I have said it before and not everyone agrees but I will repeat myself. If you want a Luger to shoot, get one in the $400-$600 range. Just look for one that is mechanically sound. Then you will have a Luger that you can shoot without worrying about loosing value. If you then find that you are hooked, buy books and use this as an aid to help follow along while reading the books.
Many of the parts in a Luger are not like any found in other guns so having one to actually hold and take apart while reading the books helps. Then if you decide to go further down this road to ruin, you can decide what type of Luger do you want to collect. Imperial, comercial, Weimar, WWII, Swiss, artillery (LP08), or any of the other many catagories!
Save the worrying about matching numbers and such until you know if you want to spend more for some good quality pieces. Then you still have one that you can play with at the range and not worry about puting a few hundred round through it! After all, that is the real fun. Holding and looking at a rare mint gun is nice but shooting is much more enjoyable!
A good set of books to start with are the E-books by Mr. Henrotin, who made the wonderfull graphic on the home page of this forum. He is listed in the Links and Resources section on the left side of the screen. Just be sure to download them onto the computer that you plan to view them on. They are not transferable. They are an inexpensive start to learn more about Lugers.
Good luck!
Steve
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