9mm American Eagle local auction result

[Jasta2]

Attented our local auction house today that had a 30 gun auction before it's normal weekly antique/household type stuff.My first auction with guns. There was only a few handguns and one Luger. I was excited and depressed at the same time when I saw it. It was a 9mm cal AE, all matching, s/n in the 44,000 range,but boy was it rough. So much rust on the mag the mag spring was tough to work and hard inserting the mag, a quite dark bore, the eagle about 25% gone, about 60% finish left with some pitting. The sad part was the front sight was changed/modified into a bead sight and the entire 'v' notch rear sight was ground off an a 'peep' sight welded on. I though I'd might give it $800 and think of fixing it up. Boy was I off! With the comission it went for $1,700! I have seem far-far much better condition 1906 AEs go for that. Maybe I missed something. I guess I learn more every day.
Bill

[c3006]

Live auctions are a gun sellers dream.

[alvin]

Just looked up. 44xxx is 1908 Commercial in Dwight database. On BB, it sits at same level as Wartime military Luger. I don't know. Looks like BB says Luger value pretty accurate (because of transaction volume of Lugers?). So you're right, $1700 for the described condition is a little bit unthinkable.

I heard there are many Lugers in Virginia (Chi... something, I forgot the town's name, near DC) gun show.

[Edward Tinker]

Chantilley


I have found that lugers go for too much at local auctions....


I have also seen and heard the same thing time and time again; you'll have 2 lugers, 1 is well worn but correct and the other is reblued and pretty; guess which costs more


Ed

[alvin]

I would guess that reblued and pretty costs more. People's intention was to acquire original nice guns, but being cheated somewhere in this hobby is almost unavoidable. Accept that as part of life, then it's possible to find a few very nice factory ones

[Edward Tinker]

Knowledge is everything in collecting; that is for sure.

[wayne8661]

I have been involved in Auctions before also where I have been caught up in the heat of battle and been involved in a bidding war with another person. I would be willing to bet whoever won the pistol is kicking himself for paying too much for it right about now.

[alvin]

Seller should go live auction, especially on nice guns. What astonished me was not another bidding war, but a bidding war on this gun:

"So much rust on the mag the mag spring was tough to work and hard inserting the mag, a quite dark bore, the eagle about 25% gone, about 60% finish left with some pitting. The sad part was the front sight was changed/modified into a bead sight and the entire 'v' notch rear sight was ground off an a 'peep' sight welded on. I though I'd might give it $800 and think of fixing it up. Boy was I off!"

Anything special on this gun? very rare variation? Hard to be replaced? If not, it's so easy to locate a similar one, there is no need to bid high.

For buyer, I don't know. But more than many times, I saw gun dealers resold their live auction winning items from their own 'storefronts' at 10-30% higher.

Anyway, waiting has some fun. There was a DWM Artillery with leather and matching stock board listed on FGS for quite long time. Since it's very expansive, I could not find extra money but occasionally visited their sites to see it ...."is it still there?"..... "will they lower the price?"...... recently I noticed it's gone.... I missed it.

[Edit] Missed too many for various kinds of reasons. There were two pieces that I missed that I cannot forgive myself. I could have been as lucky as Ed (of Mexico) but I was ....

[Jasta2]

Alvin, What is FGS? I know of Auction Arms and Gun Broker, but is there another auction site? As far as retail, I know of Simpson's/Phoenix and Check Point Charlie and other retail sights? Classifieds I know only of Guns America, I take there must be more.
Thanks,Bill

[var99]

Bill

FGS is a well regarded but somewhat expensive dealer, site is http://www.fgsfirearms.com/

rgds

Vince

[Edward Tinker]

Bill, there is a listing on the left of the main site. And there are a couple of threads. For a double screw driver (the drink, in a large glass, gray goose) I'd copy and paste my listing of sites.


Ed

[Jasta2]

Thanks ED, Bill

[tomaustin]

..

