Hand Picked, Worth It?

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AFA1CY.curioandrelicfi...	Hand Picked, Worth It?	Lead	[-]
Posts: 1 (11/23/08 10:26 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Thinking of buying a Mosin from one of the large well known dealers. Is the hand pick option worth the extra $$$?
Highpower		#1	[-]
Posts: 924 (11/23/08 10:33 AM) Veteran member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends on who's doing the picking......... --------------------------- He who lives by the sword, should go out and get a really nice sword.
harris hawk		#2	[-]
Posts: 140 (11/23/08 11:09 AM) active member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	AFA1CY wrote: Thinking of buying a Mosin from one of the large well known dealers. Is the hand pick option worth the extra $$$? No, unless you have SPECIFIC requirements that you want/need in your collection, and they have it. JMO. Michael
eb in oregon		#3	[-]
Posts: 358 (11/23/08 12:29 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've had a 50/50 experience with "hand pick." Before you do that call the distributor/dealer and ask them about their hand pick option. I bought a MN 91/30 from J&G with the hand pick and it turned out to be counter-bored. When I called I was told that all in that batch were counter-bored and that mine was picked for appearance. Well, that wasn't worth the extra $10.00 that time. Come to think of it, it wasn't worth it for the CZ M-82 I got last month either. It's a crap shoot. Eric "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." Benjamin Franklin, July 4 1776
Ed Novak		#4	[-]
Posts: 1726 (11/23/08 12:46 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Does anyone really know what the "hand-pick" option involves, say from SOG? I've heard several times that it means that, for instance, SOG's employees will select the rifle with the best appearance from the next pallet but that information has come from postings on various fora. Several weeks ago I posted my disappointment with an M39 from "a large volume seller" which had several very narrow splits in the fore end area. What to do? Send it back and hope for a better piece of wood, give in and pay the $10 hand-pick fee the second time around? My confidence level in the hand-pick/crap shoot was such that I elected to keep the rifle and send it out to have the splits stabilized - which Eric did very nicely for a modest fee. Still, the shipping and repair costs added significantly to investment cost of the rifle. I don't, for reasons of time/distance/$ have the option to see and hold the rifles I buy before purchase. The rifle with the best appearance coming off the pallet may be a piece of junk which happens to look nice - it has often been said that outward appearance is a reasonably good clue about the working-parts of the firearm. Maybe. Lots of variables are possible with refurbished rifles.
AFA1CY.curioandrelicfi...		#5	[-]
Posts: 2 (11/23/08 12:52 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The way I understand it is they pick the next 5 from the pallet and then select the best from those.
Ed Novak		#6	[-]
Posts: 1727 (11/23/08 01:05 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ok, 5. Devil's advocate; what if there are only 5 remaining on the pallet, all the previous rifles on the pallet having been picked over? Maybe I will try to email SOG and ask how the hand-pick works for their sales.
Pahtu		#7	[-]
Posts: 2145 (11/23/08 02:51 PM) Veteran member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I would not bother with the handpick fee - What one person views as excellent could be totally different from what another thinks is excellent...ect, ect...Not worth the time or $$ Pahtu.
Kowsky Raider	Hand Pick?	#8	[-]
Posts: 79 (11/23/08 03:56 PM) active member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hand pick is mostly useless. Who's picking? What ? When? Where? To many variables. Some rifles are already boxed up for shipping. I recently ordered a pistol,they asked "hand pick/" I declained and I got an excellent one. Another customer chose the option and got a POS. Go figure! Kowsky Raider.
eagle7		#9	[-]
Posts: 3665 (11/23/08 04:17 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	SOG defines handpick as the best of the next five rifles that come off the pallet. If all five are in nice condition and the warehouse guy knows what he's doing you'll get an excellent gun. If the next five guns off the pallet are dogs, you'll get the least trashed out gun. If the person making the pick is not a stellar individual, you'll get whatever he wants to give you. Jumping on a new shipment is better than selecting the best of the dregs that are left over from an old shipment. Who knows how many of those guns are returns?
Ed Novak		#10	[-]
Posts: 1728 (11/23/08 04:55 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	With shipping costs being what they are and if a buyer was unhappy 2 - 3 times...? Or, having paid the hand-pick fee, a buyer may feel that he/she got the best available and is less willing to return the firearm?
