The surplus ones seem to be more reasonable in price if you're quick enough on the draw when they come up for sale. The one that went for $505 last week probably wasn't a bad deal considering what some of the commercial ones have gone for. These guns ARE out there for reasonable prices but you have to be extremely dedicated in your search - scour gunbroker multiple times a day, search armslist and online classifieds and you will come across one eventually that won't break the bank.
I snagged a surplus CZ 83 in .32 for $289 BIN on gunbroker back in early-December. I bet it was only up an hour or so before I bought it. Dirtiest gun i've ever bought with carbon caked everywhere on the inside (looked like it had never been cleaned), but I did a 100% teardown and replaced the springs while i was at it and it cleaned up nicely.
I also managed to find a non-surplus 2012 production late last year for the collection, and the only way i got it was making an offer to someone who posted on another board who had one he was preparing to sell, and was looking to gauge the value of it. I made him an offer that was fair to both him and me which he accepted. My idea was to give him a good enough price that he wouldn't feel compelled to list it on gunbroker where I would have to compete against 20 other people who wanted the same gun.
I think that $1300 for one of these is just ridiciulous, but the fact of the matter is that the CZ 83 has now been out or regular production for 4+ years, save for the small release of them last year, and the supply of them is now fixed. The supply of .32s was small even when CZ was still producing them, and no one wanted them. The NIB nickel .380 that the same seller of the $1300 .32 had listed went for $700 itself. A year ago I rarely saw a nickel 83 in .380 go for above $400. I think we will continue to see prices rise across the board for 83's, especially when the supply of surplus ones completely dries up. It would be nice if CZ would do one final run of 83's in .32, but I wonder if the demand is even there for a full production order of them.
