Ralph's Lugers
 

I was wondering what the status was of Ralph Shattuck's Luger collection. I never knew the man nor do I have any interest in the guns, but I am interested to watch the market values if they go public.

Are the 350 luger to be sold by RIA in September part of his collection? Bill

The collection is sitting in storage, family said it would sit there for years.

The inventory was sold to RIA and has been in at least the last 2 auctions, there were about 800 inventory pieces. I have not noticed a dip in the last year for prices with this 'release' of guns and in fact not all of these 350 + or - at each auction were Ralph's, RIA always has a lot of lugers, but some I noticed by SN that we wrote down because we liked them.

And I have not noticed a decrease in prices, in fact many of the shooters went for several hundred more than I was willing to pay.

'Lots" of 2 or sometimes 3 guns seemed like good deals.


Ed

Makes sense. If you dump a complete inventory onto the market, it will affect the prices in a negative way. Slowly feeding them onto the market over a period of years is the better idea. It also helps to 'forget' where the guns game from.

I thought I saw the guys from RIA on an episode of "Pawn Stars" a while ago?

Vlim,
but wouldn't it increase the price of a Luger if it's one of the RS-collection?
I guess buyers are motivated to pay a little bit more if the gun was a part of Ralph's collection. (At least I would)

Hi Andy, I think the opposite is true. Many collectors, myself included, had dealings with Mr Shattuck during his lifetime, that were less than satisfactory. Regards, Norm

As Mr. Tinker pointed out R.I.A. is auctioning off Mr. Shattuck's inventory, not his personal collection.

Oh - I misunderstood...
But the collection must be nice.

I didn't mean for my last post to sound curt and apologize if it came off that way, but I would hate to see anybody pay extra bucks at auction for a pistol thought to be part of Mr. Shattuck's personal collection (if they are so inclined) when actually it was simply part of his business inventory. He told me he didn't like to see his business inventory to get below 1200 - 1300 pistols. I'm not sure if he ever had a figure he didn't want to see it get above. I'm really not sure how many pistols were in his personal collection. Never the less, those pistols are out of circulation for a while. And yes, his collection (at least what I saw of it) was quite nice. Then again, he had been at it a few years.

I have to echo Norme's sentiment.
Still got a couple I wish I had returned.

I watched a show on television a few months ago that talked about the history of Lugers and Ralph spoke several times during the progam, they featured this Luger from his collection, does anyone know more about this piece?

I'm sorry if it has already been covered elsewhere

While the gold finish is quite, well glitzy and ugly as a firearm, however you have to admire the workmanship that has gone into the making of this one of a kind presentation piece.
It is more like a piece of artwork than a gun.