Pahtu		#11	[-]
Posts: 2146 (11/24/08 01:31 AM) Veteran member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"SOG defines handpick as the best of the next five rifles that come off the pallet." When I first started collecting, there was an old phrase floating about on the forums when dealing with SOG..... "I got Sogged" Nuff said..... "With shipping costs being what they are and if a buyer was unhappy 2 - 3 times...? Or, having paid the hand-pick fee, a buyer may feel that he/she got the best available and is less willing to return the firearm?" Some reputable outfits would take the time & honor requests for handpick - Ya know, barrel condition, year of manufacturing, cartouche, etc. Some of the larger outfits hire minimum wage folks who have no clue what a double dated MO rifle with a hex receiver, pristine barrel with no CB.....looks like...? Huh...what.....? Hey Earl hustle up pickin out that rifle...so you get the best looking one out of five....good luck on the other features you paid extra for.... Shipping? You can bet with the high price of shipping, the larger wholesaler will not pay shipping on returned rifles....they simply cannot eat the price of shipping with rifles(MN's) that sell for so little. Pahtu.
zeebill		#12	[-]
Posts: 3359 (11/24/08 06:32 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	As you can say the opinions vary about as much as the effect of handpicking! We have probably all been burned by it and profited by it it at one time or another. Myself the only had picking I do is with my own two hands and my own two eyes. I rarely if ever buy from any mail order firms of any kind in any way so that solves the question period! Even if buying from another collector we have or will eventually all find ourselves on the losing end of deals. When that happens I just no longer buy or trade with the one who laid it on me. My list at this time in life has gotten fairly long and most if not all of what I buy is in the first person! I look at it and I touch it or I got to know and trust who I buy it from and yeah I still get burned occasionally. Don't cry over spilled milk but remember what and how you got it and was it as expected. The book is long but the wants are getting shorter so I am satisfied with what has come down. Bill
mini neb		#13	[-]
Posts: 43 (11/24/08 09:15 AM) active member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hello there: A friend went up to Springfield Sporters back in the '60s to shop. He was walking around and saw a rack of K98s a worker was filling orders with, taking a 98 here, 98 or two there and boxing them up. Over the loud speaker some one said "two hand picked 98s". The worker went over and "hand picked" the next two in line for that order. Gives me cause for hand picking... As to SOG, I ordered a No5 Mk I Enfield from them not hand picked. The carbine I recived wasn't too bad if you looked past the moon craters in the bore, pitting under the wood and missing rear sling swivel. I called them up and asked if I could return it and said I guess I should of went with the hand picked fee. The very nice lady on the phone said don't worry. The carbine that came back was soo much better!!!
m1 talker		#14	[-]
Posts: 6242 (11/24/08 11:17 AM) Veteran member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I knew a guy I met at the range several years ago. He told me that he had a summer and holiday season working for one of the large distributors in Ohio. I asked him about the hand pick option and he said they mostly had untrained kids working part time doing the picking of the firearms out of the storage bins. He said it all really depended on the individual who did the "hand picking" He was pretty good about it, as he has been around firearms for a long time. But when it comes down to the truth of the matter, all rifles are "hand picked" from the storage bins. If you paid the hand select fee, then normally you have better chances of returning a rifle for a better one if it does not suit you. If you call them about a rifle you got, but don't like, the first thing they ask is whether you paid the hand select fee or not. Curt
BobM14		#15	[-]
Posts: 481 (11/24/08 02:46 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I would agree that you never know what you'll get from a big distributor, hand pick or not. But I admit that I am a "condition freak". I very much enjoy the history of the weapons but I can also appreciate a nice example. The "history" of a couple stock repairs or split handguard and missing chunk of wood from "bullet strike" (or fallin off the truck) is history I'm not all that interested in. So for me, the chance of getting a better condition piece for an extra "$10" is well worth it. As mentioned, there is a chance you will still get a mutt, but the chance is at least equal that you will get a better mutt than otherwise. I prefer to check out offerings in person or at least from an auction site where pictures and questions of condition can be addressed, but for those that would rather get something cheaper from distributors sales fliers and take their chances with whatever you end up getting, I think the "hand pick" is just about your only choice to influence the result in any way.... Armed Infidel
goodgun		#16	[-]
Posts: 1 (11/29/08 05:10 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think handpicked means they use one of their hands to pik up one from the pile
duster.curioandrelicfi...		#17	[-]
Posts: 3 (11/30/08 02:53 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I bought a hex 91-30 from SOG and paid the handpick and ended up with an excellent ex-dragoon. Then I ordered an CZ82 and also paid the handpick and ended up with a like new pistol. May be the luck of the draw but I'm glad I paid it.
Pahtu		#18	[-]
Posts: 2151 (11/30/08 07:47 PM) Veteran member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	duster, with that kind of luck, I would have paid extra also... Pahtu.
jungle jim		#19	[-]
Posts: 272 (11/30/08 11:24 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Over the years I have always bought hand picked rifles and pistols from Linda at AIM. I have always been totally happy with the results. IMHO it is always worth the extra money. Few Things Beat Quality Time The Trigger Jim
craigsd.curioandrelicfi...		#20	[-]
Posts: 1 (12/07/08 08:59 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have always paid the hand select fee at S.O.G. and have gotten 6 different mosins and they ranged from very nice to beautiful..well worth the few bucks extra..