Third Party Press

A $3200 Gew98?

Yeah sure it is. This 'buyer' 99th is one of about 3 scenarios best I can figure. Look at his feedback. All buys and even better look at the character list he's buying from. I totally believe...
 
I just want everyone to know if you want to give me that type of money for some of my Gew98 rifles I will gladly pay free shipping, a free six pack of Coors Light your way, and a free massage session at an Asian run massage parlor!
 
It's unfortunate for that buyer, a very common rifle that could have been found borderline un-issued for that price.
 
Hopefully the dope pays for it, learning is best taken to heart through mistakes and this is a whopper... he will be lucky to get $800 for this rifle, Larry seems to work miracles at auction, but these things seem to happen more these days that a decade or two ago.
 
Well, I did not know that 4 hours of "cleaning" the metal with 180 grit sandpaper would be rewarded with $800/hour. He made it soooo purdy but other than the buyer, nobody valued the effort.
 
Well look who the seller is first. I've been told by a couple people he does some shady things but I can't see anything bad about him because I sold some stuff to him before and I bought some stuff from him before.
 
With his auctions you have to watch for the end to see what’s mismatched. I kept thinking “what about the bolt...?” And then boom, there it was. Predictable shite.
 
Larry is first rate imo, don't know him and never bought from him, but he shows what he is selling (guy even does the BC! Who does that these days, hell collectors on the forums miss it, but he catches BC and bolt BF's) and offers a no questions asked return, - I also trend and it is very rare to catch him relist something sketchy... if this guy is a humper or a shiller, I am a democrat (fat chance), the guy is the best thing about GB and about the only reason to go there.

That said, he doesn't know shineola about German military rifles, not even with Mike's and Bruce's books in front of him... but that is hardly a crime. CB bought from him and gave the best advice, - know what you are bidding on and you do not have to worry about getting screwed (he probably said it more gracefully, but the intent is the same...)
 
I agree to that know what you're buying and I have bought from Larry before that's where I got my 1916 erfurt Gew98 from. The only thing that I get a little irritated with Larry is when he auctions off a rifle as matching but in reality it's not. But again that goes back to the buyer who has to look at all the pictures and reads the description very careful. From the people that I have talked to that knows Larry very well he buys a lot of stuff and has a couple people working for him in this business. From what I've been told he buys out whole collections at a time which has some pretty neat stuff. But with some collections out there, you have some bad stuff in there.

So in the end the only way I can figure out somebody paying $3,200 for a rifle like this is they must have been hypnotized by that gray blanket. Or the buyer just had to have that rifle for his collection.

And like I have stated before if anybody on here just has to have a rifle like this for their collection. How many you want I'm driving to meet you!
 
Larry is first rate imo, don't know him and never bought from him, but he shows what he is selling (guy even does the BC! Who does that these days, hell collectors on the forums miss it, but he catches BC and bolt BF's) and offers a no questions asked return, - I also trend and it is very rare to catch him relist something sketchy... if this guy is a humper or a shiller, I am a democrat (fat chance), the guy is the best thing about GB and about the only reason to go there.

That said, he doesn't know shineola about German military rifles, not even with Mike's and Bruce's books in front of him... but that is hardly a crime. CB bought from him and gave the best advice, - know what you are bidding on and you do not have to worry about getting screwed (he probably said it more gracefully, but the intent is the same...)

Have to agree with Paul here. He does post enough pictures to know what you are getting. You have to read the description to be sure. I've followed Larry and bought from him for a very long time, and there may have been instances in the past where he advertised something as 'all matching' that wasn't, but he's always provided very detailed pictures. Just read the dang ad, and look closely at the pictures. He's absolutely a lot better than a lot of these shysters on GB that provide crap descriptions and lousy pictures to go with it. Also, I sent something back about a decade ago and it was a no questioned asked return. I was just not happy with the finish on a rifle the way it was photographed.

