Stunning Price for P78 on Gunbroker

[icebear]

Prices for .22 Sakos have been high for some time, but the latest sale on Gunbroker is downright amazing. A very nice P78, complete except for the rear sight slide and including an extra mag and a 12x Leupold target scope, closed at $1900! Now, the scope and rings are worth $2-300, but that's still a lot of money for a field grade .22, even a somewhat scarce one like a Sako. That is the price of a high-end Anschutz. There must be an awful lot of collectors out there who just cannot live without a Sako .22. The mind boggles.

Here's the link:
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/797512513

 

[Tomball]

I guess the buyer got his first holy grail! I cannot think of another reason.

 

[cl_leg]

Maybe an estate sale, can't come to an agreement so up it goes.

 

[paulsonconstruction]

Auctions produce strange results sometimes, either crazy high or crazy low. I don't put much stock in auction sale prices, as I've witnessed family members at estate sales fight over an item to ridiculous levels. Easy to bid it up when you know you're going to get a portion of it back when the money gets split.

 

[snaffle]

OK, I'll agree, that is a pretty steep price. I am the buyer of the previous Gunbroker M-78 sale at $747. The rifle that I got was an early model number...good, front hood was missing...bad, rear sight was missing...bad, clean metal/blueing… good, wood small dings and scratches...bad, one magazine...to be expected. I took the front hood from my 78HB, which looked awful on the heavy barrel, and put it on the new rifle, filler screws for the missing rear sight, steamed the heck out of the stock to remove the wood dings and refinished with Art's French Red Stock Filler and Stain (perfect for Sako finishes). Mounted a Leupold 4x12 and could not be happier. I own two new production Anschutz 1712s, other than failure to eject problems on both of them, they are better rifles than the 78 but cost $2300 each. In defending the purchaser, the 78 is an all steel(Anschutz, plastic bolt knob and mag floor plate) 40 year old rifle that is built like a safe and shoots right up there with the Anschutz. 78's are getting hard to find, especially with OEM scope rail and open sights of any kind (some did not come with factory sights). An extra magazine is $150 in my opinion, there is a guy who makes excellent reproduction mags for the 78 for $95 but I don't know if he is still making them. I would have paid $300-$350 for the scope. The wood on that gun looked pretty good, one picture the finish looked kind of worn but, Art's French Red would fix that. Auctions are auctions, I have paid way more than reasonable on some purchases to get what I want, I don't have a problem if other people do the same. icebear C-130?

 

[icebear]

Correct, C-130. Taken at cruising altitude over the jungle in Liberia during a lull in the civil war. The plane was on charter to the UN to drop food and other relief supplies to villages that were cut off by the fighting. The American mercenaries who were flying for the UN kindly invited me to ride along with them on a food run. The PIC invited me to fly the plane back from the drop zone to Monrovia. It was a great adventure - you should see the rest of my photos from the flight!

 

[snaffle]

icebear, Cool! Sounds like quite the life style.

 

[Paul7]

See my avatar. Couldn't resist.

 

[snaffle]

Paul, I remember when you picked her up 3 years ago. Glad to see that you are still in love.

 

[Paul7]

Paul, I remember when you picked her up 3 years ago. Glad to see that you are still in love.

Thank you, I have it on my office wall as we speak.

 

[icebear]

Either you have your own business or a very unusual employer. I don't think my former employer would have been happy if I put a rifle on my office wall.

 

[Paul7]

Either you have your own business or a very unusual employer. I don't think my former employer would have been happy if I put a rifle on my office wall.

Self-employed, home office. Nice to be able to dry fire a handgun while working. Here is it below:

 

[icebear]

Looks good.