[Ron Wood]

Nobody asked, but here is my 2�¢.

The rig is not all original as advertised, and pointed out very well by very observant and knowledgeable individuals on this forum. The winner paid too much, BUT he/she got a heckuva nice rig that is all period stuff, no repro. Yes, it has been cranked...what a pity because it would have been worth having, even mismatched. It is unfortunate that it was represented as original and unaltered, that is a no-no and honest folk should not do that.

On the flip side, if you can believe the seller, he took over a $600 hit on the sale of the piece. That would lead me to believe he/she knew it was somewhat bogus. For that knowledge, he took it in the shorts for his lack of vigilance.

The buyer may or may not have observed the discrepancies, but if he/she did, he chose to go ahead and purchase some pretty good stuff that is hard to come by. If he didnâ??t, at worst he has a rig that may not come around again in the near future for the same price. Who knows when and by whom the changes were made? Were they an attempt to defraud by a recent owner or a long ago modification?

Collecting has taken a sorry turn, prompted by the fakers and opportunistic individuals that prey on the less informed. Everything is suspect; therefore marginal accessions are either passed up, or subject to ridicule.

In this case, IMHO I would think that the cumulative worth of the items sold would be in the neighborhood of at least $2900. That means that the buyer may have dumped about $300 excess into the purchase, and the original purchaser is embarrassed to the tune of a few hundred bucks more. In a couple of years, or less, this figure will be of no consequence and the new owner will have the joy of owning a better than average rig and if he chooses to sell (hopefully disclosing the obvious alterations pointed out in this thread), should suffer no loss.

This forum serves as a sounding board for all manner of topics. If newcomers to the hobby pay attention to the information presented, and take the time to go back and review what has been posted before they joined the forum, lots of costly mistakes will be avoided. Also, if there are any lessons to be learned, they are do your homework, read everything you can get your hands on, and ask twice before buying once. This is an annoyance to sellers, but if they have an honest product at an honest price, a straightforward answer should make this a brief process.

Sorry about the soapbox, but there are very few virgin Lugers out there and I for one am tired of the need to justify every single nuance of a purchase when the sheer joy of having something that is close to a reasonable price and close to being 100% authentic is overlooked. Donâ??t pay too much for junk, but donâ??t pass up something that is less than perfect at a reasonable priceâ?¦you may not get another chance. And if you do get stung, that's life...it has happened to a lot of us. Learn from your mistakes and try not to let it happen again.