[ithacaartist]

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20! The third gun in the article, although out of my realm of interests, got me thinking about the concept of trade-ins. I've never experienced a situation where I had to consider such a thing... I can barely imagine it. I have a wide variety of toggle pistols, ranging from the M1900 I scored a few months ago, to this stainless version. One represents the beginning of Luger history, the other is what could be called the bitter end. In between, there's a decent Arty (crippled by its missing stock lug), a double-date, former Arty military and a couple of AE's. My 6" Mauser Swiss configuration 9mm, and the stainless P.08 help fill in the post-war category.

When I encounter a juicy deal, and if I don't have the dough to pounce on it, I don't even think of using one of what I already have as an offset! For a "serious" collector who is upgrading a collection, replacing a place-holder gun with a better example, this is likely not such a vexing consideration, I'd imagine. My wacky style leads me to regard its examples kind of like adopted children, each with its own background and temperament. So, which of my kids would I sell or trade, to get a better kid? It is painful to even think of making such a choice!