New temptations...
 

Two reputable gunshops of my area have two pretty interesting lugers.
The first one is a DWM Commercial, a few thousands of this sort of Luger were made for the US civilian market in 1923.
The second one is a Mauser 29/70 made for the US market as well since it has got the "American Eagle" mark.
I'm a bit torn wether to get one or not, as after all they are not that rare at all.

Sergio

Should I buy or not.?
 

My Main problem would be to come up with a "Believeable story" for the Wife......."Honey....this guy on the Luger forum was needing money and sold me this Luger for only $300.00 ....and then made me a heck of a deal.....BOTH for ONLY $500.00....................................Honestly :)

If you can get both for $500, you should be able to resell in the $2000 range. TH

If she's not tracking the balance, no need to tell her the acquisition. If she's tracking the balance,,,, will this story work?

Very nice 'Safe and Loaded'. It was one of a 2000 gun contract by Stoeger (approx. S#'s 89700 to 91700). Not easy to find. I would think it would be even harder to find in Italy. These use to sell for $1500-$1800 range here in the US.
BTW, Kenyon got it wrong by calling them 1923 Commercials... S#'s 75000 to 92000 were made from 1919 to 1921. The 'Safe and Loaded' contract was at the end, so probably made in 1921.

If I were forced to make a choice, I'd get the Stoeger. I'm swayed by the extractor and safe position auf english... The Mauser has that old-style/Swiss charm, but I think the 6" barrel (My favorite shooter is a 6" .30 Luger.) is a child of the 70s compared to classic original factory configurations? I'll bet Gerben knows...

Handsome pieces, both.

If they are in your area, aren't they the dreaded 9mm x 21mm 'civilian' cartridge configuration??? Or are they both 7.65mm??? :confused:

Yes they are both in the original cal.7,65 Luger.

To me it's just a matter of choosing the "less common" of the two, and I agree surely it's the former one, although as I said is not that rare either.
One more consideration, here is being sold for the equivalent of almost USD 3,000.00 which is think is probably too much.

Sergio

I paid $1300 for a Safe and Loaded in good shape about a month ago (Gunbroker). Actually a fairly rare variation, only about 125 have been documented on Dwight Gruber's list, although more undoubtedly still exist.

Sergio,
Without doubt, I would get the "Safe & Loaded" Commercial.
Not so common variation made for a specific dealer.

Buy DWM. Post-war Mauser Parabellum can wait -- it's purely $$ item, no timing inside. Anytime you got $$, you can find a Mauser Parabellum, brand-new in box. For DWM "Safe", it's more than $$, you would have to wait a chance. I have never seen DWM "Safe" in local gun shows. It appears in auction houses.

Well.. situation in Europe being different? I saw quite amount of post-war Parabellums listed in Hermann-Historica... Of course, I don't know local dealership market.

Many of the guns come from Germany, not only Lugers but also Colts, Remington Rands, Sigs.
For what I can say it depends, sometimes it seems as you can find a lot of decent handguns, then all of a sudden it looks as if somebody has closed the tap...
Anyway despite the so called crisis prices for good items are going up.

Waiting big name collectors' "summary sale" is a strategy. Rare guns are not rare in their collections. And, market size is limited, when everything is listed in a single place at a fixed short time frame (say, a few months), it's good chance for buyers. Otherwise, some variations never appear in "normal/random" market. We have witnessed some instances.