Hello Craig and Wes,
I have heard that a prominent collector, now deceased, whose guns appear in many of the earlier luger books had a preference to have the side plates on his lugers match the overall finish on the rest of the gun. I understand he had prefected a technique to do the touch-up that was not easy to detect. As I also understand, his practice was not a "secret" and known amongst other collector peers. When his collection was sold off (either before or after his passing, or both...), a devaluation of the gun's worth did not seem to dissuade those who wanted to be the next "caretaker" of the lugers in his collection...
Granted some of the next owners probably knew about the side plate touch-ups, but others may not have known if sold after his passing and when such guns are resold again and again...
If one pays good money for a gun and does not like one cosmetic aspect of the piece, I think each collector has the right to decide to touch-up or not. After all, it is your gun...
If they do, I do think there is a moral oligation to let the next owner know and hopefully this notification will continue from one owner to next owner.
Just another way to think about this topic...
Regards,
Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />