[Luke]

First, with all due respect to some of the opinions stated here, Lugers are NOT my life, but I find them interesting and worth collecting. I am especially fascinated by the historical relationship of the Luger with the 20th century.

As a relative newcomer to Luger collecting, I too have become somewhat discouraged with the large number of fake and boosted Lugers, and I fully understand Pete's comments, above.

When I first got involved I bought all of the more useful reference books such as Still, Kenyon, Walter, Jones, and others. These books are helpful reference tools that provide a great deal of information about the different Luger types, but they do not prepare a newcomer for the plethora of modified, boosted and fake Lugers on the market. I have found no publication which deals with this subject. Caveat Emptor is a nice term, but it is meaningless without a mental database from which to operate.

All that I know about the devices, techniques, and practices of Luger boosters and fakers has been gleaned from postings by more experienced collectors on this forum, and I am sincerely grateful for your help.

When this new forum opened, Jan Still suggested a topic area to deal with these subjects. I am afraid that his suggestion was viewed with apprehension by some, as it was feared that it would become a sub-forum for much dissension and name calling. And, that could easily happen.

I still feel that such a discussion area could be very helpful to both newcomers and experienced collectors alike if:

1. Only technical subjects are discussed.
2. No names, personalities, or innunendos are allowed.
3. We stick to the subject.
4. We remain objective in our comments
5. Finally, we respect each other.