As for foolish bidders...that's not his fault.There's a Kar98a he has on there right now bid up over $800 that I dont think has any two parts on it that match. Go figure...
 
The folks who work for Larry take the photos, write the descriptions, and post the ads. Has done a fine job of training those who work for him. He is on the road all the time, and generally doesn't know what particular items are running in the auction at a given time. He is too busy attending auctions, shows, buying collections, and chasing leads. He will easily drive 2000 miles to pick something up.

I run into him all the time and he is a great guy to be around, and to sell to. He doesn't mess around, is straightforward, dedicated, decisive, and knows how to close a deal. If you meet him in the parking lot of a show he will tell you exactly what he can generally get for an item and how much he can pay. No BS. As stated several times he has no control over stupid bidders. Wish we had more guys like him around...
 
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He definitely seems to attract some really "generous" bidders, but more power to him if they pay up. As a case in point, he's got an auction up now for 5 boxes of Wolf 7.62x54 ammo that is bid up to $44 plus $18 shipping and still going. It's crap steel-case commercial ammo that sells for $8 a box at Walmart. Why would anybody buy that kind of thing at an GB auction?
 
I've bought a number of items from Larry and have no complaints. He starts his bids low enough and it's up to you to know what your bidding on. Ask questions if you don't know. He isn't out to cheat anyone.
 
I think many of the skeptics are focused on the fact that much of what is sold is really somewhat mediocre, pawnshop funshow table fare yet it fetches stratospheric prices above that of true collector quality items from very low to no feedback bidders, some of whom seem to be signed up to bid on his stuff. He has a bunch of “helpers” handling his auction descriptions and sales? None of these people would have Gunbonker accounts I take it? Then there is the obvious appearance of humped bolts and things that show the same dies and handiwork. That said, I’m sure he’s a great guy who waves at kids and pets his dogs. :thumbsup:
 
Larry is first rate imo, don't know him and never bought from him, but he shows what he is selling (guy even does the BC! Who does that these days, hell collectors on the forums miss it, but he catches BC and bolt BF's) and offers a no questions asked return, - I also trend and it is very rare to catch him relist something sketchy... if this guy is a humper or a shiller, I am a democrat (fat chance), the guy is the best thing about GB and about the only reason to go there.

That said, he doesn't know shineola about German military rifles, not even with Mike's and Bruce's books in front of him... but that is hardly a crime. CB bought from him and gave the best advice, - know what you are bidding on and you do not have to worry about getting screwed (he probably said it more gracefully, but the intent is the same...)


+1..............
 
I've added some of his listings to my watch list in the past. Then when it gets close to end time, see that it's been bid up to way more than its worth and move on to something else. Guys on other forums complain about this guy a lot. Most refer to him as "grey blanket". But his start bids are always low and there are lots of generally good photos of it. Seeing this rifle sell for $3200 tempts me to list my Kornbush GEW98 to see what it will fetch. I once saw somebody bid $1600 on one of those MGC 68 toy MP40's. So I listed the one I had and only got $535 for it.
 
A little cynical Hambone, - I have seen no evidence to suggest Larry shills his own rifles, if he does he is a highly skilled one that doesn't push it too far (and this $3200 rifle is hardly unique, many sales defy the notion of shilling). Alternatively he must have a large warehouse of rifles he is hiding and has endless resources (capital) that allows him to keep money tied up (and pay these large unsuccessful seller fees).

I follow Larry's offerings religiously, I dare say I never miss his "German" rifles. Typically when I see these rifles again, months or a couple years later (less than 25% I would guess) they are resold by flippers like elite or CW, perhaps his employees are involved in some sort of shill and when they err, rather than relisting they sell it at gunshows and it works its way back through a flipper.. or Larry is working with other serial flippers, but that is pretty convoluted logic, and not very practical from a business perspective.

