Sweedish 1896 value

[GBEAR1]

I am trying to get some kind of idea of what a real world value is on a Sweedish 1896 rifle that a friend has for sale. I realy dont follow these but I have always admired the Sweedish mausers . Also I prefer the shorter carbines over the rifles. I have no photos of this rifle but I will try and describe it. It appears to be matching except for the bolt assy which is numbered to it self. I dont see any numbers on the barrel to know if it is matching. I did not take it apart .The bore is very nice and is marked a 2 on the brass disc. It does have a very noticable import mark on the right front side of barrel. Good looking rifle with about 75 to 80% original blue. The muzzle is not threaded. There are 2 small faint crowns behind the trigger guard. The wood is good with original finish . Small normal handling marks, dings, scratches, etc.. No rust or pitting. Used but not abused. He is wanting $250 for it which seems fair but Im not sure if I want to start with this one or just hold out for a nice crispy original carbine. . Are the real nice carbines harder to find and what do they generally go for? Thanks in advance.

[dave]

Real nice carbines are very hard to find now, altho thousands were imported. A VG matched example will cost you 800-1000 bucks, maybe 7-800 m/m. Rifles are running around 3-400 now, some minor parts (not bolt parts!) may be m/m. Most have 95%+ oringinal blue and very nice wood. Stock disk are unreliable as you have no idea when it was last inspected or if its even original to the rifle. I would get him down to 200 but it is a shooter, not a nice collector piece---too many excellent examples of these rifles exsist. To see stock and barrel numbers it must be taken apart!