M53 kit price check

[weasel_master]

What should one expect to pay for an m53 kit missing the barrel and muzzle bearing? It may also be missing the feed tray.

[railsplitter]

Not too long ago M53 kits could be had for $200, now $350 -$400 A decent barrel (8mm) is worth at least $100. From there I would subtract the cost of the missing parts in your evaluation. Kits do vary on what parts are included and how they are cut up.

[Michael J]

avg. kit @ retail, lets say $500 (APEX is at $525). So the barrel itself would cost just over $100 (mind you i am rounding down, expect higher numbers). Muzzle bearing, is that this piece, or am i picturing something different in my head lol? Because, that piece is (always?) missing (due to demill?) on m53 parts kits. So that would not take away from their asking price, as my "$500 quote", is not including that piece.

Basically, if the barrel isn't included, take off more or less $100 (in my opinion).

[gdmoore28]

Never will I claim to be an expert in anything except calamity, but I do follow the kit prices pretty closely, as I've had to sell and buy a bit in the last month. My observations of actual sales:

*Most Outrageous Price For a Complete M53 kit: Over $650. I kid you not.
*Lowest price paid for a complete M53 kit: Just under $500.

Using the $500 mark as a baseline for a nice, complete M53 kit, including the barrel and bipod, add in the following variables:
*No barrel? Deduct $125
*No bipod? Deduct $100 (tried to buy one lately?)
*Does the M53 front section still have a complete camming section intact? Add $125.

These are pretty close numbers as things stand this week. But the great depression is just around the corner, so all bets are off as to where prices will go. Since the AIG Insurance collapse, not to mention LEhman bros, etc., sales all over the auction sites have almost stopped. Who knows what's going to happen next?

GeeDeeEmm

[www.Prussia.us]

Garry, you hit it right.

I would also suggest to anyone looking for an M53 parts kit to contact InterOrdnance and ask Dave when the next batch of M53 parts kits are due in, there were due this fall, more delays (I know remember last year being promised kits with de-milled receivers?) are possible; but they will beat any price currently being offered. Give CenterFireSystems a call, see what is shaking with their $199 parts kits (on backorder for 16 months now), it cannot hurt..............s

[gdmoore28]

Well, according to a post made by our contact at WiseLite, Richard Hamer, that entire shipment of Yugo M53 parts kits that have been in the pipeline for over a year now, was bought out IN TOTAL by one concern -- apparently to be used in the manufacture of the Century M53 semi-autos: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7499

So any signifigant sales of M53 parts kits by the usual retailers may now be over -- maybe for good.

I had intended to build at least six more propane-fired M53s for sale to reenactor friends. In this case, having no barrel in the kits didn't matter to me, except that selling the barrels would have allowed me to recoup some of the $199/kit that I was paying back then. Looks like I should have burdened the credit card a little harder than I did!

Looking back, buying those initial kits was one of the best things I've ever done. Not only did I get a great deal on some really super-nice kits, but my interest in them led me to this site, and to some of the best friends I have!

Now that's what I call a DEAL!

GeeDeeEmm

[ScottD]

I jumped on the SARCO 299 kits when they had em.....wish I bought more.

Im currently trying to find a decent MG34 kit, but thats gone the way of 1.99 gas.....

[gdmoore28]

Same here on the '34 dream

The MG34, as I've opined so many times before (but still love to hear myself say it ) is simply a work of art. While my MG42 is utilitarian, and brutally efficient, I'm not inclined to lovingly drool over it's Kubelwagon-like lines.

Just the opposite for the MG34. My next vacation will be to Bil's house to spend a sunset afternoon just watching him spray a few thousand rounds thru his bedroom window as the UPS driver runs for his life.

Ah . . . the poetry of it all.

GeeDeeEmm

[Bil]

Ya got it all wrong,Garry-the UPS guy brings the good stuff-it's the Fed-Ex guy and the neighbors that all scatter!There is a 34 in the upstairs windor on an AA tripod,pointed down the driveway! ---bil