Third Party Press

Editorial: "Blame it on the book"

bruce98k

bruce98k

Super Over the Top Moderator -1/2
Staff member
I was attending the OVMS shot this past weekend in Ohio and an interesting event happened - basically being at the right place and right time.
I was standing at a table and a local "reseller" was complaining to one of our forum members about one of his sales that went south.
I will not elaborate but the short story is that he sold a "matching" rifle to a gentleman that was not happy about the supposed originality of the gun (K98k).

In the end the seller reluctantly honored a return but not before some major complaints about said matching rifle.

So the seller blamed me and the book for his misfortune. He was not aware that I was standing right behind him so I listened quietly not interrupting his
conversation.

I will not go into detail about the rifle but apparently is was missing some key aspects known to factory matching rifles.
So to blame me and the book? I was not shocked. He basically created his own "alternate universe" of fact to justify a humped rifle.

I thought that blaming the book (Volume II) was a great excuse for his misfortune.

Our books are not perfect by any means but we believe they are a pretty good source of fact and a good guide to vetting K98ks.
For a known questionable seller to blame the facts does not surprise me. It goes hand in hand with putting profits first and the hell with originality.
As in any hobby where values increase over time, you will have as these "carny barkers" weasel in and do their damage.

It is the stated purpose of this forum to help prevent this by any means, and in support of that, our books.

Best to all!
Bruce
 
I collect Garands and have published in the Garand Collectors Journal. I am appalled by what "dealers" try to push at gun shows. I have stopped several rip-off sales myself with stories similar to yours. A big thanks to you and others on this forum for bringing integrity to a market brimming with scam artists.
 
As an addition to Bruce's post:
I was the one arguing with said local reseller who I have made posts featuring his “treasures” before. I will refer to this "gentleman and scholar" as “AH” for the remainder of this post.

AH had sold a friend of mine a 337 1940 with bad stock numbers (no laminate code/SN within only an external SN and bad UHG #s despite AH claiming everything was as it should be). Said rifle was returned to AH at the show where he had an absolute hissy fit. During this profanities were hurled by AH and he essentially claimed everyone was out to get him and "trash" his rifles. AHs biggest sticking point seemed to be a hatred and/or jealousy of Bruce and lamenting the great resource that is the book and the forum. As Bruce said the gentleman seemed to create an alternate universe where his rifles had no problems and it was the book/forum to blame.

Another claim in which AH hurled was that myself, Bruce, and the forum at large only cared about Mausers for financial gain. I have known Bruce for several years and he has been a very good friend, in my experience Bruce is one of the most generous and altruistic people in the firearm collecting hobby. Along with this, the whole 98k collecting community is the best firearm collecting community I have been a part of. Just about everyone is more than happy to help out a fellow collector even if there is no gain to be had for them.

As someone who has dealt with people who have had mental illnesses it is my opinion that if a person repeatedly exhibits the sheer level of cognitive dissonance and extreme manic/depressive swings they may have some form of bipolar disorder and stopped taking medication they desperately need (Again all my opinion).
 
Mike2994 said:
As an addition to Bruce's post:
I was the one arguing with said local reseller who I have made posts featuring his “treasures” before. I will refer to this "gentleman and scholar" as “AH” for the remainder of this post.

AH had sold a friend of mine a 337 1940 with bad stock numbers (no laminate code/SN within only an external SN and bad UHG #s despite AH claiming everything was as it should be). Said rifle was returned to AH at the show where he had an absolute hissy fit. During this profanities were hurled by AH and he essentially claimed everyone was out to get him and "trash" his rifles. AHs biggest sticking point seemed to be a hatred and/or jealousy of Bruce and lamenting the great resource that is the book and the forum. As Bruce said the gentleman seemed to create an alternate universe where his rifles had no problems and it was the book/forum to blame.