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Jasta2

Alvin, What is FGS? I know of Auction Arms and Gun Broker, but is there another auction site? As far as retail, I know of Simpson's/Phoenix and Check Point Charlie and other retail sights? Classifieds I know only of Guns America, I take there must be more.
Thanks,Bill

Sorry, I just noticed the question and var has answered.

There are many dealers in this domain. Simpson and FGS are well known ones. There are many many more.

If you like C&R in general, this store in Kansas carries some:
http://www.am-firearms.com

If you like WWII, this store in Virginia has many:
http://www.pre98.com

If you like German stuff in general, here is a dealer in New York:
http://www.usgunexchange.com

There is also a dealer in Amherst, NH:
http://www.joesalter.com

I heard he was one of those "shareholders" of .45 ACP Luger (?)
http://www.collectorfirearms.org

I liked a super nice early Mauser 1914 Pocket on this site, they wanted $800+, I tortured myself long long time. Finally, I decided I would take it, but found it's gone:
http://www.collectorfirearms.net

......


The list goes on and on, they carry hundreds, if not thousands, pistols.


[Edit] There are other dealers serving other tiers. e.g. this dealer in Texas mainly offering antique guns (horstheld.com), checkpointcharlies.com (you already know) serves relatively lower side of the market, empirearms.com carries some misc guns, but may also have a Luger or two occasionally. There are numerous other sites. But how many guns do we need? and with so many dealers, why I still cannot find a few appropriate pieces that I have searched for years? Surprising.

[Jasta2]

Thanks Alvin! The big online Luger dealers are easy to find. It's the small ( or larger) multi firearm dealers that carry Lugers that are harder to find.
Tks again,Bill

[alvin]

You're welcome!

Many sellers on gunbroker.com, auctionarms.com, gunsinternational.com and gunsamerica.com are dealers. I just noticed one in Salisbury MA who listed a bunch of nice C&Rs. Have not gotten a chance to visit the store yet.

For Luger, even shooting range may carry a few. Back a while ago, a range near Attleboro had quite a few Lugers, not for renting, but for sale. Asking price was $1k - $2k. I knew nothing about Lugers back then, so I did not buy any. Once I visited a small gun store selling modern guns, they showed me a nice 1916 DWM, saying it's a $1600 gun. I used to scan a dozen or so local stores regularly, they carry C&Rs. But considering the gas price, I stopped doing that.

[Jasta2]

From what I see, the $1,600 figure looks the norm for a typical Luger I come across in a shop. Less if it's a shooter in a gun store, but that $1,600 looks to hold for about 'any' type of Luger in a pawn shop unless mint.

[alvin]

Bill, there are some collectors selling their collections directly. Not easy, because need to setup a website, taking pictures, etc, lots of work, but some did. If I remembered right, you only interested in WWI (?), he has some WWI here:

http://www.relicsofthereichs.com

It's a well known site as well, in case you're interested. Besides Lugers, he also carries many German blades. I even see a few C96s (many Luger collectors have a few WWI Military Mauser or Weimar Police Mauser)

See this picture!!!! No white gloves, implying so many pieces in collection, so it did not matter anymore

[nhdblfan]

Jasta,
I was there,Garry Wallace's as well,place was packed.You have to go to lots of those antique auctions before you find a deal but sometimes you do get lucky.
That was no a 9mm A/E it was 30 luger,the rest of your descriptions I agree with,the holster was falling apart too.I was pretty dissapointed when I got there and saw how bad it was.I figured it was worth 700 or so but thats it.
There was also a BYF 44 (?) wrong holster went for 435 I think.The other real surprise was the M1 Carbine, fully messed with,checkered stocks and I think went over 750 plus the vig !!

I will say I have scored big at that place a few years ago with a sweet Prussian Daly 16 for about 25% of what it should have gone for ,then on the way out they found a leather LOM case that went with it and gave it to me.

[Jasta2]

I thought that it was a .30 cal, but another fellow there insisted in was a 9mm. I said the brl was to long for a 9mm,ect, but he still insisted.
Tks,Bill