This has nothing to do with my grandfather or the story above, but years ago around the time I bought my very first Luger, I remember hearing the owner of a local gunshop talking about the abundance of them following World War II. This guy was an "old school" kind of guy and operated a small, one man, gun store for years until he finally retired one day and spent the remaining years of his life playing tennis. Getting back to the Luger story, I remember talking to this guy one day when I was a kid and we were discussing Lugers and the price they had come to bring on the open market during the 1970's. He said he could remember when, following World War II, you could walk in just about any gunshop or sporting goods place in the country and find plenty of them for sale. He said he remembered seeing a wiskey barrel full of them at one place and a sign saying "Your pick, $25." And this was back in the 1970's when everyone was crying about how the price for an average Luger had then "skyrocketed" to $300 or $400 a piece. My, my. How times have changed. The 1939, code 42, I bought a few weeks ago costs me $1600.
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