2013 First Quarter SKS Rifle Market Report

www.georgestragand.com...

Im a big fan of SKS rifles and was browsing through some pages across the net and found this website. This website keeps tabs on the average price for some older firearms such as the SKS, M1 Garand, Mosin Nagant, ect.... You can see the "average" price currently for those firearms.

Anyways, back to the SKS market report. The website tracked trends in the SKS market the first quarter of 2013 and posted their results. They have a section on volume, prices, and specific models of SKS's and how much they were going for each. (I'll give a short address on each section.)

Of course, the volume of SKS's being sold increased in the first quarter of 2013, along with most other firearms.

At the end of 2012, the average SKS price was a bit above $440. (This includes all models of the SKS rifles). As for Q1 2013, the average price was a bit over $500. The average prices dipped a bit in February, but it was only a small dip.

Now going into a few different types of SKS's, Russian ones were pretty much holding a steady price in Q1. Albanian SKS's also held pretty steady, with a tiny fraction of the average price going down at the end of March. (The website has a graph for each, with a red line for the highest priced, green for average overall, and a blue line for the cheapest sales. Im going off of the average price overall)

Yugoslavian SKS's are a bit different story. The Yugo M59 price fell quite a bit from January to February, and now is averaged at a tiny bit under $400. The Yugo M59/66 price actually started a somewhat steady increase in price after February, with an average price of also around $400.

Chinese SKS's overall were the rifles with the highest volume of sales in Q1, but their price is also slowly on a decline. Prices on some variants of the Chinese were holding pretty steady, but they're overall on a downward trend of price.

The Romanian SKS prices are on a pretty good decline. From Janruary to March, the average price has dropped roughly $100, and now are roughly a bit below $400. Out of all the SKS versions on the website, the Romanian ones are on track to be back to pre-panic price levels soon.

Just thought that would be some cool info for other SKS fans out there.

i used to own a sks rifle too bad i sold it stupid me a few years ago sold most of my guns. i needed the cash reallly bad I must say though i have owned a sks and a ak47 the sks was wayyyyy better.
Seeing the price drops makes me want another

That's funny.

So in the same time frame that the SKS value skyrocketed, the M1 Garand's value dropped by like 20%?
Very curious.

Is this related to the fact the M1 Garand is one of the last rifles the gun grabbers will come for?

Its nuts I bought a Yugo and 240 rounds for 200 back in 03.

That prior to newtown price is a little high. Before Newtown the real price for a Chinese was between 250 and 300 with the latter being a bit high. Then i'd say 300 to 400 for a yugo with the latter a bit high. After Newtown anything that could take a thirty round mag went crazy and people started trying to sell all sks for around 500 to 600 and I saw one for 700 all absurd.

reply to post by innersollus


I have a Norinco type 56 SKS and also a Saiga in .223 (somewhat closer to the AK 74 than 47...I wish I would of got it in 5.45x39 nowdays with the prices). At the moment, I pretty much like both guns equally. For the SKS, I like my older rifles to be "pure", as in, no additions to it, just keep the rifle as is. For the Saiga, it's a pretty nice rig to add a bunch of stuff to. The Saiga was basically my first project gun. (I also made a review of it here in the same forum)

I added the Murrays spring loaded firing pin to my SKS, and really regret it. I bought the pin and it also came with an extra spring. The first spring burnt out and shrunk to less than half its originaly size after about 60 rounds. I took it out and replaced it with the spare spring and the same thing happened, only worse. After another 60 rounds, the spring burnt out and basically "got stuck" to the inside of my bolt. I had to rip the pin out with the back of a hammer and had to chisle away at the melted spring inside my bolt with a wire for hours until I knocked most of it out.

Long story short - I keep my older milsurp guns as-is.

ETA - The reason I bought the Murrays spring firing pin was because of the risk of the infamous slam-fires in the SKS because of the free floating firing pin.

reply to post by muzzleflash


I havent really payed much attention to the Garand, I would love to have one, but there's no way I could afford one. Whenever I saw them for sale at gun shows in the past few years, they were always a bit over $1000.

reply to post by zonetripper2065


I paid $250 for my Norinco 56 back in November 2012. At the latest gun show in my area the other month, I saw the same 56's going for a minimum of $450, while Yugo's were going for $600 (ish). I saw a Russian going for nearly $900, while another table at the show was selling the same Russian one for $450.

reply to post by buni11687


I really want a military version of the TMP.

I cannot find the part in the Constitution where it says I have a right to guns, except the most leet ones like silenced fully auto TMPs.

It's hella expensive for the watered down civilian one too (SPP).
But the military variant...that's the real deal.

reply to post by buni11687

Interesting site, thanks for the info.