Lugermeister,

My advice, offered entirely FWIW.

Drop your budget for your first Luger to a max of $1200. If you spend 2,000 + USD on your first Luger a time will likely come that you will bitterly regret it.

Buy a shooter as your first Luger and a collector quality gun later, after you have more market experience.

Avoid Guns International, Guns America, Simpsons, and concentrate on the sites like Gun Broker. Spend a lot of time querying and reviewing closed auctions where Lugers that interest you have actually sold. That will educate you on the difference between asking price and selling price, and provide a good idea of what people are actually paying.

Lastly, here are a couple of Luger to look over:

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/708280359

That's an East German refurbished Third Reich era Luger. Contrary to the seller's description, it is not DDR police marked and is unlikely that it was ever a VoPo gun. My sense is it came out of the DDR either shortly after the Reunification (in which case it will be import marked) or is a personal bring back from some trouble spot (in which case it likely will not be import marked). Note the two matching magazines. These will be DDR magazines.


http://www.gunbroker.com/item/711043940

Imperial Erfurt Luger. May be original but looking at the pictures I get the sense it's either a restoration or a 1920s - 1930s rebuild. In either case it's likely to be a good shooter and may actually be a collector grade gun.

If you can get either of those guns for $1000 or less you will have grounds to do a victory lap around the coffee table.

And yes, I'm thinking of bidding on both :-)

A black widow is the invention of a clever salesman. Germany never had such a thing

Yes ....just pointing out this gun is not what is typically considered a "Black Widow".....either intentionally or not by the clever or not so clever seller.

The one im about to sell is indeed a "real" black widow. I'll send you pictures tomorrow if you're interested

Check out RIA for Luger they have a big collection: https://www.rockislandauction.com/ or:https://www.proxibid.com/asp/SearchA...tart=1&refine=

Sky Zero,

Sure post some photos in a new thread. There may be a buyer out there looking for a 42 code or BYF luger with original black bakelite grips; however, new collectors should note that, according to this post on the Jan C Still forum, the following excerpt describes what is meant by the term "Black widow".

"Black Widow was a term invented by dealers in the early1970s’ to identify and increase the value of Lugers with factory installed black plastic grips. Some claim that many (originally) wood gripped 1940 42 code Lugers were converted to black widows years ago by dishonest dealers. A mix of all grip types (1-6) would be expected if the black grips were switched by dealers in the U.S. to create black widow Lugers. The predominate appearance of the type 1 black plastic grips on 1940 42 Code Lugers (9 reported to date) lends credibility to the concept that these grips were factory installed. There is also a question of where the black bakelite grips came from to do all this switching. To my knowledge such grips were not manufactured in the United States."

A spider or a pancake syrup????

Eric,

I'm a biscuit and gravy kinda guy that prefers the "Brown Recluse" with wood grips.

And me thinking "black widow" was Scarlett Johansson.:rolleyes:

Bwahahahaha!!! That's great!!! :D

I hate the new, 'hip', Aunt Jemima. The original was fine with me. :thumbup:

Hi,
I have found a "shooter grade" starter. It's $995.00 on Legacy Collectibles. Says "matching" of course. Has a crack in one grip panel. I suppose original replacements could be found. It's located here:

https://www.legacy-collectibles.com/...ter-grade.html

At the price I'd have enough left over to get a Nambu I've been looking at too.

Thank you so much for your help and suggestions.

Regards,
Lou Miles
Southern Utah

Lou, it is a .30 Luger pistol in 7.65mm Luger caliber. . You'll spend quite a bit more to actually shoot it in this caliber than in a 9mm Luger pistol.

It's also not a military issued pistol.

That said, my very first was a nice collectible all matching .30 Luger caliber DWM Commercial like this onw.

Marc

Have they test fired it!!! Jim Soloman can repair and grip problems~Jim does real magic!!!!!