Really nice broomhandle
 

Saw this and thought others may find it of interest:

Broomhandle in original case

enjoy,
Richard

...84 pictures???... :eek:

Sheesh... :rolleyes:

And the holster in picture #20??? Is that a period 'old west' holster??? :rolleyes:

Seriously, this does look very nice. I imagine the price will skyrocket over the next eight days. :)

You're right quite a desirable broomhandle!


Sergio

My opinion for what it is worth from an non-Mauser collector, is that the gun is a near perfect "restoration" of what was a very nice example to begin with...in other words, it is an "enhancement" rather than a total restoration. The attachment iron on the stock did not receive the same level of detail as it would appear that the original number was ground off and a matching number applied (particularly look at the number "1" which lacks the bottom serif of the serial number on the gun).
I would gladly have this gun in my collection as it is a lovely example...but I would not pay a premium price for it.
Ron

That area also looks to be cold-blue retouched... ;)

OK. I am a C96 collector, and I don't have a C96 in cardboard box. But I won't bid on this one. Why? Many reasons.

1) This is a WWI production gun. For this WWI variation, the top one is not a 98% mint one. Top one is unit marked C96 with unit marked matching stock. There was one for sale a few years back, unfortunately, I was short of $$ at that time.

2) A cardboard box,,,, big deal? The key accessory for C96 is shoulder stock, and that's this gun's weakest point -- the stock coming with this gun is a joke.

3) Finish... I would say it's a German refurbished gun. Many WWI C96s were refurbished by German in 1920s for exporting. The milling quality and blue looks better than regular WWI production guns. If you viewed many high serial number Red 9s,,,, this one looks like those. Those WWI C96 with s/n 3xxxxx or 4xxxxx are supposed to be rough in milling.

The selling point of this one is the cardboard box. Extremely rare. I bookmarked this one, will see how it goes.

Is that a "2" under the "1" on the bolt serial number?
KFS

I believe that guns are worth whatever someone will pay.
Surely there are plenty of refinished and restored pistols out there that sell for as much as nice original ones.
Will its price skyrocket over the next days? Presumably yes, as we can see isn't very likely that this gun was used at the 1898 Battle of Omdurman and during the Second Boer War, it's a commercial one built for the export market; and it was probably restored in the past, but come on it's over a century old and still with its original cardboard box!


Sergio

I think so. The bolt was renumbered.

There are many indicators leading viewers to believe this is a refurbished gun: C/C/U on this variation under blue is not right, grip panels do not look right either, better milling than average, etc.. all can be explained as German refurbishing. But GERMANY also under blue is weird, unless GERMANY was added before refurbishing... Plus this renumbered bolt.

It's already $2725. Mint original standard C96 with matching stock from Sturgess collection sold $10k in Julia. That's the roof. This one may still have room on gunbroker.com. We will check a week later.

... moreover after reading the short "Mauser C96 history" bY GUN BROKER I'd like to add that the "broomhandle" was never the standard issued pistol of Imperial Germany as it failed the army tests. If I'm not wrong Germany was compelled to enter into a contract with Mauser for the C96 because they were desperately short of service pistols, and broomhandles were issued only to reservists.


Sergio

The main usage of this type of pistol did not happen in Germany, of course. Germany and her allies did buy about 300,000 C96, but,,, looking at Red 9 for example, so many of them still have mint bores even today. The biggest user of this type of gun were Chinese warlords, nationalist, and communist, they needed a combat pistol requiring relatively low maintenance, and this pistol matched their need.

As always, some great observations.

Wouldn't the "GERMANY" stamp indicate an exported gun, so why do you suspect a German refurbish?

I don't think I would be too worried about the double number on the bolt though. It looks like those "one number off" factory mistakes that was corrected. I have seen this on quite a few guns, and the most likely scenario IMO is that the worker who stamped it had a bad day, and the error was corrected before the gun left the factory. Could have been done by the worker who stamped it to begin with, or the worker who assembled the gun. It would be less likely that a modern day owner happened to find a bolt that close in the number range and renumbered it. I have had two or three guns with similar number changes, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

For exporting, exporter also wanted to sell a good price. Compare with those prewar C96, wartime production's milling and fitting quality was relatively low. To sell a better price, enhancing surplus pistols a little bit for exporting was very natural.

The Standard C96, in a seller's words (not this seller) that I totally agree "every kid should have one of these - Mauser Standard C96". Although being common, super nice samples of this variation are very collectible. Those rare 6-shot and 20-shot cannot replace Standard C96's position in a collection -- this was the variation making this type of pistol world famous.

I have gotten mine:

I am very surprised that a collector friend called me asking about this gunbroker C96 with cardboard box. He's relatively new in the field and mainly buys things based on sellers' reputation... He is attracted by this gunbroker C96, Needless to say, he's happy with the seller in the past, "he's a great guy". Great guy's items must be all great, that's the assumption.

After I told him all those points, he asked "with all those that you mentioned, what's price for it?"... well, after hearing this analysis, he's still attracted, then, it's hard to answer, that depends on bidders.

===

[Edit] I recommended him to take a serious look on Legacy's flatside and sent him the link.... has money to spend is good, and should spend on the right thing. It's up to him though, it's his money :)

So when you say "surplus", you're talking about brand new guns that were never issued to the military? Or did the actually refinish and enhance used guns for export?

On old dealer catalog, there was a category described as "reconditioned". It's unclear its state before exporting. For this shape, it's at most lightly used even it had been issued in the war.

Wow, $7155

A super nice standard c96 in Sturgess collection sold a little bit over $10k (BP included), with Simpson LTD importer stamp.

I sold a few standard c96s varying in condition in the past, from $750 to $4000. Of course, my best standard variation is still in my collection.

The collector friend talked to me earlier sent me an email. After hearing this gunbroker.com one has certain issues, he's scared... "Water is too deep. Will take a break until end of the year"... he does not like Bolo, and he does not like Flatside, he likes those milled panel full size.