids   Final Price   Year   Arsenal   Arsenal Condition   Current Condition   S/N   RM's Notes

532365054   Russia Tula SKS 1954r matching # 7.62x39 No Reserv   40   $525.00    1954   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   ГT1693   Lots of neat stock repairs on this one, more than I've ever seen on a single gun before!

533207512   Russian SKS 1950 All matching Hardwood stock   17   $900.00    1950   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   CO1527   A bit pricey for my liking for a light furb.  Why do I say light furb?  (no not because of the blued bayo, although many swear these are/are not original)  That stock has most certainly had some work done on it.  No way the cartouche and date get filled in by such dark shellac like that on accident!

533799347   Mint 1954 Russian SKS, Banner, Army Cap & Medals   1   $899.99    1954   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Fair   ЗT5997   Neat banner and beret included with this one.  Gun itself is nothing terribly special.  The brought into the US by a GI is a nice story, but severely lacking anything substantial to back it up.

533965285   Tula SKS 7.62x39 Russian bayonet MATCHING 762 1951   1   $459.00    1951   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   ЛP3743   Not a great auction here.  Poor photos and poor presentation results in a poor price.

534057191   Russian SKS   2   $480.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Bubba   Fair   Uncertain   Meh.

534125713   Russian SKS - Tula Factory - 7.62x39   1   $499.99    1951   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   ПA2728   Heavy BBQ in an amber laminate replacement stock.  Not a horrible deal for the money, but I'd rather put that $500 to another, nicer Russian.

534183489   RUSSIAN TULA 1952r SKS Rifle 7.62x39 & Bayonet   1   $449.99    1952   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   MO1453   Not much love for this one with only a single bid.  It's an honest Tula and with the heavy furb should be in tip top shape and make a great shooter.

534191833   Russian Tula SKS 7.62x39 LAYAWAY   1   $559.00    1953   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Fair   Uncertain   Not a great auction, but also the BBQ is so thick and dark I can't even make out the S/N.  This one might grade higher with some decent lighting.

534232099   Russian SKS 1951 pre 64 7.62x39   1   $499.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Heavy Refurbished   Good   Uncertain   I'd say the FSB is indicative of a '52, not a '51 as the listing states.  Beyond the build date in the early 50's, there is nothing "pre '64" about this gun either.  Horrible presentation.

534507231   C D I Russian SKS 7.62X39   7   $455.00    1956   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   Uncertain   This seller cost himself at least $100 because the photos were too far away to show any detail.  I can tell is a Д suffix gun and a refurb, but beyond that, no idea.

534801054   RUSSIAN SKS SEMI AUTO 7.62X39 LAMINATED STOCK C&R   1   $500.00    1958   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   OУ5063_K   Decent enough looking letter suffix gun here.  Don't see many letter K's pass through the survey unfortunately.

535280493   TULA SKS reworked semi automatic 7.62x39   8   $422.00    1951   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   MB515   Didn't fall in love with this gun.  Too much going on there with the double crossed out laminate stock and the heavy dose of BBQ paint for my tastes I think.

535350681   RUSSIAN SKS with Blade Bayonet Penny Auction!   16   $590.00    1950   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   ШO3136   Nice little carbine here.  I like the toe repair on this stock, looks neat with that finish.

535559604   Russian SKS   1   $499.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Bubba   Fair   Uncertain   Terrible listing, terrible gun.

535687632   Russian SKS Tula 1954   1   $500.00    1954   Tula   Uncertain   Good   KA6651   Guns like this are possibly worth taking a flyer on to get an as-issued example.  At $500, the worst you would be out is shipping costs if it comes in and is a total turd.

535856731   Russian SKS VG- Excellent like unissued   2   $850.00    1953   Tula   As-Issued   Good   HT3946   Nice example here in a not great auction.  Someone took a flyer on this one with the BIN, but I suspect it's probably a legit as-issued '53.

535972210   Excellent Condition Russian Tula SKS, Numbers Matc   1   $550.00    1954   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   ИE4770   Not a terribly pretty stock, but not a horrible gun for $550.

536127217   Russian SKS 7.62x39 Matching SN KBI Import SKS-45   24   $670.00    1954   Izhevsk   Light Refurbished   Very Good   HH314   Someone stole this one!  That's a wicked nice light furb there.  HH prefix is super unusual too, first one of those I've ever seen!

536143458   Russian SKS Rifle Tula 1955 in Box   1   $575.00    1955   Tula   Light Refurbished   Very Good   OM6448   Pretty nice looking setup in the KBI box.

536188575   Russian SKS 1952 mfg like new-all matching   3   $675.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Light Refurbished   Good   Uncertain   What's with these barely recognizable listings this month?

536306357   Russian Tula SKS in 7.62x39   8   $699.00    1950   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   ДA664   Nice early '50 here with the long takedown lever tab. 

536346004   Beautiful Russian SKS All Matching 7.62x39 AK47   1   $725.00    1951   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   MP2442   Another high priced light furb.  Patience has not been something people have this month it seems.

536347177   Awesome Russian SKS All Matching 7.62x39 AK47   1   $725.00    1952   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   MB2123   Decent enough looking gun, but $725 is a bit of a reach on it.  If it was a harder to find year or a less obvious refurb maybe, but that's a hefty premium IMO.

536564343   C&R Russian Arsenal SKS Semi Automatic   13   $585.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Uncertain   Uncertain   ЗЛ8194   This gun was one to take a flyer on.  Likely a '54 Tula based on the ЗЛ prefix combined with the few features I can make out.  Could very well be an as-issued gun here.  The right side of the stock certainly doesn't scream refurb.

536639359   NHM. CO RUSSIAN SKS CHAMBERED IN 7.62X39   11   $350.00    1956   Tula   Bubba   Good   HP2815_Д   This gun must have had Tech Sights at one time or some other reason to remove the rear takedown lever. 

536640877   Russian Tula SKS 1952 #s Matching Nice Bluing   28   $770.00    1952   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   ЛЮ825   Nice looking gun here.  I can see why it pulled 28 bids, but I don't know that it's worth almost 8 Benjamins.

536687812   Russian Tula SKS 1952 UN-REFURBISHED   2   $605.00    1952   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   OB3734   While this one is a nice gun, this is a buyer better know his SKSs before bidding scenario.  The seller says "Tula SKS, all original, un-refurbished. Diamond Cartouches on stock, not re-arsenaled, all matching numbers see pics" this is a all well and good and even mostly true, but take a look at the buttstock and the lack of a '52 cartouche and you quickly realize that this one is a light furb.  Always always always look for the cartouche if it's a pre '56 gun.  Never never never buy into the 'un-refurbished' garbage.  Nobody, not Stalin himself, is that good that they can make such a ludicrous claim

536689587   Russian SKS, Excellent Condition, NO RESERVE   2   $486.00    1958   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   OИ7556_K   Pretty nice looking heavy furb here.  Interesting that this one goes sub $500, yet other guns this month in far worse shape went $200 higher.

536873691   Unrefurbished 1954 Izhevsk SKS, Russian.   9   $850.00    1954   Izhevsk   As-Issued   Very Good   BH947   Shocked, absolutely shocked that this one didn't top $1k.

537011794   Russian 1955R SKS 20" 7.62x39 C&R No Reserve   10   $495.00    1955   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   CB1454   Pretty decent gun.  Shame about the EP'd magazine, but the stock looks like a replacement to me anyhow.  Not a bad gun at all for the price considering how hard it is to even fill the '55 spot with anything.

537460624   Russian Tula Arsenal SKS 7.62x39 - No Rsrv!   1   $499.00    1958   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   TИ8627_K   Another gun with minimal love and only a single bid.  Not a horrible buy all things considered.

537659065   RUSSIAN 1954r TULA Arsenal SKS 7.62x39 Very Nice   11   $531.00    1954   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   ЛB4406   Not a huge fan of this one either. 

537670757   Russian SKS TULA 7.62x39 NICE LOOK   2   $399.00    1958   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   TИ4982_K   Take a good look at image #8 & 12.  Seeing the letter suffix on *any* component other than the receiver is highly *highly* unusual.  Only the third one of these I've ever seen actually.

537712412   Russian SKS   3   $419.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Uncertain   Uncertain   Uncertain   Not a great listing here.  Show some detail, make an additional $100 or 2 easily.

537719145   RUSSIAN SKS SNIPER RIFLE   8   $765.00    1954   Tula   Bubba   Fair   BИ5684   You could almost believe this one came out of Russia looking like this except for one telltale sign.  Photo 14 shows the left side of the receiver.  It also shows the NHM import stamp, UNDERNEATH the PU rail.  It may be a tastefully done bubba, but it's a bubba nonetheless. Not rare by any measure that is usually worth measuring.

