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M1 For Sale by Ruben


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Still haven't found my Thompson M1... Please forgive if this one's been discussed already--

 

http://dealernfa.com/shop/thompson-m1-bridgeport-124335/

 

From my time on the board, I anticipate many will say that it's priced high for a reactivated

gun... any other thoughts?

 

(*and if it's already been discussed, I will appreciate being pointed to the appropriate thread)

 

Thanks,

 

SM

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Hi Shadowman,

 

Nice gun. Excellent shooter. Looks very good. Bob N. does good work. Rubens prices are substantial but he has good product. From what I can see it is a solid gun. Others will chime in.

 

It really depends on you. What do you want. Of course a nice matching numbers, amnesty registered, factory finish gun is easier to sell and may cost a bit; even a bit more than this one. If you are going to put hundreds of rounds a month down range and enjoy shooting it often, when you look over the sights you can't tell it is a rewat. I really like the 22 conversions in the M1. Mine runs all day long w/o any problems with high quality magazines.

 

Decide what you want and seek it out. The person you have to satisfy is you.

 

Enjoy,

 

Grasshopper

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id keep waiting......im sure its a nice gun, but you can find an original(somewhat rare) or a parkerized for less in the same condition

 

your probably paying $4k extra to buy it from Ruben and because its a reactivation gun it will always be harder to sell someday.....

 

i took 2-3 months to find mine....and if i had not lucked out it may have taken 6 months.....its better to wait until just the right gun appears...Thompsons are appearing on a regular basis lately it seems, so ill bet with in 2-3 months you will find what you want....probably for less

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So if a rewat is $25K does that mean an original is now as much as a Colt? I agree that

the price is thousands of dollars too high. But Ruben has done extensive advertising for years

and he is one of the places new guys go who are not "in the life". It may take a while but he

seems to sell his guns at his prices. He is in no rush. There are many buyers for whom money

is no object and the matter of several thousand dollars means nothing to them.

I am not criticizing Ruben at all. He has a good reputation and I always say the value of something

at any time is what someone is willing to pay for it.

 

Bob

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I'd disagree that this react will be harder to sell someday. It sounds like the only thing it needed was to replace the plugged barrel. It isn't like a cut receiver that had to be welded. From the photos, this is one of the nicest M1s I have ever seen. All of the original markings are present, and the receiver has not been over buffed. If you have the money, jump on it. In five years, $25K will look downright reasonable for a gun this nice. Yes, it no longer has it's original blued finish, but it does very closely resemble a gun that's been through an original arsenal rebuild.

 

"Don't think of it as paying too much, think of it as buying too early."

 

"Poor quality is remembered long after the thrill of low price is forgotten."

Edited by TSMGguy
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I agree. It is an investment. I'm sure it will have that $ value to someone. But the value of old guns will only continue to rise. Very nice gun!

 

Andrew

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will all future buyers understand the term Reactivate? or will most see it and move on to another gun....i know what i would do

 

some dont care and will pay full value for it...but most will not....it will always be harder to sell than an all original M1 or a Govt. Repark one

 

will it shoot nice? im sure it will do great......its all about the price here....$20k? yea i think it would be a fair deal for what it is....i wouldnt pay $20k for it, but most would....id rather find all original and pay $23-24k....

 

just takes patience to get the perfect thompson....may take a year....

 

if $$ means nothing to you? and you like the gun...buy it....if you never plan to resell and money needs nothing to you? buy it

 

if it means anything to you as an investment then id move on to a better gun to invest $25k in

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Machine guns should not be viewed as investments, in my opinion. Buy them because you like them, and can afford them. While the MG's I have were all amazing investments in hindsight, I never purchased them with any investment goal in mind.

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

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if it costs a lot of money and holds its value or goes up its an investment....a house is an investment...very similar...you use it, it goes up in value a bit

 

the housing market could drop and your house could be worth 1/2 what it is (if you live in FL in 2008 this would be the case)...just as a machine gun could be worth much less depending upon politics

 

no investment is flawless...ive lost 50% in stocks multiple times....its always come back and gone way beyond my original price paid......i think a machine gun is one of the more stable priced things to invest in...you will never become rich at this point in history like you would have had you bought 500 Mac 11's in 1975 for $250 each.....but its an investment you can enjoy and use

 

i do agree you should not have a goal in mind for them....when i bought my M16 i originally thought id leave it untouched for resale....but as soon as it was in my hands i shot and enjoyed it...lost thousands of $$ in value in the first few mags...oh well...only live once!

