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I was talking with a friend of mine who at times participates in these government auctions. I mentioned to him that there's a possibility to make a real killing if these auctions close at $60-70 a piece for the bayonets. He pointed out a few things that I didn't consider and I thought I'd share them here so people don't think that the guys buying and selling from these auctions are screwing the collectors:
1.) Sales tax, sometimes as high as 9.5% gets added to the sale
2.) Most of the auctions have a buyers premium, usually 10%
3.) Packaging and shipping costs
4.) There is always about 10% of the lot that is broken or junk, unsuitable for resale
5.) It's the luck of the draw as to what you receive. Could be Phrobis, LanCay, Lan-Cay or Ontario, or even a number of M7s mixed in with the M9s.
So by the time the winning bidder has the bayonets in his possession they are at a base price of somewhere around $100. Then they all have to be cleaned up and either put on ebay (with costs to post and to sell) or lugged around to shows. So in the long run it looks to me like you can make somewhere around $20-30 on a bayonet if you're lucky and place no $$ value on your time.
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