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Unread 02-10-2001, 04:18 PM   #3
BILL
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Western Washington
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Default Re: I understand your points - but...

Since we all have different perspectives(thankfully), there is no way everyone will agree to an individual's tenets' regarding the dos and donts of Luger collecting. It is quite unique. Having read both Kyrie and John D.'s posts I would have to say I understand both positions. I can clearly understand the historical aspect of the 'story' that a pistol carries with it through time and how it can be altered by exchanging parts or modification of numbers and proofs. Some would carry this to extremes, though. We have had the discussion regarding the search for matching magazines. Kyrie makes a good point in that an honest collector, who wants the serialized parts to match, someday becomes the unwitting participant in a tacit forgery. Early on, I, like many of us, learned the hard way about matching parts. It has not made me cynical or paranoid about the issue, but it has heightened my awareness. A Luger could conceivably go through several generations before anyone would know that a part was not an original matched part, maybe never. Two soldiers in a WWI trench could have traded magazines to get a lucky (to them) number and in modern times two collectors, not having that some lucky number, use a data base to find those numbers, and trade back. Yes, history is altered but no one gets hurt. The critical point is the intention of the individual. The person who knowingly sits back and says nothing as the inexperienced Luger collector buys a reworked Luger as an original is the problem. Having given it considerable thought, both the seller and the buyer share the responsibility to the collecting community. Know what you are selling, be as honest as you can be and know what you are buying and who you are dealing with. There will always be crooks and there will always be fools with money. Use your best judgement and know that most Lugers have been taken apart and put back together many times. It is interesting to think of how the hobby would have evolved if the parts were not serialized and proofs were all identical or if they all came 'sealed' from the factory. I guess condition and configuration and quantity of manufacture would be the only criteria. Again, there are a lot of facets to the hobby and like the vampire, once bitten it stays with you.



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