It's 1990 and you have $500.00 to burn. What do you buy?

A 16ga Fox Sterlingworth.

Or maybe Apple stock.

I was 9 so lots of comic books and ice cream.

Bets on the 1991 Super bowl. Then I could afford what I wanted.

A truckload of milsurps.

It was 1990 and I did have money to burn... I bought a new bright polished Colt King Cobra for $335 and a Mosin for $49. I wasn't speculating on future values and had no plans to sell....I still have them both.

If my memory is correct, $500 did not buy a lot of gun back in the early 1990's. Where I live, we were paying close to $1000 for a Bushmaster XM-15 at the LGS. Colt Pythons were certainly going for more than $500. Chinese AK's were probably going for at least $300.

...$500 in .22LR ammo.
Sell it in the recent banic for 50x what I paid for it.

Two scenarios. One, buy what you want to keep. Two, buy what will have high resale value in 2017.

1) Another Win. 94 in .44 Mag., Colt Python, Remington 870. All are good guns, could be had at reasonable prices then. Now, they are either out of production or increased in price.

2) Russian SKS rifles. I bought a few back then for a hundred bucks each. The Chinese models don't seem to have gone up as much, but the Russians are now worth high three hundreds in good condition with the supplied accessories.

It was 1990 and about that time I purchased a nearly mint Winchester 1886 takedown extra lightweight rifle, with pistol grip, in .45-70. I still have it and I have at least quadrupled my $2000 investment.

I didn't buy my own guns until 1992. From 1992 to 1994 I bought a new Norinco SKS, a new Ruger GP100, and a new Marlin 39AS for not much more than the numbers set in the the first post.

I still have them all.

Apple, Google, Amazon...

A brick of .22 was what, $10 or less back in the day? That's at least 50 bricks. Sell it at the height of the panic, clean up.

Buy shares in Apple.

Then some "Back to The Future 2"-style nefarious professional gambling.

Crack. It was big.

1911 guy said:

Two scenarios. One, buy what you want to keep. Two, buy what will have high resale value in 2017.

1) Another Win. 94 in .44 Mag., Colt Python, Remington 870. All are good guns, could be had at reasonable prices then. Now, they are either out of production or increased in price.

2) Russian SKS rifles. I bought a few back then for a hundred bucks each. The Chinese models don't seem to have gone up as much, but the Russians are now worth high three hundreds in good condition with the supplied accessories.

Click to expand...

You kidding? The Russian SKSs sell for over $600 these days, they've gone up a lot! That's why I would have bought several in 1990 if I could!

500 bucks worth of surplus magazines, then sell them in early 2013 for 70 a pop.

Cooldill said:

You kidding? The Russian SKSs sell for over $600 these days, they've gone up a lot! That's why I would have bought several in 1990 if I could!

Click to expand...

I would never pay 600 for a Russian SKS. I just bought one practically unfired for 350 about two years ago. Granted that was a good deal, but 400 would have been average. Just because people are ASKING 600 doesn't mean that's what they're getting.

I did buy a MAK 90 in 1994 for $299. It was a POJ (piece of "junk" ) then and still a POJ in the 2008 timeframe when I sold it. I still like my Norinco SKS bought a few months before the MAK.

The ban is just around the corner. I more than doubled my investment in a HK rifle in two years.

In 1990 (without hindsight) I did not want an AK because my Trapper .30-30 was as powerful, very much lighter, shorter, at least as accurate, at least as reliable and I saw no use for suppressive fire from a lone rifleman. (Who exploits whatever advantage is obtained?) Today my Trapper is worth about what I paid but decent AK's have appreciated a good deal. I'm still right about a rifleman working alone.

Without hindsight, I bought a Germany-made SIG P220 that cost a lot by the standards of the day, and am still looking for the customer who appreciates that it is better than the American production, despite that it is stamped out not forged. I got skunked on value but it shoots like a dream.

With hindsight (if you had said 1986 this would have been much easier) Swedish Mausers were cheap and Mosins were half that.

So I would have saved my $500 for the Bitcoin bubble.

As many good condition used K-frames as I could for $500. Pretty flexible on model, caliber, and barrel length.

WW2 parts kits with barrels intact.

Used HK 91's and P7's for an investment. Personal use a S&W ASP/Devel 9mm for deep concealed carry.

This is from the March 1, 1994 issue of Shotgun News, closest I had to 1990, but it still shows how things have changed. Just remember that these were FFL dealers prices. But even with dealer markup there were deals to be had.

22250Rem said:

View attachment 234027 This is from the March 1, 1994 issue of Shotgun News, closest I had to 1990, but it still shows how things have changed. Just remember that these were FFL dealers prices. But even with dealer markup there were deals to be had.

Click to expand...

That ad reminds me of the Swedish 1896 I bought myself in 1995 for $80 for my 30th birthday. Once the surplus ammo was gone, finding cheap ammo was impossible back then.

In fact most of my first guns were bought for myself on my birthday.

I was buying guns in 1990 (and long before). I don't remember having $500 to burn back then.

It appears that my options are about the same now as then. Even though the amount of disposable income has increased, the value for stray dollars spent is pretty much the same as then.