Restore or survivor? This goes in the car world-Corvettes at least. 100% restored to original brings big bucks and awards, but so do the Corvette survivors. A local doctor as a complete original, well worn, 1960 Corvette. Faded paint, even tears in the seat and rust on some of the chrome, but it is 100% original as from the factory It won a "Bow Tie" award for it's originality ( adding many thousands to it's value ) at the nations highest level Corvette meet. He drives it at times and get hammered by others why he will not restore it. Little do they know. I see it is the same with luger collecting, except a 100% restoration ( if possable) would only lower a Luger's value ( except a very poor rarer luger). What puzzels me is the 'patina thing'. In military metals/awards seems like the original patina, it own original aging adds value to the award. If I were to clean/polish my WW1 flight badges to their original bright look,, without harming the badge, it's worth would drop. Now if I had a bright, as new, pilots badge stored away for all the years, it that case the value would be way up. During my 20 years in the military, if I showed up at a inspection with "Patina" on my badges/awards, harsh words were to follow. Sorry guys, this got away from Lugers, but sometims I look at something well worn and think it would be better brought back. I see I am 'very wrong' doing this in the collecting world, outside cars I guess.
Thanks,Bill
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