537808890   Russian SKS, Laminate Stock, 7.62x39, Matching Nos   17   $635.00    1952   Tula   Bubba   Good   ГB2970   Nice looking gun.  I was going to give the bubba a pass with the buttpad because I assume it just slips right off, but the bolt modifications, I just can't let those slide regardless of how much I like Murray's work!

537990131   Tula Russian SKS, UN-REFURBED $99 open, No Reserve   26   $761.00    1955   Tula   As-Issued   Good   CM5359   This is a pretty nice one.  I contemplated dinging the current condition, but there's really only one area of the stock that is bad.  Nice rare bird you don't see in this condition every day.

538054778   Russian SKS Rifle Tula 1955 7.62x39mm   3   $550.00    1957   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   AO5544_И   Nice looking light furb letter suffix here.

538162938   russian sks rifle Tula 1954 matching stock   34   $1,000.00    1954   Tula   As-Issued   Very Good   ИM533   Very nice example here.  I think this buttpate, with the partially stripped paint on the rear and EP'd S/N is pushing me more firmly into the 'There's *something* that occurred with these guns after they were issued" camp.  Can anyone seriously say with any degree of certainty that this one is "unrefurbished"?  I've said it before and I'll say it again, we simply don't know, to proclaim otherwise is hubris...

538207933   Russian SKS 7.62x39 Laminate Stock-Matching-NEW   1   $449.00    1955   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   CM5457   How do you sell a gun w/o even providing a shot of the left receiver?!  These listings this month are really bad.

538222074   Made in Russia SKS 7.62x39 Semi Auto Rifle   7   $481.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Bubba   Uncertain   Uncertain   I would have rated this one better, but I ran into this line: "PICTURES ARE REPRESENTATIVE." on the auction and now don't know WTF to make of this.  You're selling a gun that may or may not be in the pictures?  Seriously?!?!

538456073   Russian SKS w/SG Works Bullpup   16   $627.89    1950   Tula   Bubba   Fair   Uncertain   Meh.

538541490   1950 R Tula Russian SKS 7.62x39 w/ Sling   23   $510.00    1950   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   TB2852   I actually like this one quite a bit.  Nice circle 35 refurb mark on the stock, decent looking bluing, and a stock that isn't beat to hell make this a good $500 buy.

538724668   SUPER RARE 1953 Izhevsk SKS non refurbed NR!   4   $750.00    1953   Izhevsk   Bubba   Fair   BЛ797   Sorry, bubba != 'non refurbed'.  The sanding and refinish are shouting at you on this one.  It's a darn shame.

539096558   Russian SKS 7.62X39 1952   1   $399.99    Uncertain   Uncertain   Light Refurbished   Good   Uncertain   What's with these barely recognizable listings this month?

539442502   Made in Russia SKS 7.62x39 Semi Auto Rifle Wood 20 CCCP USSR 762 39 Possibly Tula bayonet   1   $499.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Bubba   Good   Uncertain   Crappy auction photos for this letter suffix gun.  Too bad.

539658634   Russian Made SKS 7.62x39 w/extras BEAUTIFUL WOOD   5   $504.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Heavy Refurbished   Fair   Uncertain   Horsetrash listing.  Look at this line: "NOTE: This one was added for a special person from North Carolina Named Henry: We operate a RETAIL GUN STORE. From time to time a firearm listed here will sell in our STORE. And when that happens, if we fail to cancel the auction on time, your bid will not count. We do our best to catch these auctions in time, but we are human. So if this happens to you, don't pull a Henry and get your feelings hurt, as I hate having to be politically correct and add "SPECIAL NOTES". GOOD LUCK! :-)"  Uhm, no Cochise, you list on Gunbroker, you are MAKING A COMMITTMENT to the buyer that you will sell the gun provided it meets your reserve price criteria that you set before bidding starts.  If you don't pull the auction and sell the gun from underneath a buyer, that buyer HAS EVERY RIGHT to complain.  I'd go so far as to say that negative feedback should be left for any seller that pulls a bull**** stunt like this.  Either sell locally or sell on GB.  If you try to get the best of both worlds, be on the ball and watch your damn listings!  You might want to read the GB terms of service.  This little gem is there: "Please always keep in mind that if the item is won here, it must be sold to the winning bidder. Although it is a harsh remedy, we terminate the accounts of seller who fail to complete transactions."

