Y'all remember this little toy?

My buddy Dave told me about a rifle a while back that a friend of his wanted to sell. I went up to Gatesville and identified the rifle as a Chinese copy of a Russian Dragunov Snipers rifle and told them it was worth about $2000. Then I came home and Googled it and found out they were really selling for about $4000! I decided to try to put a bid in. Told them I'd give them $1500 for it. That was about a month ago. There've been some interesting twists and turns in the story since then.

Things started out with me being the only bidder on the rifle. Dave was acting as my agent, contacting the owner on my behalf and tellin' them I wanted the rifle and a few of the sealed tins of 7.62x54 yellow tip ammo that they had layin' around. I really didn't want to spend that kind of money on the gun but felt like a fool if I didn't even try to get it for such a low price. When the hell will I ever see this sort of opportunity again?

Well, within a few weeks another bidder materialized. Another friend of Dave's from Gatesville. This guy offered $1800 for the rifle, so I reluctantly upped my bid to match him. Thing is, Dave told me that this guy really wanted the gun but couldn't afford to give them the $1800. He thought that when the time came this guy would back out and I'd end up with the gun. I reluctantly pledged $1800 and then a week or so later, Dave called and told me that this other guy had wrecked his truck and needed to get it fixed and now was talking about backing out of the bidding entirely.

I was like, "Fuck! Now they think I'm gonna pay them $1800! Thanks a whole friggin' lot Dave." He was very apologetic and told me he was backin' out and didn't want to be my go-between any more. Hell, I wasn't upset or anything. I REALLY didn't want to spend even $1500 for this friggin' gun. It'd be cool to have it but I don't have the $1500 or $1800 just layin' around any more than that other guy did.

Well, the auction was held in Gatesville over the last two weekends. Dave went over there for me and would call me to tell me if anything happened. They had the gun on sale for about $2200 but no one was showing much interest. I figured I'd just wait till it was all over and then swoop in and offer them $1500 and walk away with it. Turns out though, it wasn't to be.

In the end, another bidder showed up totally out of the blue and paid them $2000, on the very last day of the bidding. Dave called and told me and we both were in shock. Best laid plans eh? In reflection, I was actually happy for them, relieved that I wasn't going to have to cash a credit card check and go deeper into debt for a rifle I don't need. At the last minute I'd actually thought that if they didn't sell it in the auction I'd offer to take it up to Dallas this weekend (There's a huge Gun Show this weekend up there) and walk around Market Hall and see if I could sell it for them.

So, in the end I was happy to hear that they got so much for the gun. They got what I told them the gun was worth. I know they're happy and I KNOW the guy who got the gun is happy. I'd love to have a rifle like that but I'm glad I didn't put another $1800 on my credit card, so everyone came out a winner. Good times.

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It's Friday, so you probably know what the plan is. We're gonna head over to Temple tonight and take Mom out to eat somewhere. She's still dealing with the bank and all the government agencies, telling everyone that Dad died and figuring out how much her Social Security and Air Force pension will be. It's incredibly frustrating for her, not knowing how everything will work out, trying to get everything switched over to her name and filling out lots of forms. I wish I could get it all done for her but she's doing a wonderful job all on her own.

As I said before, there's a huge gun show in Dallas this weekend. Denise and I have a reservation at the Hyatt for Saturday night. We're gonna drive up to Ft. Worth Saturday morning and spend the afternoon with Jim and Terry and then head over and get our room in the evening. The plan is to head over to the Hoffbrau Steak place in the West End and eat dinner. Maybe listen to some good music somewhere around there. Then we'll sleep in and hit the Gun Show on Sunday.

It should be a good time. I'll tell ya how everything went down later on. You guys have a great weekend and we'll talk in a few. Cheers.