Form my perspective Larry is the model seller, he shows what he is selling (lots of relevant pictures - which tremendously help my research), he starts low w/o reserve, he offers no questions asked returns and I have never seen anyone complain (legitimately) about his practices. His success is not a legitimate reason for grievance (unless you are a democrat/socialist,communist or work for "our" government), I might be envious of his success, but success is usually earned and should be respected, - whatever Larry is doing it is working and until someone can prove he is dishonest (humper-shiller-cheat) I will file away complaints of this man as envy...

I think many of the skeptics are focused on the fact that much of what is sold is really somewhat mediocre, pawnshop funshow table fare yet it fetches stratospheric prices above that of true collector quality items from very low to no feedback bidders, some of whom seem to be signed up to bid on his stuff. He has a bunch of “helpers” handling his auction descriptions and sales? None of these people would have Gunbonker accounts I take it? Then there is the obvious appearance of humped bolts and things that show the same dies and handiwork. That said, I’m sure he’s a great guy who waves at kids and pets his dogs. :thumbsup:
 
Form my perspective Larry is the model seller, he shows what he is selling (lots of relevant pictures - which tremendously help my research), he starts low w/o reserve, he offers no questions asked returns and I have never seen anyone complain (legitimately) about his practices. His success is not a legitimate reason for grievance (unless you are a democrat/socialist,communist or work for "our" government), I might be envious of his success, but success is usually earned and should be respected, - whatever Larry is doing it is working and until someone can prove he is dishonest (humper-shiller-cheat) I will file away complaints of this man as envy...

Paul...I can relate a story, first hand, about Larry and what I consider dishonest dealings. Now this happened years ago, but I never forgot it, and it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.

I will also agree with you, good for him on spinning what was a long time ago, a nice little side business for him into the juggernaut it has become. I offer my tale not to condemn all of the grey blanket sales, but just as a thing to keep in mind.

I had a fraternity brother of mine come to the Rochester NY show with a Mauser Banner for sale. Pretty rifle, except the stock was sanded and poly'd, the metal re-blued, and the bolt was pimp shined, and you could see the bolt numbers were worn from the buffing...looked like a Mitchells Mauser, pretty from 6 feet, but bad up close if you know what you are looking at.

He brought it to me and my buddy first...I had no interest, and he had it priced to high for what it was, so we both passed. A couple of hours later Larry walked by with it, so we grabed him ad said "you know that's been pimp shined, right?" He replied, "Oh, I know..."

Two weeks later it was on GB with a description that it was 100% good, straight from the factory original. It was at the time, maybe a $400 rifle, it sold for over $1200. It was far from "factory original".

So that is how I know, 100% Larry has listed stuff he knew was wrong with a deceptive description.

He offers a lot of really good stuff, with accurate descriptions, but that is not to say 100%. The guys on the Japanese board on Gunboards have caught many a humped Japanese rifle being sold, so they are pretty brutal on him.

I simply relay this as a cautionary tale, so as others have said, know what you are bidding on, and study the pics closely.

How he gets that crazy money for a lot, thats another whole discussion...so but for the advise of being sure what you bid on, I begrudge him nothing, really...I wish I could be so successful doing what he is doing!
 
A legitimate first hand compliant, if he were Hambone, Mike, Bruce or another "collector" (like myself) I would be appalled by such behavior, - Larry, well not surprised and pretty much to be expected. My argument for his sales/auctions were not due to his character or his ethics, at least in the sense of the man (how he treats his friends, family, or chillren/dogs in Craig's analogy)

I have noted before, pretty much every time Larry comes up, that his opinions and evaluations are meaningless, he could have Mike's and Bruce's "bible" open and his evaluation (or his employees) are baseless. Dan said it earlier, he will say the rifle is matching when it often isn't (worse also), - BUT he typically photographs the discrepancies, often w/mentions in his meaningless verbiage also.

BTW, glad you commented with your first person experience, if the seller of a rifle doesn't have a reputation on the line (a collector) then you should always be wary.
 
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