540085105   Tula Russian SKS 1953   1   $500.00    1953   Tula   Heavy Refurbished   Good   Uncertain   Man that's one ugly stock....

[Blicero]

Good eye on the '50 (second gun in your list). That stock is most probably definitely certainly not right. Ouch.

Note to self: Before selling a scummy refurb, be sure to quick snag a Lenin flag from ebay. I see that crap all the time on German ads. People put a RC on top of a Notzee flag, accompany it with tales of Stalingrad and SS superheroes, and somehow it beckons the masses to drop thousands.

Can anyone seriously say with any degree of certainty that this one is "unrefurbished" Nah, I guess not. But playing the hand we're dealt, I'd have to call that one legit. Sweet carbine.

Russian Tula SKS 1952 UN-REFURBISHED   2   $605.00    1952   Tula   Light Refurbished   Good   OB3734   While this one is a nice gun, this is a buyer better know his SKSs before bidding scenario.  The seller says "Tula SKS, all original, un-refurbished. Diamond Cartouches on stock, not re-arsenaled, all matching numbers see pics" this is a all well and good and even mostly true, but take a look at the buttstock and the lack of a '52 cartouche and you quickly realize that this one is a light furb.  Always always always look for the cartouche if it's a pre '56 gun.  Never never never buy into the 'un-refurbished' garbage.  Nobody, not Stalin himself, is that good that they can make such a ludicrous claim
Of course you're 100% correct there. And it looks like the bidding populace was educated enough to know precisely what it is, it sold for exactly what a nice blue refurb should. But yeah...never rely on a seller to tell you what you're buying.


Russian Made SKS 7.62x39 w/extras BEAUTIFUL WOOD   5   $504.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Heavy Refurbished   Fair   Uncertain   Horsetrash listing.  Look at this line: "NOTE: This one was added for a special person from North Carolina Named Henry: We operate a RETAIL GUN STORE. From time to time a firearm listed here will sell in our STORE. And when that happens, if we fail to cancel the auction on time, your bid will not count. We do our best to catch these auctions in time, but we are human. So if this happens to you, don't pull a Henry and get your feelings hurt, as I hate having to be politically correct and add "SPECIAL NOTES". GOOD LUCK! :-)"  Uhm, no Cochise, you list on Gunbroker, you are MAKING A COMMITTMENT to the buyer that you will sell the gun provided it meets your reserve price criteria that you set before bidding starts.  If you don't pull the auction and sell the gun from underneath a buyer, that buyer HAS EVERY RIGHT to complain.  I'd go so far as to say that negative feedback should be left for any seller that pulls a bull**** stunt like this.  Either sell locally or sell on GB.  If you try to get the best of both worlds, be on the ball and watch your damn listings!  You might want to read the GB terms of service.  This little gem is there: "Please always keep in mind that if the item is won here, it must be sold to the winning bidder. Although it is a harsh remedy, we terminate the accounts of seller who fail to complete transactions."
Um, yeah, douchebag. Right now there's an ad on the gboards trader for a k98 "sniper" for thousands of dollars. He gives you all of one picture. After a few days of it obviously not selling there was a codicil written in the bottom of the ad to the effect of "Please do not ask for pictures if you're just lurking, that stuff makes me weirded out".
Uh, what? You're getting persnickety over people wanting more details then what your one crappy pic portrays? And you want me to drop thousands of dollars?
Moral: it's one thing to be a scumbag. Just don't put messages in your advertisements that make you sound like a scumbag.


Nice work RM. I'd like to check out more of these Russians later on.

[running-man]

You honor me with your compliments Kevin.  Much appreciated.

That last one you highlighted as being a douchebag.  It doesn't even bug me all that much that an item might get sold out from under a bidder in the store.  **** happens, meh adults get over it.  The thing that rots me is him calling out people and basically laying out "this is the way it's going to be..." in defiance to being a decent business owner as well as GB rules.  I've got no patience for sellers that beat their potential buyers over the head before a single bid is even made.  I file 13 the lot of them and only deal with sellers that have a clue, regardless of how nice the gun is.

[CARBINE]

Too bad someone dicked up the 53' Izzy would have been a bidding war between RM and LC on that one for sure!!

Nice work as always RM!!

