Have a line on a Century M1.  

Considering buying it and making the receiver a desk toy and selling the parts.

It varies.

I bought a kit 8 years ago, minus the receiver and barrel, paid $325 for it.  Had all USGI parts.

Last year, I bought a M1 Drill rifle, complete with all USGI parts for $75.  It needs a barrel, receiver, and trigger components.  Everything else is there though.

Saw a complete USGI Garand with a sewer pipe import marked barrel sell for $468+tax at a gunshop recently. Way less than the value of the receiver and the salvageable parts IMO.

As USGI Garand receivers are scarce and most Garand parts are not, the Century rifle in question would need to be cheap or loaded with rare parts or preferably both.

Additionally Garand parts prices are down right now and even some more uncommon parts seem like they aren't moving all that fast when fairly priced.

Good luck on the project. Some of the Century builds had great barrels on them. A friend of mine has one that was built with a NOS Danish barrel.

Of course, some other Century builds had barrels that didn't fit CMP rack grade specs.

Only a very few sources you can trust for in-spec or NOS parts, the CMP being one.

If you're just wanting a 'shooter' M1, and aren't picky about particular parts or collectibility, your best deal is still the $650 or $750 CMP Rack Grade and Field Grade Specials.

They're built for guys who want to shoot  -  starting with a USGI receiver mated to a new Criterion barrel and wearing new, tight-fitting Dupage wood, the other parts also being in-spec USGI.

The re-parked receiver will show some amount of 'pitting above the wood-line,' but is otherwise in-spec. For a great 'shooter' M1, the receiver's cosmetics are really superfluous.

More good advice. The worst rack grade special I have seen photos of looked more like heavy sandblasting before repark than "pitting above the wood line"-meaning not bad at all. I'm set to have a loan paid off by April. Planning to celebrate with another CMP order by July.