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i do agree you should not have a goal in mind for them....when i bought my M16 i originally thought id leave it untouched for resale....but as soon as it was in my hands i shot and enjoyed it...lost thousands of $$ in value in the first few mags...oh well...only live once!

 

there ya go...

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I think saying that is actually quite incorrect. It is a mental salve people use when they have voluntarily burned themselves in paying far to much when buying an item from someone who sells items to people at an excessively high price.

 

In that 5 year time period where you wait for the market to catch up to your mistake, you could have utilized said $5,000 in a multitude of investment vehicles and made even more money. So it is a continual slide, you not only have to make up that $5000, you have to make up the $2500 (or whatever) you could have made investing it elsewhere, you have to expend money (in the form of time and work) to even break even with where you could have been had you shopped around just a bit. For every $1 you wasted in overpaying, figure your sliding cost to get back to square one is $1.50.

 

And.

 

All this is predicated on the concept that the market for these is going to do exactly what it is doing.

 

If you want to justify it to yourself, say, sure, I am buying it because I want it and can afford to overpay.

 

But as far as simply a monetary exercise, to say you didn't overpay, you bought to soon is about one of the silliest excuses to rationalize a mistake I have ever seen.

 

As far as reactivated weapons go, I actually also look at them as a lower value for the simple fact that the "reactivator" has his information stamped on it. Just like a tube gun in my view and I would pay accordingly. And while some (perhaps most) don't feel as I do, there are some that do. Why hinder yourself in a future sale unless you are getting in on it at a price point that justify's said limited market.

 

I sure as hell wouldn't pay extra for it.....

 

What is the old saying you didn't pay too much you bought to soon? Isn't there a M1 for sale with a you tube video on sturm for about 6 months now?

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I am always amazed at the high value people put on dirty paper, when it comes to discretionary items or spending. Could they actually believe they are taking it with them. I have an issue with my Orlando guests when they fly it at midnight to get the cheaper fare, while they save money on the free room and food. I actually instituted rules now. No "check in" or check out before 8am and after 8pm.

 

Cheap .... "fukks" at my expense. These guests have all the money they need and now I know why.

 

Back to guns. If you are paying up for a good reason, why not. YOLO

 

Eric

Edited by Normal1959
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i was told this when i over paid for my M16a2.......''better to pay market price and buy something else with that $5,000 you just over paid''....most here have over paid at one time or another...i have regrets....i wasnt educated enough on my purchase and purchased before asking others...just jumped in and found out later.....yea another $5k for a Reising or some other base level FA would have been nice...or use that $5k on .45 ammo/mags..........

 

i did a check to see whats out there for sale...slim pickins....time to sit back and wait...check 2x a week on Sturm/GB and see what pops up....or you could do a WTB on Sturm (you will get scammers attacking you w/ this tactic though)

 

ive gotten and seen great deals occasionally....$2-3k under market.....the Thompson is too popular to go under market value most likely.....you may find someone on GB with a 0 rating and take a chance (thats how i got one of my deals)....

Edited by huggytree
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As far as almost any time goes, it can (and was) said:

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

 

- "A Tale of Two Cities", Charles Dickens

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I think saying that is actually quite incorrect. It is a mental salve people use when they have voluntarily burned themselves in paying far to much when buying an item from someone who sells items to people at an excessively high price.

 

In that 5 year time period where you wait for the market to catch up to your mistake, you could have utilized said $5,000 in a multitude of investment vehicles and made even more money. So it is a continual slide, you not only have to make up that $5000, you have to make up the $2500 (or whatever) you could have made investing it elsewhere, you have to expend money (in the form of time and work) to even break even with where you could have been had you shopped around just a bit. For every $1 you wasted in overpaying, figure your sliding cost to get back to square one is $1.50.

 

And.

 

All this is predicated on the concept that the market for these is going to do exactly what it is doing.

 

If you want to justify it to yourself, say, sure, I am buying it because I want it and can afford to overpay.

 

But as far as simply a monetary exercise, to say you didn't overpay, you bought to soon is about one of the silliest excuses to rationalize a mistake I have ever seen.

 

As far as reactivated weapons go, I actually also look at them as a lower value for the simple fact that the "reactivator" has his information stamped on it. Just like a tube gun in my view and I would pay accordingly. And while some (perhaps most) don't feel as I do, there are some that do. Why hinder yourself in a future sale unless you are getting in on it at a price point that justify's said limited market.

 

I sure as hell wouldn't pay extra for it.....

 

 

What is the old saying you didn't pay too much you bought to soon? Isn't there a M1 for sale with a you tube video on sturm for about 6 months now?