[Phosphorus32]

539658634   Russian Made SKS 7.62x39 w/extras BEAUTIFUL WOOD   5   $504.00    Uncertain   Uncertain   Heavy Refurbished   Fair   Uncertain   Horsetrash listing.  Look at this line: "NOTE: This one was added for a special person from North Carolina Named Henry: We operate a RETAIL GUN STORE. From time to time a firearm listed here will sell in our STORE. And when that happens, if we fail to cancel the auction on time, your bid will not count. We do our best to catch these auctions in time, but we are human. So if this happens to you, don't pull a Henry and get your feelings hurt, as I hate having to be politically correct and add "SPECIAL NOTES". GOOD LUCK! :-)"  Uhm, no Cochise, you list on Gunbroker, you are MAKING A COMMITTMENT to the buyer that you will sell the gun provided it meets your reserve price criteria that you set before bidding starts.  If you don't pull the auction and sell the gun from underneath a buyer, that buyer HAS EVERY RIGHT to complain.  I'd go so far as to say that negative feedback should be left for any seller that pulls a bull**** stunt like this.  Either sell locally or sell on GB.  If you try to get the best of both worlds, be on the ball and watch your damn listings!  You might want to read the GB terms of service.  This little gem is there: "Please always keep in mind that if the item is won here, it must be sold to the winning bidder. Although it is a harsh remedy, we terminate the accounts of seller who fail to complete transactions."


Yeah, that is bologna! 

Another store to add to your male ovine feces list is "Jackson Armory" in north Dallas TX.  They have a few complaints in their feedback citing exactly this type of behavior. 

Sidebar: My bad interaction with JA was not a result of that type of behavior but rather a badly damaged shipment of a rare Mauser (the caliber was also incorrectly advertised as 8mm when it was actually 7mm, but that's another issue). The stock was cracked nearly in two at the wrist when it arrived.  JA was only willing to give me 1/3 of the insurance pay out if I kept the rifle, even though UPS paid the entire purchase price and shipping (I talked directly to the UPS claims representative). They also agreed to take it back and refund me the full price, so as much as I wanted the carbine, I finally settled on that. Looking back on this, it's just as well.  If you see a rare Indonesian IOB carbine advertised by JA, be aware that it's not 8mm and it's been repaired.

[running-man]

Thanks Tony!  ROFL bidding war.    Contrary to popular opinion, I'm not opposed to owning a '53 Izhevsk!  (I'm just opposed to shelling out the kind of $$ I'd need to in order to get one!)

Jon, yeah that one has been eating at me so much since Blicero's response yesterday, that I actually sent in a customer support request to GunBroker asking what the scoop was with this seller.  They have several pages of listings and they are a big outfit, yet they can't tell if a gun has a bid on GB and pull it from their shop floor?  Something doesn't smell right there.

[Blicero]

You honor me with your compliments Kevin.  Much appreciated.

And you honor me with your continuous and apt usage of horsetrash. But I do expect royalties 
After paying attention to countless GB listings, nobody can say there is a more succinct and descriptive word that habitually comes to mind when reporting on the auctions.

Jackson Armory has been a steadfast "no go" in my book for years just based on their pricing and the general scumminess of their wares. I won't even open their listings anymore.

[Phosphorus32]

Thanks Tony!  ROFL bidding war.    Contrary to popular opinion, I'm not opposed to owning a '53 Izhevsk!  (I'm just opposed to shelling out the kind of $$ I'd need to in order to get one!)

I love that! Well stated. 

I've got a number of firearms on my long list that belong in that category.  They're located in the part of the graph of the market value and personal value curves where the two curves have simply diverged too far.

Jackson Armory has been a steadfast "no go" in my book for years just based on their pricing and the general scumminess of their wares. I won't even open their listings anymore.

Good to hear.  I didn't know about them before but I learned the hard way (where's that bent over the barrel emoticon?)   

[running-man]

Got this in reply back to my GB support issue on the seller of 539658634

You are correct, the seller is obligated to honor the winning bid on the item. They cannot remove it from listing once it has received a bid.

I was hoping for maybe something like "we'll contact the seller and inform him of the rules", but oh well.  I at least feel a little better knowing I'm in the right. 

[Direct Connection]

Nice work Running Man as always. Thanks for all your dedication  .  Just like their beautiful Women, Theres some nice Russians I wouldn't mind having on last months GB sales list. Krasiva