…they sold out. In one day. Twice.
Let us explain that. They sent a message on 28 January to their mailing list:
Monday, February 1, we will begin accepting orders for a limited number of M1 Carbines for mail order. Two grades will be available, Service and Field. They include the following manufacturers; Inland, Winchester, IBM, Quality Hardware, Saginaw, Standard Product and Underwood. The manufacturer you receive will be luck of the draw, please no requests. Each customer is limited to one total Carbine this year. You will not be allowed to purchase both a Service and Field Grade. You may put down your first choice and second choice.
We DO NOT time stamp orders, we only date stamp them. All orders received the same day are put in one basket. Please do not call about your order. If information is needed for your order, our sales department will contact you. Be sure to complete the checklist for the order before you send it in. Questions about orders already in-house slow down our processing which means it takes longer to send out the end product. If your payment method is a check, we will not deposit your check until your order is processed. However, some orders may go on backorder. You will be contacted prior to depositing your check should your order be placed on a backorder list. To be placed on the backorder list, you must have a form of payment with your order.
There were two grades available, in a quantity of a few dozen each. (Images below are of a Service and Field grade carbine, but these rarer Saginaw-made firearms came from the CMP auction site).
M1 Carbine Service Grade: R017SERVICE $685/each Free S&H
Carbines may have been rebuilt and refinished at least once and will exhibit, in most cases, varying degrees of wear on many parts and generally nosignificant pitting on metal. Metal parts are mixed USGI. While all Carbines are USGI, some may have foreign markings. Muzzle may gauge 3 or less on muzzle gauge. Stocks may be replacement marked M2 type birch, beech pot belly or USGI walnut, but may have seen heavy use with possible rebuild or other markings. Each carbine will be shipped with an empty chamber indicator, CMP Safety Manual and a CMP reprint of FM23-37. The Carbine is also shipped in a CMP hard rifle case.
NOTE: Carbines will not be sold or shipped with magazines, slings or oilers.
M1 Carbine Field Grade: R017FIELD $625/each Free S&H
Carbines may have been rebuilt and refinished at least once and will exhibit, in most cases, varying degrees of wear on many parts. Bores may have some heavy pitting and exterior finish may show significant wear and surface pitting. Metal parts are mixed USGI. While all carbines are USGI, some may have foreign markings. Muzzle may gauge 3 or more on muzzle gauge. Stocks may be replacement marked M2 type birch, beech pot belly or USGI walnut, but may have seen heavy use with possible rebuild or other markings or repairs. Each carbine will be shipped with an Empty Chamber Indicator, CMP Safety Manual and a CMP reprint of FM23-37. The Carbine is also shipped in a CMP hard rifle case.
NOTE: Carbines will not be sold or shipped with magazines, slings or oilers.
They received enough complete orders (with eligibility information and payment) to cover all the carbines they had, except for a few dozen they’d reserved for in-store sales.
Note that we don’t have a dog in this fight, as we didn’t read any of these messages until after the sell-out had occurred.
So then they put the remainder… under 70 M1 carbines… out in their two stores at Anniston, AL (the Talladega Marksmanship Park) and Port Clinton, OH (Camp Perry) yesterday.
CMP M1 Carbine Release in CMP Stores
M1 Carbines will be released in our stores in Anniston, Alabama, and Port Clinton, Ohio, on Thursday, February 4. Since our mail orders sold out in one day, we thought it would be wise to notify our store customers that there will be less than 35 full M1 Carbines in each store. This is the extremely limited quantity referenced in our previous email. They will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. No rifles will be held. Please bring all necessary paperwork with you to the store. No agent purchases.
There may be someone who got a carbine in the store, and already had his paperwork in for a mail-order carbine, in which case he gets the one he picked out in the store, and his mail-order paperwork is void, and someone gets plucked off the back-order list. Other than that:
CMP’S Carbine Inventory has been exhausted and we do not expect to receive any additional shipments.
Expect many of them to appear on GunBroker at a $400-600 markup, CMP’s small contribution to the neckbeard contingent, which otherwise would only be able to survive on the profits of .22LR arbitrage.
CMP does have a few premium (condition, or rarity) carbines that were culled from the pack, including an M1A1, that they offer on their auction site.
Note that the prices get high (here’s a carbine bayonet that’s into the hundreds with eight days yet to go in the auction). With eight days to go, this M1A1 is over $2k (it will likely wind up much higher than that).
It’s also worthwhile to look at the auction site to see what top-notch carbines and Garands are going for, and what CMP’s Service and Field grades look like.
See what we have to look forward to on the 1911s?
IMO they should have dribbled them out for auction
I thought they were being true to their remit to offer these the way they did. That they will immediately be resold bugs me more than it probably should.
After selling a really nice Carbine I’d bought for my Bride (with all of the goodies) I had a case of the regrets a few years later and decided I wanted another one. Fortunately for me I decided I wanted a representative Korean War Carbine rather than some strictly original WWII speciment from some obscure manufacturer. Since I connsumated that deal some time ago I read my CMP notification merely with interest and not longing; I felt a bit smug because “Hey Semper Fi – I got mine!”
The aftermarket 30 round mags have left something to be desired, but the 15 rounders work well.
I think the M1 Carbines are fun though I am more of a M1 Rifle fan.
Having met some of the more hardcore carbine collectors they are truly a sad obsessive lot…almost like people who obsess over shoes, purchase them and never wear them. It is a strange lust. They truly weird me out.
I hope whoever got these carbines enjoys shooting them. They are meant to be shot.
“Inland, Winchester, IBM, Quality Hardware”
Pardon my ignorance but is that the IBM of the Selectric and the System 370?
My dad worked for IBM his whole life, I find that very interesting (assuming my guess is correct).
Boy what a different world it was back then….
Were they any good?
IBM and other typewriter manufacturers produced firearms in WW2. Which is not so weird when you think about it. Both are delicate mechanical devices. The only skill typewriter manufacturers did not have to produce a gun is to make stocks. Those were simply sourced from sub contractors. But all the machining, fitting of parts and assembly are similar between mechanical typewriters and self loading rifles.
HTH
Yes I did know about that effort, I didn’t know IBM was involved. Very interesting. Thanks!
Here’s a list of manufacturers of the M1 .30 Caliber Carbine. Underwood was also a typewriter manufacturer, and Rock-Ola made jukeboxes.
Irwin-Pedersen was created to manufacture carbines by John Pedersen, the designer.
http://uscarbinecal30m1.com/Production.aspx
I was up at the north store yesterday and got there a little after 8:00 and there were more than 100 people in front of me. They only let 30 people in the store at the time. I got in the store a little before 12:00 and all the complete carbines were gone. They originally had barreled receivers for $450 but no one was buying them so they marked them down to $150 I got an Inland with what I believe to have a good barrel which was dated 1943 Inland. The first guy to come out with a carbine said he was 24th inline and had arrived there at 11:00pm that night.
Now I need to find parts.