Quote:
Originally Posted by Alister
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It's almost comical to me that this is an almost all matching gun but technically not actually "matching" since the pieces came from different manufacturers and time periods. If only each part could talk and tell us what exactly happened to this Luger!
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Brace yourself for an old fart, back-in-the-day, pseudo-rant.
<rant>
Back when I was a young Luger collector the term "matched" or "matching" was verbal shorthand for "all factory original". That meant no replaced part - the gun was just as it initially came from the factory. If it wasn't all original it was a shooter. Part swapping to create a Luger that had the appearance of being factory original was viewed as a fraudulent action, that created a fake Luger.
The rise in part swapping to create a Luger that appears to be all original is the major reason I gave up collecting Lugers (other than "shooter" Lugers).
That "all original" extended to markings. If a Luger was unit marked it wasn't factory original and was a shooter.
Things change.
Part swapping has become a common practice. People even advertise for specific parts with specific numbers. The market demand for Lugers is orders of magnitude above what it was circa 1960, as is our general standard of living. Small wonder people pay collector grade prices for what I still regard as shooter grade Lugers.
</rant>
To each his own...