This raises an interesting issue as to the future value of nickled Lugers, the time when you could say "Oh it's nickled, it's worth $400" seems to be past. Perhaps in the future nickled Lugers will start to have differing values from one another. It may turn out to be important as to "who did it" and "when". Perhaps older nickle jobs done either in theater or in the immediate postwar US may start to have a higher value than those "improved" later. The theory here being that in the case of a captured gun, nickled by its captor near the time of capture, the plating perhaps acquires historical significance in an of itself. Obvioulsy issues like underlying corrosion and degree of buffing will matter as well.
If things were to turn out this way, then we would have the complex issue of determining the provenance of the plating job, and setting values accordingly. Supporting documents (especially "capture papers" etc) would obviously help, but probably examination of the plating would be all that was available.
Could be a brave new world. Or not.
H
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