Black Widow Questions...?

And now for my entry into the grand foolish buy of the year:


Farm auction in NW Iowa two weeks ago. The elderly couple was moving from farm to town (a tradition in Iowa) and the husband picked up a luger while in Germany back in the war. Surprisingly, he did not take it off a dead SS general but rather picked it up at a factory (his words but just what kind of factory nobody knows--perhaps a guard's pistol or somesuch). It was a common commercial 23DWM and was in a nice holster with extra magazine (naval, curiously). At the auction, several luger-knowledgable buyers and dealers bid the rig up to $900 then stopped. Two people, though, continued bidding. One older farmer, locally famous for buying up farms and paying twice what anyone else will pay, continued bidding as did a young son of a successful farmer. The young farmer, in his 20s, bid against the old farmer until the price hit $1800 and the young farmer won the "prize". After the auction, someone spoke with the young farmer's mother and asked about his buying the luger. She said her son asked a buddy of his what the luger was worth and the buddy told him it could be worth up to $3000.


The moral: Do your homework or at least be careful who you ask for advice before making an auction bid.


An identical rig was available at the same time, albeit in separates, from commercial firms on the web for about $700.


dm