1938 S/42 Luger

Ftroop---I suspect that being new to Lugers you still have some unanswered questions. The 8.83 is the rifling land dia. measurement in mm. These vary sometimes from 8.81 to 8.85. There are 3 so called pins in the toggle assembly. I assume that you are refering to the big pin at the rear of the receiver which connects the toggle assembly to the receiver. Most of us tend to refer to it as a pin. It is more properly known as the receiver axle. This is the only pin that is numbered and then generaly only on post ww1 Lugers. Your 1938 would have had the last two digits of the serial # on this pin[receiver axle] Having an unnumbered pin is preferable to having the wrong # of course. You have one chance in many 100s of finding a matching 3 axle. This number would have been used once for every 100 Lugers manufactured from perhaps 1934 through 1942. # style did vary somewhat during that period. Now for the small letter after the serial #. Military Lugers generally from day one did not have a serial number beyond 9999. Once that # was reached the numbering started again with 1 with an alphabet script letter placed below the serial 3#. Thus 1a through 9999a then 1b through 9999b until the alphabet was used up---then start all over again. The letter j was never used. The serial range used in in 1938 [according to Jan Still] was about 400b through 4500n. No one seems to want to speculate on value for you. I will try based on advertised prices and some experience in the area. First---condition---you feel that it is 98%. I think you will find that % will vary depending if you are buying or selling. Also from collector to collector. I prefer to ask where is the wear. If the side plate hump and other sharp edges have just a hint of blue gone then maybe 98%. I usually find the hump wear to kind of indicate wear on remainder. One would expect to find near perfect grips on 98%. If the Hump has quite a bit of wear and maybe some visable thinning of blue on the grip straps--then maybe 90%. You can almost bet that the buyer--especially a dealer will see more wear than you do[whether it is there or not] What you could get for it again depends on if you are selling to an individual or to a trader/dealer who will want to give you 30% less than they think they can get for it. Without seeing the Luger---$750 to $1200 A good way to test the market fairly cheap is to put ad in the Gun list at price you want. No calls and you can figure price too high. If you realy want to sell it---look ads for similar Lugers then price yours somewhat less. This is kind of long, but you ask a serious[refreshing] question and you deserve a good answer. What is condition of grips? Does clip match or at least have same proof and maybe same small letter below serial? Enjoy your Luger I am sure it is very nice.