I ran across a Broomhandle in the local pawn shop. It's a C-96, with Chinese characters on the left side, so I assume it's one of the Chinese imports from back in the day. .30 cal. Finish isn't bad, no rust, no pitting, doesn't really look like a reblue as the original Mauser stampings are nice and sharp though I couldn't check it out that well. The bluing itself is pretty thin and typical of the Chinese ones I've seen, but not that bad. All the broomhandles I've seen at the show are reparks over highly pitted junk with, IMO, too high a price tag.

This one also comes with a new repro shoulder stock. The grips are original, well used, but look about right for the finish wear. No eveident pitting around them on the frame, but I couldn't take them off to look under.

The only problem I could find was that the safety didn't work. It just flops around. The rest of the mechanicals appear to be functionally fine.

He wanted $675 for the set-up, but went down to $575. I think that's as far down as he'll go.

The question is just how much is a Chinese broomhandle worth? How difficult will fixing the safety be? How much do those rehab/reline services run?