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Could be a good deal, could be not so good, new ones are selling in the $600.00 range and some of the collectors are up there, but some of the surplus ones, like ones that have been rebuilt, maybe more than once, would be down toward the $300.00 end.

There are several excellent sites dedicated to M1 Carbines http://www.surplusrifle.com/m1carbine/index.asp and http://www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/carbine/carbine.pl are a couple.

From my own less than perfect knowledge (I have an M1 Carbine that my grandpappy gave me and I wouldn't trade or sell it for the world.) a couple of things you could look for would be: Obvious wear and tear; a "shotgun" type safety (push through the trigger guard) rather than a turn type; A flip type rear sight; no bayonette lug.

The last three above are indicators of early manufacture and may make a gun more desireable as a collector.