Collection Piece Upgrade-OT

[Ted]

For my P.38 buds, I am upgrading my Dual Tone byf 43 P.38. The one I own is 94% and I am return trading it to John Raum for a 99% upgrade piece. Ted

[BILL]

I agree with the logic of the upgrade. I have run into several opinions regarding the 'combat ravaged' look (50% to 70%) vs. the 'minty' look. I will take an excellent condition pistol to a scuffed one any time. I have a byf 44 that looks unfired. It obviously was not exposed to the elements much.

Does everyone have a mint byf44?

There seems to be plenty of them around all of a sudden.

And mint ac42's, ac43's, and mint cyq's. Where did all of these mint (without import mark) pistols come from all at once?


Has the increasing price of the pistols caused everyone to drag their's out?


No, I don't think so. I spent the weekend at the local gun show. I probably had a dozen guys tell me about a mint this or that they just inherited from their Dad.

Guess what, these guys are looking to sell, but they are researching first. One fellow I talked to had built up the appraised value of his 98k sniper rig up to $3000....and NO ONE has actually seen his rifle. He just gives a neophyte's description of the weapon and takes estimates on its worth.

I finally had to tell the guy he would actually have to bring the rifle somewhere to have it properly valued. For all I (or he) know it could be a Mosin with a leapers on it.


Mike

[G.T.]

Hi Mike! There are a lot of mint byf 44's, and a lot of mint cyq's....most of them probably reside in collections, but there is no shortage of them, there are not a lot of mint ac 42's, there isn't even to many nice ones, although there are far less of any nice P.38's (high polish) that are earlier then 42....

ac 44's on the other hand, have never seemed as plentyful as the mauser byf 44's....German svw 45's are usually pretty nice, but they seem awful rare when compared to the rest...but as you mentioned, you have to see it first! And Mint is just what it says, mint, brand new! byf 43's & 44's are a great place to start with a P.38 collection as Mauser had pretty strong standards throught the war....till...later...G.T.

Hello GT.

See that post near the top of the thread listings?

That is becoming more and more common. i.e. "I just inherited this, what is it worth?"

I think a lot of long kept Nazi era pistols are becoming available and they are pistols that were part of a collection of ONE.


Mike

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...963&p=47421202

[G.T.]

Hi Mike, You very well may be right! I was in on the tail end of the buying spree of the German collectables in the late 70's, right about the time a lot of living vet's were liqudating there stuff, as more people collected and values went up, it seemed to stop for a few years.....vets are passing at an alarming rate now, and we may be in the last go around for some of this stuff.......of course, every tire kicker has a mint one at home, but in P.38's, I've seen a lot of really nice ones come out of the bushes!!!

Chase down every story you can....never know when that next Zero series will pop up! till...later...G.T.