Friend,

 

That was a attempt at bringing some light hearted humor to the board and is not to be considered financial advice.

Thank you for taking it way out of context. I don't think the price on the gun is that far out of line. Esp. When you make a thread about not being able to find said gun, it's kinda hard to call the one that's for sale overpriced. Perhaps he could make a offer, get a bucks off and get a nice gun and be happy with it.

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For some people, going to an established, convenient, trustworthy (?) dealer like Reuben is worth a 15% or 20% price premium. So they pay the extra.

 

For other people, if they don't get something for the absolute bottom dollar, they won't buy it. So they won't pay the extra.

 

 

My advice to MG buyers is to just go ahead and pay the average retail price for an MG or even a little above average if you have to. Don't wait around for an awesome deal, because an awesome deal in 2018 might be more expensive than a typical high retail price in 2017.

 

 

There is no reason to pay the same price for a rewatted gun as an original non-rewatted gun.

 

If the gun was gently dewatted and then gently rewatted, that is great. But the average gun collector will not value a rewat as highly as a non-rewat.

 

Most people are going to think that a rewat has had some sort of welding repaired on the receiver, because that kind of repair is very common.

 

There may be a handful of rewats that just needed a new barrel screwed on, but that is the exception to the rule.

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no offers w/ ruben....he will defend his prices even when the gun sits for 6 months+

 

i attempted an offer on a Colt Thompson...i was told the price was correct and worth it

 

that gun may still be on his website 12 months later

 

he does give the best service....call him and you will be speaking to him....email him and he emails back in 15-30 minutes

Edited by huggytree
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If Ruben is willing to sit on a gun at his inflated pricing, that must mean that the guns eventually sell at that price.

 

A good guide to the current "average retail" pricing is to look at completed AND SOLD auctions on gunbroker.

 

If you see a dealer selling a gun for $13k and the price spread on gunbroker is $12k to $14k, that means you're GTG

 

This only refers to auctions where the gun actually sold, not the ones where it failed to hit the reserve.

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Lots of good info, and I appreciate everyone who "chimed in" on this thread (thus) far; a

few quick comments/responses--

 

no offers w/ ruben....he will defend his prices even when the gun sits for 6 months+

 

I've never really tried to "deal" with him, but if you look at my thread from late 2015 on this topic--

http://www.machinegunboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18653

...you'll see a link (1st post) to gun #156497 on Ruben's site; he's renamed the link, but I'm

practically 100% sure this is the same gun (looks the same, and identical inventory #)--

http://dealernfa.com/shop/wwii-cr-thompson-m1-45-acp-excellent-156497/

 

So it's still there, ~1 1/2 years later, and I don't think he's budged on the price (based on memory).

For what it's worth... I assume that he wants top dollar, and will wait for that guy with money who

"wants to buy a Thompson now".

 

Machine guns should not be viewed as investments, in my opinion. Buy them because you like them, and can afford them.

 

I mostly agree with this... would rather have a gun that I'm proud to show off & shoot (but perhaps

will lose a few $$$'s on) more than one I got a good deal on but never want to show anyone, or take to

the range. E.g., IMO one of the better MG "investment opportunities" is something like the M11/9... it's still

cheap enough to be afforded by most with some motivation, and might easily move up to, say, the

UZI level in the next 5-10 years. Whereas, there's just a smaller market for a high-end Colt Thompson

(based on price alone).

 

Even so, in the end, everything's a matter of degree... paying, say, a 20% premium for something you

want is a bit different than paying a 50%+ premium...

 

As far as reactivated weapons go, I actually also look at them as a lower value for the simple fact that the "reactivator" has his information stamped on it.

 

This is what bothers me the most about the gun in question (although is it so different, cosmetically, than an

import stamp on a Title 1 gun?). Now, for function, it's 100% good-to-go; but from a collector/hobby standpoint,

the markings will never be quite like an original military M1 Thompson... And, I had a decent deal on another

ReWat a year or so back for ~$19K (which does make it hard to pay Reuben $7K more for his, no matter how nice

it looks).

 

Thanks for all the input, will keep on looking for now...

 

 

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My brother Andy is editing photos today of another M1 that Ruben just received into inventory. I have only seen one photo, and I don't know a price yet.

 

David

 

Love these heads up. Thanks for all the hard work. What's the paypal free lunch address?

Eric

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Normal1959,

 

I really appreciate your donation!

 

Thanks Again!

 

David

Old saying where I come from: You can't eat a thank you. Lol I am looking for my next Thompson and appreciate the help.

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