Gew 88 Carbine

[Alan Smith]

A year or more ago I was shown a Gew 88 carbine by a co-worker, who indicated that the gun belonged to her elderly father. The co-worker took the gun home and, before I could begin negotiations to acqire it, her father misplaced it. The co-worker has just informed me that she has now located the gun (hidden under a bed in a second home the family owns) and wishes to sell it to me.

If I recall correctly, this particular Gew 88 carbine was produced by Amberg arsenal. Interestingly, the receiver is dated 1890/91 which, I think, indicates a receiver produced in 1890 but not assembled into a final product until 1891. The Gew 88 has all matching numbered parts and has unit markings on the left side of the middle barrel band. The Gew 88 has the "S" marking on the receiver to denote upgrade to the later type of 7.92mm service round

Unfortunately, many decades ago someone ground off the "horns" that protect the front sight. Also, the floorplate is missing from the magazine assembly (which, I think, is pretty common on the 88 series of rifles/carbines). The finish on the gun is a nice brown patina. Overall the gun show no signs of abuse, rust or other damage and the stock is nicely proofed.

Anyone have any rough ideas as to what this gun would be worth here in the U.S? Also, any possibility I might find a replacement for the front sight "horn" assembly (and/or source of repair for the matching numbered original), as well as a replacement original floorplate?

IMO the 88 carbines are super cute little guns, so I'm excited about the prospect of acquiring this one and putting it back together. Also, I did not record the unit markings when I examined it a year or so ago, but it will be exciting to research the unit's involvment in WWI.

Any information and/or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Tim Schreiner]

Standard 88s would be $200 give or take. Carbines would be more.

[phild]

I have encountered a fair number of K88's with the front sight ears ground off. I think that this was often done by the big importer A.L. Frank and offered as an option to buyers of these surplus carbines. Many of these were surplused off shortly before the First World War.

The front sights with ears are very hard to find in my opinion/experience.

The magazines did not have floorplates as these were loaded in clips that stayed in the rifle until the last round was chambered and then fell out thru the bottom opening.

It is a high chance that the Kar in question will be marked to a Chavaleger unit of Bavaria and will be marked "C" or "Ch" ....Rgt# etc...

I agree that these are nice firearms and are getting more difficult to find and afford...like everything else! Decent ones will be valued at $500 to $1000 in my opinion. The ground ears will impact the value somewhat, but hard to say how much. I would say depending on how nice the stock is and the conditon of the markings in the wood and the metal condition you should not go over the $500 mark with the ground sight ears...less would of course be better. She will do well to get $200 from any dealer.

A LOT of these were converted into sporting style rifles in the first half of the 20th century.

[GWA]

KAR88's are cool little rifles. Most that I have seen were Bavarian unit marked, either to Chevalegers or Uhlans. I presently have four in my collection, three marked to the 2nd Bavarian Uhlans and one to the 16th Dragoons. Current pricing seems to hover around $500, but five years ago a really good example would bring an easy $1000.

[Alan Smith]

Guys,

Thanks for all the good information - I appreciate your input.

By way of correction, last night when I got home from work I found a few notes I had taken about the 88 carbine. According to my notes it was made at Erfurt (not Amberg) and the chamber date would be reflected as "1890.91" rather than "1890/91". Just wanted to make these minor corrections for clarity's sake.

Hopefully the rifle should arrive on Monday (8/21) after my co-worker has had the weekend to travel to her second home and retrieve it.

Also, I've been meaning to join as a full member for a long time, so this acquisition will prompt me to do so and post photos.

Again, thanks for the information.

[Alan Smith]

Follow-up to GWA's Post:

That's interesting to note that prices of the Kar88's have, based on your experiences, dropped a good bit over the past few years. Any idea why/how this happened? More guns on the market? Less collectors interested in Imperial German stuff?

Just wondering about the cause of the price shift, as I see all the time folks treating the market for collectable guns just like residental real estate has been in the past few years, i.e. assuming that prices always increase and values never decline.

BTW: I've never subscribed to the ever increasing value theory for collectable guns; too many variables going on out there. Like an investment advisor remarked to me one time: if the government has its way (this was during the Clinton years) all those collectable guns may be worth exactly $50 each, i.e. whatever the buy-back price is when you have to turn them in to govt.org.

Admittedly, the investment advisor's observation is an extreme example of one of the variables impacting the price of collectable firearms. It does, however, make me feel better about my own approach to collecting: I acquire items solely because I love to collect these pieces of history - the monetary value means nothing to me (other than how much I have to scrape up to acquire the next item for my collection).

[phild]

I can not say that I have seen any decline in the selling price of these K88's. The situation has always been that there are not enough of these on the market to really pinpoint exact selling price trends. Many if not most have some sort of problems that will impact the value. Many, for example, have ground sight ears, many have sanded stocks and modified stocks, many are total mismatched and many more still are partial mis-match.

I have seen all of the above hit $500 and in some cases more. It really depends on how a particular example strikes the buyer and this is true of about everything...but maybe more so the case with these.

I too feel that there is too much investment fever in guns and militaria, however I don't think that gun control to the extent of confiscation is likley in my lifetime. Nor do I think that what ever additional measures that may pass in the next 20 years will bring prices down. In the past more impositions on ownership have increased prices.

If I could have bought decent Kar88's for the price of 10 to 15 tanks of gas 30 years ago, I would have bought every one that I could have found! That would not have been many, because I doubt that I found more than 5 for sale between 1967 and 1980!

[archer]

Deleted because of link failure

[archer]

Looks like the image failed so here's the site.
http://www.deactivated-guns.co.uk/detail/Gew_88_carbine.htm[/IMG]