Work and Valuation

[Dwight Gruber]

As a buyer of low-priced Lugers, I am beset, as are many of us, it seems, by the question, "what is this gun actually worth?" I have before me an example which may prove instructive, and I am curioius about everyone's reactions.


The gun is a DWM 1920 Commercial, .30 caliber 3 3/4" barrel, all matching. It has been reblued, looks like the grips are original. Its not really a shooter, because the chamber is worn in such a way that it allows the brass to 'belly out' a little bit on one side, which is probably unsafe in addition to not extracting properly. The magazine catch is extremely worn (looks like it may have been filed a bit), and lets the magazine slip a bit, not letting shells feed properly.


I suppose the question is, what level of armory work to restore functionality increases the value of such a piece (if any does), and what decreases it?


Does replacing a faulty part, the magazine button (not numbered, in this version) count against its value?


What about replacing a faulty barrel? Does relining an existing barrel retain more value than replacement?


Or, does such a gun retain the most value by staying unchanged, a wall-hanger?


This doesn't, of course, address the issue that any such work is likely to cost more than the gun is actually "worth", making this kind of effort simply a labor of love.