Gun Show Luger
 

I got back from the Spartanburg, SC gun show a couple of hors ago and wanted to report on the the single Luger for sale. It was a 1917 Imperial Erfurt that was all matching except the magazine. Sounds good so far, huh!

Well it was pitted all over, the Sear Spring was almost rusted in two, the elector spring was rusted so bad it would have to be replaced. Barrel had pitting all over, etc. A real mess, but would have made a decent shooter until the dealer "generously offered this matching Luger for $850! These are rare you know. Well, before I choked at his price, I kindly refused the offer and walked off. No other Lugers seen!

hey, I got one in the basement that is in better shape than that!

Amazing isn't it ;)

Ed,

This one looked like it came from a basement in New Orleans after the flood. I could not believe the dealer wanted this much. It was sooooo bad, the pistol was not even good enough for parts,LOL. To me, it was a 200-300 pistol at the most! It appeared it would fire, but the Sear and Ejector spring would have to be replaced to get reliable funtioning. If it was refinished, many of the pits would still be there.

All kidding aside, it looked like it had been in a damp basement with no protective oil for YEARS. I felt bad for the pistol to have such a past and be treated this way. About 6 months ago, I bought an early Japanese Type 99 rifle that came from an estate, it was all matching, with mum, AA wings, bolt cover, and bayonet. It had been in a basement for years and I was able to bring it back with only having to replace the buttplate. The buttplate was TRASHED from rust. I very carefully removed the rust spots with Blue Wonder Cleaner, and where the rust had gone thru the blue, I used Blue Wonder to cover the spots. It is not perfect now, but it is worth a lot more than I paid for it. Not many all matching and correct Jap rifles around today either.

Lugers seem to have gone up astronomically. A year ago you saw them around quite a bit for $850, but now you can't touch a decent one for that price. I suspect that when England and Australia outlawed the ownership of guns a few years ago our market was flooded. Now the supply has returned to normal and prices are crazy. At the Birmingham show a few weeks ago, according to my friend who went, the only ones available were a non-matching 1920's for about $700, a battle-damaged (yeah, right) WWII for around $1000, and a decent one for about $1,400.

Yea, the price of Lugers has jumped a lot since I stopped "playing" with them 2-3 years ago. I was really surprised at the price jump. It is good for me with the ones I had, but not so good for the new ones I will be buying, LOL!

One thing I have not seen at gun shows for a while now are the import Lugers. They have completly dried up in the SC & NC gun shows. One good part of this type firearm is the prices usually go up. They may stay stagnant for a while, but they always climb again.

I feel that one factor affecting the asking price of lugers (or any other sought after collectable) is the price that readers of the Gunlist & SGN see advertise. When all you see at the moment is mismatched Finnish SA marked lugers at over $1K, people jump to the conclusion that their luger must be worth at least that much. Also some of the rediculous prices gleened on internet auctions, reinforce that belief. TH

Tom H, you are 100% correct! In my area, there are not a lot of Lugers available at gun shows. Therefore buying is from dealers for the most part, and you pay the "higher" retail prices. Once in a while a good deal comes thru, but not that often.

The only place with NICE Lugers is usually the Atlanta, GA shows, but the prices are equal to or more than Simpson's. I have lloked at the auctions, but the ones I want go for more than I am willing to pay. I guess this is part of the Luger "game".

I agree that Luger prices have flown off of the map. I was recently watching a 1917 artillery for sale on GunBroker. It was a nice gun and did not have a matching mag. I THINK it have a repro artillery holster with it. Very nice 1917 artillery. It sold for $4300. I was stunned. I was guessing, at the start of the auction, that it might go for the mid, and maybe, to the high $2000's. But $4300...?

I also saw a mismatched 1918 artillery go for $1600+ on GB and that surprised me too. Holy Cow! I'm rich!
Big Norm

Big Norm,

I usually go to my firearms listing and update the "value" that I show in case my wife were to have to sell my firearms in my "absence", LOL! But, keeping up with what is going on is tough! On my list, I show the cost I paid and an estimated "value" so she would be able to get an idea of the range range to sell at. My Luger collection has not been high on my priority list the past couple of years so I need to check the current values soon and get it updated.

With the Internet sales, as you stated, some pieces fo all over the place!

For big Norms collection, I was hoping he'd send me his lisiting and I am more than happy to keep the values current, as long as it says in his "absense" I can pay the current value for his collection :p: