Marney Walsh

Bill brings up some very interesting points when he gets into "what is collectible?" The dictionary avoids getting too deeply into this definition, as the closest it gets is to define "collect" as to "gather together or to assemble." From this one can assume that a person with one Luger is NOT a Luger collector, but if he has two or more Lugers (regardless of condition)he is definitely a "collector" by definition. It seems that it is up to the individual collector to decide what he regards as "collectible," and to make up his own standards as to what he will collect. Therefore, when we use the term "collectible" it should not be applied to just certain Lugers. It is a highly individual term which each of us must define for himself. The Luger owner who is happy with mismatched pistols in his collection is just as much a collector as the man who collects only rare, mint, matching examples. I am certain that the curator of a military museum would gladly include a Luger for display which is mismatched and badly pitted, and never give it a second thought. I doubt that the standards of the typical museum come anywhere near measuring up to the standards of a finicky private collector. So the bottom line is, we are free to do whatever makes us happy with our own Lugers as long as alterations are honestly disclosed to the next buyer. Unfortunately, at some future sale this disclosure policy will be abandoned.