I made a bit of money buying and selling "sporterized" milsurps back in the 80's and 90's. My job as a over the road sales rep put me in the position to visit gun and pawn shops over an imense area... MO, IL, KY, TN, MS, AR, KS, and IA. The guns I was looking for were Bubbaized already with little or no collectors value. We either used the receivers to make custom rifles, or just cleaned them up and sold them as is.

Then I discovered Moisin's. There was a place in VA where I could buy Moisins 3 for $100, shipped. Some of these were pristine and looked unissued. I sold them for $75 each. At the time there were zero SP hunting rounds available. I bought a puller, a press, dies, a set of sales, and replaced the FMJ bullets with SP's of the same weight and diameter.

At one time I sold 2, 3lb coffee cans full of the FMJ's for $10. Then I discovered the 3 for $150 used SKS's. That is a whole different subject.