original blue but thin?
 

I am thinking of picking up this gun, it is a colt 08 pocket. the blueing looks original to me but thin, can some of the more schooled collectors give me an opinion on this. thanks, btw, I did not take out the serial no, the seller did. can any one tell me why some people get all nervous about giving out serial nos?

right side
 

here is the other side.

Until you hold the piece in your hands, you can't really judge a photo (except for J.Holbrook's). I'll bet dollars to donuts the blue will come out better in your hands than in the photos. The right side looks like it might have had a little steel wool taken to it at some point. Doesn't look like it's ever been reblued/buffed, the lettering and edges appear sharp. Trigger doesn't look like it's been fingered excessively. The grips look like they've seen some holster time, which would explain the modest wear to the pony on the grips. The grip screw looks buggered. There appears to be freckling rust here and there which should clean up with some 0000 and gun oil. I'd give this piece, based soley on the pictures, a 6 of 10. Above Shooter grade, well below museum quality. A decent guiltless low collector grade with shootability. Appears to be a decent representative example.

Now, the integrity of the seller and the price seem to be the major factors.

Ed,
Trigger is right on the mark. Cameras tend to make the "warts" stand out. I too would bet that this is a very nice example, when you get it in your hands.
Serial number blocking is kind of an enigma. I gather that they don't want some sleeze using the serial number to report the gun stolen. And trying to get possession of it through doing so.
Or to prevent it from being confiscated if it was stolen and resold at some point in it's history.
I once bought an old Colt revolver from a well known dealer. It had been through several owners and his background check on it at the time of purchase came back clean.
I kept it for about 6 years before trading it to another dealer. When he resold it to a customer and was phoning in the sale info to the State police( a requirement in my state). It came up as being reported stolen 35 years previously. And since on-line sales can be viewed worldwide. They don't want to take the chance. I'm am by no means inferring that it is stolen. Just my take on it.

Ron

original blue?
 

thanks. the seller is from the guns america, I will be buying the gun, I use a cc check, so I have a little back up if it is fraudulant,. thanks for the imput.

Ed;

Your pistol was produced in 1921 according to the first 3 digits of the serial no. Serial Nos. ended at 409061 in 1941. Colt discontinued the model in 1946.

I'm posting photos of my 1908, which a Colt collector has told me is in
90%+ condition & was issued in 1915. You can see that these pistols were finished in a real nice deep blue.

Picture# 2

Picture #3