Introductions

[Sammler]

Welcome, indeed, to Luger appreciation and collecting.

In June of 1955, I was in Louisville and checked out the guns in a few pawn shops. I recall one shop that had row after row of Lugers in their glass display case. They were priced by barrel length--the longer the barrel, the higher the price! No one knew about just how rare some Lugers were, so an average artillery cost more than a really nice Krieghoff. There was no mention of commercial (grip safety) models, police , MAUSER "banners," etc.--they were all simply Lugers. If my memory serves me right, the four inch barrel Lugers were $30, the four and three-fourth were $40, the six inch were $40-50, and the eight inch "artillery" (no one called them that in those days) were $60. There was some variation in price to allow for condition.

Good old days!

Sammler

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Sammler

Good old days!

In its "tool" stage, gun does not appreciate in value, only drops in value through depreciation, like Glock. From old advertisements, Artillery Luger was $40, Navy Luger was $38.50, 7.65m/m Luger was $21.50, 7.63m/m Mauser was $35, 9m/m "Red 9" was $40. That's in 1920s. Price in 1950s was not very different from that of 1920s.

Even in "collector" stage, if considering inflation, many C&R European automatic pistols have appreciated in value, but not that much, except a few star variations....

[kmichaels90]

Originally Posted by alvin

In its "tool" stage, gun does not appreciate in value, only drops in value through depreciation, like Glock. From old advertisements, Artillery Luger was $40, Navy Luger was $38.50, 7.65m/m Luger was $21.50, 7.63m/m Mauser was $35, 9m/m "Red 9" was $40. That's in 1920s. Price in 1950s was not very different from that of 1920s.

Even in "collector" stage, if considering inflation, many C&R European automatic pistols have appreciated in value, but not that much, except a few star variations....

Back in 1960 my grandfather, who was 16 at the time ordered a broom handle mauser from a mail order catalog. He no longer recalls the name of the catalog but the pistol he recieved was a late post war bolo in near mint condition with matching stock rig with the leather harness and a cleaning rod. He says he paid around $45 for it. He still has it to this day and I have fired it on occassion it is all matching and still near mint.

[alvin]

Originally Posted by kmichaels90

I have fired it on occassion it is all matching and still near mint.

Probably you don't want to shoot it anymore. Postwar Bolo with matching stock in NRA excellent condition could sell $4k to $6k. If you break a single numbered part,,,,, the value drops dramatically. On 1987 (or 1984, I cannot remember) gun value catalog, the editor recorded one event: a guy bought ten minty Bolos at $750 each as "investment" (total $7500). Those days are gone. Nowadays, even junk C96 cost that much, numerically.

C&R guns with over $2k value should not go to range. Different people have different lines, but most guns in current production, e.g. various kinds of AR15s, seldom go above $2k (except early variations). Those are for sports shooting.... so I guess $2k could be a line. Just an opinion. I found C&R guns between $1-$2k are easy to sell, probably because they are collectibles, also shootable.