Don’t you wish we can go back in time.
- Thread starter mike
- Start date
MANCAVEVETERAN
Active member
Ah yes,...back when your $200 stamp cost more than your $30 Sten parts kit.
Interesting bit of math;...in 1989, when I was barely earning more than minimum wage, the purchase price (minus the stamp) for an MK-760 was only $800. Minimum wage was $3.35 back then,...so divide $800 by $3.35 and you come up with 239 hours of labor to afford one. Now, today, minimum wage is $15 in most places. So 239 hours today comes to $3,585 gun budget. But that same MK-760 today is now $14,000. So even with inflation, that means the numbers of hours needed to work to afford it is 3.9x the number of hours you would have had to work in 1989.
Interesting bit of math;...in 1989, when I was barely earning more than minimum wage, the purchase price (minus the stamp) for an MK-760 was only $800. Minimum wage was $3.35 back then,...so divide $800 by $3.35 and you come up with 239 hours of labor to afford one. Now, today, minimum wage is $15 in most places. So 239 hours today comes to $3,585 gun budget. But that same MK-760 today is now $14,000. So even with inflation, that means the numbers of hours needed to work to afford it is 3.9x the number of hours you would have had to work in 1989.
I remember an ad in an old shotgun News. Mp5s, you got the machine gun I believe 13 magazines and two leather magazine pouches, factory sling and a couple other items I forget. $500. Unfortunately I was too young and inexperienced to realize these were dealer samples, and I thought that's how much they cost. Boy was I in for a surprise.
Dirk Hawthorne
Well-known member
1968 American Rifleman ad for Hunter's Lodge.
The inflation calculator says that $25 Mauser would now equal $232, and the Polish Radom VIS M35 at $50 would equal $465 today. Surplus 8mm or 9mm was 7 cents a round,...or $0.65 today.
The inflation calculator says that $25 Mauser would now equal $232, and the Polish Radom VIS M35 at $50 would equal $465 today. Surplus 8mm or 9mm was 7 cents a round,...or $0.65 today.
Somewhere I've got a magazine with an ad for the original CETME model imported during the 1960s. According to the ad anyway, it was the early model that took that weird 7.62x51 CETME version of the NATO cartridge that had reduced powder charges. To sweeten the deal it came with a thousand round case of the special ammunition. If I recall correctly this deal was incredibly expensive, $199.99. extra ammo was something like $20 or $30 a case.
In hindsight these we're probably the Mars import models and regular NATO chambering. Someone probably got a hold of a bunch of the reduced power ammunition for the model b and couldn't unload it otherwise, so they bundled it with the rifle. Prior to the internet the average guy researching esoteric import firearms was rather limited on the information, and it was probably the 1990s before I understood that there was actually a version that took NATO ammo instead of this reduced power stuff.
Of course a mint condition Mars import these days usually goes through an auction house for around 5 grand. I wonder what an unopened case of the special ammo is worth nowadays?
Original ad for the Mars imports, not the one I saw.
In hindsight these we're probably the Mars import models and regular NATO chambering. Someone probably got a hold of a bunch of the reduced power ammunition for the model b and couldn't unload it otherwise, so they bundled it with the rifle. Prior to the internet the average guy researching esoteric import firearms was rather limited on the information, and it was probably the 1990s before I understood that there was actually a version that took NATO ammo instead of this reduced power stuff.
Of course a mint condition Mars import these days usually goes through an auction house for around 5 grand. I wonder what an unopened case of the special ammo is worth nowadays?
Original ad for the Mars imports, not the one I saw.
brenbuilds
UZI Talk Supporter
The wooden furnished ones with the Heinsoldt scopes are practically in STEN territory pricing! I've not encountered the 7.62x51 reduced loads, however, the the Japanese did the same thing for the Howa Type 64. It was designed around 7.62x51 Japanese, which essentially was a 10%-15% load reduction with a purple tip. The thinking was it would be more manageable for the more diminutive statue of the average Japanese solider.
I would love to find some of either ammo.
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