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CMP Scrap Sales


bayonetman
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Many of you know that the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) imported many thousands of M1905, M1, M4 and M5A1 bayonets and M3, M7 and M8A1 scabbards from Greece recently. These were sold through the CMP to raise money for their programs, especially the youth shooting programs. NOTE: They have not yet begun to sell the M1905 bayonets and M3 scabbards.

 

These are not your tax dollars! The CMP is self supporting from their sales of rifles and accessories, they do not take tax dollars. They bought these directly from Greece and imported them for these sales. The CMP does great work and deserves our complete respect and support.

 

I wrote a few Bayonet Points articles on them and more are in the works.

 

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_37.htm

 

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_38.htm

 

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_40.htm

 

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_36.htm

 

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_41.htm

 

Many thousands of the bayonets and scabbards were in very rough condition, and the CMP decided to sell them by auction in bulk boxes this month. For more information, see: http://www.odcmp.com/Sales/scrap.htm They are also selling M1 rifle stocks and M1903A3 Drill Rifles as part of the auction.

 

To give you an idea of what is being sold, I am posting a few photos taken from the auction site.

 

M1.jpg

 

M5A1.jpg

 

M7.jpg

 

M8A1.jpg

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In most of the photos of the auction lots, the number of bayonets in each lot can be seen. I went through and did a quick add and found there are ABOUT (plus or minus 10%) 30,000 M1 bayonets and 9,000 M5A1 bayonets in the auction. Too lazy right now to count the scabbards.

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somebody with deep pockets are going to make a killing. Robert

 

In most of the photos of the auction lots, the number of bayonets in each lot can be seen. I went through and did a quick add and found there are ABOUT (plus or minus 10%) 30,000 M1 bayonets and 9,000 M5A1 bayonets in the auction. Too lazy right now to count the scabbards.

 

Robert, maybe...maybe not. I think what's going to happen is that you are going to find them dirt-cheap at every gun show and it's going to be hard to get your money out of them. What I'm a little leery of is the effect that it's going to have on the price of M1 bayonets. Unless the ones in your collection are in pristine condition, this is going to devalue them. What are your thoughts on that, Gary?

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I'm glad I got all the M1 bayonets I wanted, along with M5/M5A1, plus the scabbards. Ever since the CMP started selling those, I've seen them hit the auction spots with inflated opening bids/buy it now prices. They are not hard to spot, and certainly some of them are worth the asking price. However, I think that some enterprising dealers will buy the auction lots, set up a small shop to rebuild them, and then hit the market with highly inflated prices. It remains to see how this works out, but as gunbarrel opines they will most likely drive down the prices of those less than pristine bayonets. On the other hand, the value of uncommon and minty shape M1s may actually rise; this sale will have no effect on the Wilde Tool bayonets, for example, and the greater availability may bring new collectors into the fold.

After the CMP sold 30,000 M1 carbines returned from Italy, the price of shooter carbines dropped from $600-700 to $500-600, but now the prices are rising as old and new collectors try to acquire certain manufacturers carbines. And original carbines are still highly valued, despite the flood of Italian-returned carbines. I suspect that the bayonets and scabbards will follow the same route.

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