Another claim in which AH hurled was that myself, Bruce, and the forum at large only cared about Mausers for financial gain. I have known Bruce for several years and he has been a very good friend, in my experience Bruce is one of the most generous and altruistic people in the firearm collecting hobby. Along with this, the whole 98k collecting community is the best firearm collecting community I have been a part of. Just about everyone is more than happy to help out a fellow collector even if there is no gain to be had for them.

As someone who has dealt with people who have had mental illnesses it is my opinion that if a person repeatedly exhibits the sheer level of cognitive dissonance and extreme manic/depressive swings they may have some form of bipolar disorder and stopped taking medication they desperately need (Again all my opinion).
Click to expand...
Sounds like AH's last name was Hat.
 
Mike2994 said:
As an addition to Bruce's post:
I was the one arguing with said local reseller who I have made posts featuring his “treasures” before. I will refer to this "gentleman and scholar" as “AH” for the remainder of this post.

AH had sold a friend of mine a 337 1940 with bad stock numbers (no laminate code/SN within only an external SN and bad UHG #s despite AH claiming everything was as it should be). Said rifle was returned to AH at the show where he had an absolute hissy fit. During this profanities were hurled by AH and he essentially claimed everyone was out to get him and "trash" his rifles. AHs biggest sticking point seemed to be a hatred and/or jealousy of Bruce and lamenting the great resource that is the book and the forum. As Bruce said the gentleman seemed to create an alternate universe where his rifles had no problems and it was the book/forum to blame.

Another claim in which AH hurled was that myself, Bruce, and the forum at large only cared about Mausers for financial gain. I have known Bruce for several years and he has been a very good friend, in my experience Bruce is one of the most generous and altruistic people in the firearm collecting hobby. Along with this, the whole 98k collecting community is the best firearm collecting community I have been a part of. Just about everyone is more than happy to help out a fellow collector even if there is no gain to be had for them.

As someone who has dealt with people who have had mental illnesses it is my opinion that if a person repeatedly exhibits the sheer level of cognitive dissonance and extreme manic/depressive swings they may have some form of bipolar disorder and stopped taking medication they desperately need (Again all my opinion).
Click to expand...
Yes. The rifle was overall bad, but a really good fake disguised as worn wood until it was taken apart. Its is no fun to have to go to a military show and have to listen to all this type of condescending language as well as getting cussed out over what amounts to justifying faking a rifle for profit. There's suppose to be some honor or some semblance of professional rapport between fellow collectors. Was bazaar behavior.
 
I went on saturday so I did not get to see this argument take place. But, I know
who they are talking about it. He's still had a lot of rifles for sale on his table and people were avoiding him like the plague. What happened is he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. And unfortunately in his case. His integrity and reputation meant nothing to him. And tell you the truth. He's lucky he only got an a$$ chewing.

I know of one such dealer out of Florida that used to go to the national gun day show in Kentucky. He screwed over a lot of people. Selling fake crap for several thousand dollars. He was eventually told by many people there. He was not welcome back, and if he did come back there would be consequences. He didn't listen. Unfortunately in his case somebody had slashed all of his truck tires, his trailer tires, and even popped the spare underneath his truck. He never went back again.
 
My opinions all: Quintessential case of someone angry at getting busted and financially stressed at being stuck with humped and pimped inventory. He’s parasitically associating himself with our hobby to profit from its integrity and popularity which will be harmed by him. Then he’ll move on to something else. As I’ve said as long as I’ve had a platform to say it: we can’t eliminate fraud, but we can discourage it by providing the information Bruce and Mike put in The Books and what we do here. Hopefully, AH will move on to exploit a less well stewarded hobby, or better yet, stop being a scumbag altogether. Thanks Bruce and Mike and the rest of us too.
 
knowledge is power plain and simple... Wonder why they keep trying to dumb down our population..

I was having this conversation with a collector over the phone. Collectors and populations are at the mercy of the information available .

Most all old reference material for 3r era stuff is obsolete for the most part and a huge re-write was done in the 2k's and most of this stuff is rock solid.

The k98 world is better off for what we did collectively just like our country is now better off for what we did collectively ! But, there will always be some who function in the "old ways" screwing people and boasting about it.
 
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