Hobby of K98 collecting outside USA???

[Bob in OHIO]

What's the status outside U.S. of A... (ease, supply, demand, fakery)?

What's the collecting situation in European? Collectors Italy, Russia, and Japan. What about the status in the UK and Down-Under? Where are WW2 rifles illegal? etc...

 

[S/42]

Bob,

As you know, I import nearly all my rifles for my collection.

Simple reason:
1. supply here is PATHETIC. What is here that is original is GROSSLY over-priced. GROSSLY!
2. What is available is usually CRAP. Russian Captures are around in quantity, but starting prices are $749!!!!!!!!!! For a freaking RC! Add a fake scope, and the price is $1450 to $3000. Yeah, dream on!

Collecting is a bell curve as we all know. Right now in Australia, we have just started to come down the right side of the hump, as interest is waning significantly because people WON'T pay these ludicrous prices, and the economy is still nothing to be excited about.

Buying rifles is easy - just need to have a license, apply for a permit to acquire it, wait however long they take to approve it (between 2 days and 30 days - my latest one was 3 days), buy the rifle and take it home.

It is still cheaper for me to buy rifles in the USA and import them than it is to buy here, IF you can find quality (UNLIKELY)

 

[OliverVU]

Hi, I live in Belgium.
All bolt action rifles produced before 1945 are free to own here for everyone who is 18 years old.
There are a lot of fairs here where I see k98s, but I'm pretty new in the collector world, so I can't really say much. The prices are not as bad here like in Australia.

 

[S/42]

The prices here in Australia were always CHEAP - hence why a LOT of US collectors used to shop here.

Then, sellers here got GREEDY, REALLY greedy, and for a while people thought they HAD to pay it if they wanted it.

Now they won't, and I see a LARGE mob of collectors also starting to import for themselves.

It only serves the greedy retailers right! I mean, come on, $750 for a crappy pitted RC???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mike webb]

Up here in Canada there are still nice guns around for fairly reasonable prices although they have crept up. Not like Australia, I was at a local gunshow Saturday and saw a few VZ-24's for $350, Spanish 43 for $200 and a decent G33/40 for $950 which I thought was reasonable. We have registration here( may be repealed this fall, hopefully!) but transfers aren't real bad. It can all be done with a phonecall with buyer and seller both talking and you take your gun home that day. The longarm registry is still a pile of crap but at least there is no waiting period.

 

[agentcq]

K98's in Canada

Most K98's found at ease will be RC's, East German/Czech refurbs, Norway refurbs, sporters and mismatched rifles.

You do get the odd jewel, but most fell into private collections long ago. For any of the above versions/un-peened rifles you are looking at $400 plus and an all original matching rifle would fall between $800-2000.

There are fakes and several sellers don't know the difference between a post-war forced matched rifle and an original all matching rifle.

End of the day, the US vets were the biggest hunters for bring-back long rifles. Several Canadians and Brits brought home handguns, but there were different rules for long arms and at the end of the day, if you were going to break the rules, it was easier to sneak a sidearm home. Several of the vets were also allowed to keep their issued long arms and if they did bring home an additional long arm it was usually a unique piece like a G43 and even that was very rare.

That is why so many nice Lugers/P38's showed up in the US during the late 1990's as new gun laws were being introduced north of the border.

For example I have:

1 x Browning Hi-Power (German marked-non import) matching
5 x P38's (German marked-non import) matching
2 x P08's (German marked-non import) 1 x matching 1 x mismatched (two pistols built into one)
1 x 1922 Browning (German marked-non import) matching
1 x VIS Radom (Russian capture) mis-matched
1 x Broomhandle (German marked-non import) matcing and the stock only nine digits off

Even though they are all un-papered due to Canadian rules, I can almost gurantee that all except the VIS were Vet bring-backs and the majority are matching.

But when it comes to long guns:

1 x G43 (German marked-non import) matching but sporterized stock
4 x G43/K43's (German marked-non import) matching but exported out of the US
1 x Norway K98 (German and Norway marked) Norway forced matched
1 x Vopo K98 (German and East German marked) East German/Czech forced matched
5 x K98 RC's (enough said but German markings not peened)
1 x K98 Mismatched (German markings) probably 1950's import
1 x K98 Mismatched sporter (German markings) probably 1950's import

All of my long guns except for my US exports have been messed with by some country/ies or individual(s) and only my G/K43 are possible vet bring-backs. I have spent time and energy trying to make these long rifles historically correct while not creating a forgery, which is not an easy task.

In the last two years, I have yet to see an all matching 100% WWII German K98 for sale in Canada. I have seen 90-95% rifles, but nothing that would give me total confidence.

P.S. Maybe one of the nice collectors south of the border will take pity on me an sell their untouched/matching WWII k98.

 

[joe n]

I agree with agentcq, it has become more difficult to find original configuration and matching non-capture K98 rifles in Canada. I too have aquired captured pistols much more numerous than the K98. The interest in Canada is very strong, demand is therefore great, and supply is quite limited. Fakery has shown up here, but not in the numbers that it has elsewhere, thankfully. Many people have believed for years they have posessed a matching original configuration piece, finding out later it is in fact a rework of some sort.
Here are my matching, non-import K98 rifles, all aquired in Canada over the years. So they are out there, and do turn up, but definitely few and far between. I have shown these on the GB forum in the past, so they may look familiar to many of you. Also a pic or two of my matching DUV41. Thanks for looking, great forum and great thread

 

[Hambone]

Nice stuff Joe, and interesting discussion. Besides the GIs bringing home everything not sufficiently nailed down, there existed then, and now, a very strong "gun culture" in the US. Boatloads, literally, of surplus wartime matching K98ks were imported into this country from the 1950s to 1970s, cheap. The early imports were not marked in any way. Even in the early to mid 80s many nice matching Portugese K98ks were brought in, though Hansens import marked.

Postwar Europe was trying to rebuild and selling or scrapping it's surplus. Those that stayed were invariably used. No gun culture existed as it does in the 'States and it was harder to import and transport weapons across borders.