Colt 6520-LE Government Carbine Semi-Auto Rifle Kit, AR15, 16" 1/7 Twist Barrel, M16A2 Sights, 5.56NATO *Very Good*

Might be some good stuff in here.

https://www.apexgunparts.com/colt-6520-government-carbine-semi-auto-kit-5-56mm-16-1-7-twist-barrel-upper-vg.html

I was super excited until I saw it was 649$

What? Ya think it's 2010 with all those nice cheap A1 kits? WE WISH!

Certainly not a steal but not too bad if you add it all up. Right at market value IMO.

$250ish for the Colt barrel.
$200ish for the Colt upper
$100ish for the FA BCG complete
$50 for the colt LPK

There's $600 right there.

If you get a Colt set of 6 holers there's $60.

How much is a complete Colt M4 stock set going for?

Too rich for my blood but not a bad deal for someone in a hurry!

I paid $630 for a complete 6520 rifle two months ago.

I payed almost exactly the same. These complete rifles go for under 700 on gunbroker all the time.

Paid $500 and change for a PD trade in 6520 a few years ago. Restricted marked mid 90’s rifle with an N/1 stock too. That price is way too high. Why are they demilling semi auto rifles anyways.

That particular PD probably requires the weapons they get rid of to be destroyed.

That's probably a good guess actually.

Still an unreasonable price when you can get complete rifles for the same price.

You are right. A quick search on GB shows they are well north of a grand.

Bought one last month for $640 on gunbroker and the other poster said 630 two months ago... have seen a few more in the 650-750 range recently as well.

A quick search turned up at least two on gunbroker right now with buy it now prices under 800 and another that has no bids and will probably go in the 700s as well. If you are patient you can get one for less.

You must be looking at a totally different Gun Broker

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/773862095

795 buy it now

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/774462492

750 buy it now

*if not coming with colt handguards is a concern those surefire handguards sell for a good bit more than skinny Colts, so it's an easy trade and you may make a buck on it.

This one's even Diemaco:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/774637489

I would much rather spend an extra $100 and get one of these:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/773165905

Actual military A2 parts kit...

The kits sold out in 2 days,  don't know how many Apex had but if  it was from a decent sized  police department inventory,  that was fast.
I guess the price wasn't too bad for the market.

I was wondering if they swapped t the trigger and sear out from auto triggers and auto sear for compliance reasons/fears. If so then were the semi-kits  still full colt parts or mixed for anything replaced in possible auto-NFA land.  Was there an official statement posted to what semi was about on redit or somewhere else?

In reference to the ""   Apex sells kits mainly,  so easier maybe?  Disassembly had to have some profit motivation or rules driving it.  With no auto parts that means more states & less restrictions.  If the lower receivers were semi(not with the evil third hole) , they could make bank on ban states based on age.  If so they would have double the incentive to sell rifle as kit then sell all lowers into those states separately. A lot of people that are  less civilized than the retro crowd, see the receiver as just being anything from  a "poverty pony" on upwards is good enough.

Also People seem to be  jumping on A-2 receivers as the new retro/iron sight must have. They're still available in mass supply, and splurge onto the market as departments upgrade. Which are cheaper than real A-1 uppers and easier to find parts for less for the masses.

I'm just assuming that people don't know about the other stuff on Gun Broker and just see the email ad that I saw and was like wow cool I'm going to get that. If I didn't buy a 520 upper literally a week before, I would've thought that was a good buy. I paid half that for just the upper without handguards.

It's very unlikely any of these kits were full auto, and the only FA parts in them are the carriers, which is standard.  None would be "preban" either as they came with waffle stocks, which didn't start until the early 2000's.  I get what you're saying, and I guess it's likely the department required the "firearm" aka lowers be destroyed upon disposition.  I'm glad they sold them, but I'd have a real hard time paying that kind of money for a used parts kit.  You can get into a complete Colt 6720 for a few bucks more if you're not dead set on the A2 upper.

It's an odd twist I've noticed over the years with FALs, AKs and a few other firearms, to boot: the whole is sometimes worth less than the sum of the parts.  Buy a $600 rifle, strip it, then sell the parts separately for $900.

Shhh, save the SP1s

Not really unusual.
Even cars worth more if sold in parts..

I ordered the kit and it came by UPS nicely boxed and packed  in 2 days.  The bonus was they sent me an extra set of handguards--the skinny 6-hole variety!  So why did I order this when perhaps I could get the whole rifle for less as some have pointed out?  First off, it's a pain to have to order it on line and go FFL to FFL and maybe pay a fee to pick it up.  But the real reason is, since I got my ghost gunner mill I have a few extra lowers that are pretty darn nice (the others I had to throw away) and need to be matched with decent uppers.  Now some of these lowers are NDS A1 80%ers that went to Braceman first, are nicely and properly engraved, milled, and are already destined for A1 uppers, but others are just "plain jane" (sorry, Jane) A2 lowers looking for a mate, so I thought why not?  So I'm happy I ordered this since it fits in well with my build plans and I got a nice extra set of 6-hole HGs that I wasn't expecting!  Hmmm, what can I put those on?  Guess I'll have to see which NDS 80% lowers are still available.

There is a member on here that I see at many gun shows buying up every SP1 he can get his hands on, simply to strip them down and sell the parts on Gun Broker (including some nice original early weapons).

That sucks, but dare I say that forums like this and cloners drive that market... so I guess we are all to blame

I think I know who you are talking about.

I mean I have bought an upper or two that had a part on it I wanted and stripped the upper apart and sold the other parts, but doing an entire gun is a different thing.

Actually, there are (at least) two members here who do that.  It is their right, and I am not trying to pass judgement, it is just disheartening to see all original weapons broken down.  I sold a rifle last year and calculated that I could get as much as $1000 more by stripping it down for parts, but I am too much into history and could not destroy an original rifle.  That being said, if I got my hands on some pre ban "Franken" builds, I would have no problem stripping them down so that their original parts could be repurposed for correct retro builds. The sad thing is that I don't believe either one of these members has ANY interest in retro AR's, other than for profit.  Neither one ever posts build questions or photos.

The one I ordered came today.  The upper isn't c marked. Keyhole marked only. Diemaco marked carrier and the bolt is marked mpd / j3090

Bummer that the upper isn't C marked, but at least you got a Diemaco bolt, that's pretty cool