Can anyone help me determine the value of my new Mauser?

[FormerUser123]

I bought, what was sold to me as, a very beat up Brazilian Mauser last night. When I got home, I did some research on the crest and it turned out to be a Spanish M43, numbers matching. From there, I disassembled the bolt and discovered why is was "broken". the entire bolt, spring, firing pin hole, basically everything bolt related was caked with what I can best describe as a cosmoline and a crapload of sand.

So I spent a couple hours cleaning that all out and viola, the safety works again, it cocks, the firing pin strikes. I haven't taken it to a range yet, but everything appears functional now. At least, infinitely better than when I picked it up.

Now that it's working, I took a second look at it, and it's actually in pretty decent shape. Has a nice blonde stock, the blueing is good on everything, but the bolt assembly looks like it was media blasted at some point to have the "chrome" look.

Anyway, I paid $125 for it, how do you guys think I made out? Here are a couple pics. Sorry for the quality, I don't have a good camera.

[GreenBlood10]

I'm not too sure what exactly yours is worth, but I see Spanish M43's going on Gunbroker for a LOT more than what you paid. Overall, I would say it wasn't a bad acquisition.

GB

[CenterTree]

I'd say it is ONLY worth about $39.
I will give you $75.

PM me and I'll send you a money order.

[thebearpack]

Nice find. I think you did pretty well. It's probably worth $200-250 so not bad if you could double your investment.

[FormerUser123]

Nice find. I think you did pretty well. It's probably worth $200-250 so not bad if you could double your investment.

Thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear.

I bought it because I was going to bubba the crap out of it, but once I got it fixed, its true beauty shined through. Now I can't bring myself to do it...

I'd say it is ONLY worth about $39.
I will give you $75.

PM me and I'll send you a money order.

Ah you're so generous



Also, does anyone know where to find the import markings on these guns? On my K98 it's under the barrel behind the front sight. Would I have to pull it out of the stock to find it on this gun?

[thebearpack]

Also, does anyone know where to find the import markings on these guns? On my K98 it's under the barrel behind the front sight. Would I have to pull it out of the stock to find it on this gun?

Can't find a whole lot about these but most of them don't seem to have import marks (brought in before 1968?). There was a batch of Century imports with the marks on the bottom of the barrel though. I've since found some in nice condition (they all typically have matching numbers) for $175-200, but it's still worth more than what you paid.

[Noah_Zark]

Thebearpack hit the nail with market pricing for the M43 between $150 and $200. These do not have the charisma of other Mausers, and thus do not garner the kind of prices that German, Czech, Yugo, and South American Mausers do. Frankly, you'd do very well to get $175 to $200 if you were to sell it now. More on that in a minute.

You decision to not modify the La Coruna is a wise one, IMO. The the Spanish M43 and M44 Mausers came into the USA in the 60s, and some again in the late 80s early 90s. Lots of these were bubba'd and there are not many that remain in original condition. I'm not saying they are rare, but for every unmolested original Spanish La Coruna 98 Mauser one sees, there are probably 40 or 50 that are sporterized or at least drilled and tapped.

What that means is that someday when the notoriously dogmatically opinionated and discriminating Mauser rifle collecting community "discovers" and officially recognizes the Spanish M43 and M44 as collectable and deigns to proclaim it's collectability, the value of these unmolested Spanish 98s will climb. As a example, set the wayback machine for 10 years ago. It was still possible to buy a Kar98K in as-new condition rebuilt by the Yugoslavians and stamped with the postwar Communist crest for $100 to $125. Thye had been offered at around $80 by the wholesalers at the time. The Yugo Capture Kar98ks had great blueing, nice stocks, and most had excellent or as-new bores, many still had Waffenamt stamps and matching serial numbers on the important bits, if not the floorplate. Compared to the Russian Captures, these are really sweet. In fact, when the Russian Capture Kar98ks came on the market the first time, they further depressed the pricing on the Yugo Capture Kar98ks. I remember buying a Yugo Kar98k at the Harrisburg show about five years ago for $115 OTD from a vendor who had maybe 20 or 24 RC Kar98ks and all the buyer interest was at that end of the table string. The RCs were in worse condition for the most part and had the EP s/n on the bolt body, but they were priced at $275 to $400 depending on consiton and were flying off the tables. The vendor had four Yugo Capture Kar98Ks and in the four hours I was at the show sold only one, to me, for much less than half the price of the RC refurbs. Why? I suppose because of the magic word "Russian."

