Hello Jimbo,
If the original post by MJM had only indicated a local gun shop in the SF/Bay area, you might have sent MJM a private e-mail (through the Forum's PM feature) asking MJM for the shop's location so you could see the luger in person.
Hello MJM,
Since you do not have a digital camera, why not ask Mr. Krause to take photos and e-mail them to you so you can post here on the Forum. Again, this could have been done without the need to name the shop/seller by name and you would have still been able to get all Forum members to help you determine the luger's merits. Lots of Forum members do this with sellers of lugers on the Internet. When we find a gun, we ask the seller to send jpegs, and then share these photos pubically or privately with others on the Forum who may be a lot more knowledgeable about that type of luger. When I do this, I usually do not let other knows who is selling the gun. I am just trying to get info. to allow me to make a decent buying decision. I do know try to hurt the seller or his reputation; based on the merits of one gun.
Hello Jan,
My opinon is that the Forum best serves its members by educating the members to increase their knowledge base and to make good buying and collecting decisions.
If we beginners can be helped by experts such as yourself to know when to stay away from a "bad" luger, I think the most important purpose of the Forum is achieved.
In an ideal world, all the bad luger dealers would be driven out of business as their busniess dries up. But I do not think this is possible. Nor do I think it should be the purpose of this Forum.
If each Forum member can solicit the help of others on this Forum to make their buying decision about a particular luger, I think the Forum does a good deed.
And even with all the Forum's energies used to expose such bad dealers, if we chose to do this; I do not think this would make a significant dent in their business. I imagine most of the lugers these folks sell are to folks that have never heard of the Luger Forum, or the NAPCA, or are folks that probably do not even read luger books and probably just walk in off the street and into the gun show or into the gun shop.
I for one would like to invite you, Jan, to head up a new Forum section some of us are talking about called the "Authenticity" section; whereby the technical merits of a luger are examined and discussed. In this manner, the only person really needing to know the seller's identity might be the prospective buyer that comes to the Forum for help. If this sounds interesting, John D. or John S. would love to sign you up for this co-moderator role; if you haven't been approached by them, already.
Hello RK and Luke,
I have traded many private, off-line e-mails with other Forum members asking who they buy from and who they will not buy from. The funny thing I gathered from such shared info. is that some same seller's names appear on both the good and the bad lists. This confirms in my mind that each luger sale is unique and that even the best sellers have peddled a bad gun from time to time. If we post such lists on the Forum, who would ultimately determine who the bad guys really are ? And do we really want to go there...?
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