1906 Russian...
 

Is it really worth this much...

Russian Luger...

Depends on how badly you want one. There aren't many out there, and of the few that you can find, most are restored, reworked or fakes. Even the restorations are going for over $9000 (asking price).

Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. But if I had Ron's money with all his thousands of acres of prime Texas cattleland that is punctuated only with a bunch of oil wells, I would not hesitate. :D
I wonder if the guy will take a 2003 plastic water pistol with 100% original blue in trade. :)

I looked up the gun in "Lugers at Random" and was surprised to see that a "Cal 9MM" is appropriate for this gun. I would have thought that after the Germans put Bulgarian Cyrillic characters all over the gun they would have been more creative in putting something else on the base of the magazine.
I would also wonder how one would authenticate the gun if it had been restored given the quality of workmanship of a few counterfeiters.
Big Norm