Fast forward to 2011 -- When you find a Yugo Capture Kar98k, they are well above $200, and pushing $300+ for really nice examples. IMO the same will eventually happen with the Spanish M43 and M44 when a few collectors on one or the other Milsurp boards pick one up and brag like its the treasure of the Sierra Madre. Then the other lemmings will need to have one also, and the prices will climb.

In the meantime, enjoy your new (to you) Mauser. As it is.

Noah

[Noah_Zark]

A word about import markings w.r.t. dating a milsurp that's been imported to the USA:

Prior to the Gun Control Act of 1968, the US firearms industry was flush with import milsurps and not a one of them carried an import mark required by law. Some importers did mark their imported milsurps only for market recognition of their trade name. GCA 68 ended the importation of foreign milsurps, and reimporation of US-made milsurps until the mid-80s.

When the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1985 again permitted the importation and sale of foreign milsurp weapons, the Act required for the marking of the weapons with the importer name and address and country of origin. Later this was modified to require the caliber. At the time, these marking were tiny and were usually on the part of the barrel projecting from the front of the stock front band, and usually betw. 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock facing the muzzle. The reason for marking the barrel? The importers know it was easy to remove the barrel and file/polish away the thin, tiny import stamping marks and maybe other marks which could be later restamped and reblued. Within six months of the first batches of German Kar98K and Gew. 98 imports to hit the mid-80s US market, the number of "original, bringback" German Mausers with four-digit prices suddenly spiked as well. In fact, this is where importer Don Mitchell got the idea for his "Mitchell's Mausers" line of refurbished fakes. The raw material lent itself to such manipulaton. But I digress:

In the late 90s, the ATF reissued import marking requirements, calling for the receiver to be marked. At this point, the lettering was still tiny and light and not anything like a "billboard". Then in the early 00s, ATF again moved the goalposts and called for the import stamping to be 1/16" high, 0.0003" deep and on the receiver. The "billboard" import mark was born, and coupling that requirement with computer-driven dot-matrix needle engraving machines, we now have the familiar shiny-speckly digital engraving in the side of our Mosin and RC Mauser receivers.

To sum: The presence or absence of import marking and its style and location can be a reliable clue as to when a particular imported milsurp was brought to the US market.

Noah

[FormerUser123]

Noah, your posts have blown my mind. Now I have questions about my K98k. It was sold to me as an RC for $250 with 900 rounds of ammo, but now you say RCs have billboard type import markings.

On my K98k, there is a small, light series of dots under the barrel that says
"K98 CAL. 8MM GERMANY"
"C.A.I. GEORGIA VT."

Are you saying this isn't an RC? About half the waffenamts remain, one of them was struckabout 10 times.

[Noah_Zark]

RC Mausers have characteristics, such as a black-blue, shellaced furniture and often shellaced barrel bands and buttplate, and the giveaway EP s/n on the bolt and possibly other parts like the floorplate, bolt sleeve, cocking piece, etc. Those are what define an RC Mauser.

Marked under the barrel, IMO your RC is one of those that came in with the first very small batch of RCs Kar98ks back in the very late 80s or a later batch in the 90s.

Keep in mind, milsurps come into the country in lots from 5,000 to 100,000+, and once they clear customs and are import marked, they are released for sale through distributor and retailer networks. It's very possible that a barrel-marked Kar98k from the 90s didn't get sold at retail until after the turn of the century AND after a change in ATF marking requirements for markings to be on the receiver.

Noah