Identifing a Luger

John Sabato · 03-12-2002, 11:52 AM

Now that I have seen the photos of the Luger, it is obvious that this Luger has been refinished previously and therefore has little if any collector value because it is not "original finish". The finish on Miltary Mauser Lugers is good, but not that good - this one has been polished to a high lustre and then re-blued. I own a pistol similar to it, a byf 41, but I can't place a value on it because it is not for sale. You can see photographs of my pistol in the owner's corner (link on the left) under my name...

What you have is still a nice shooter and would be worth at least $400 and perhaps a hundred or two more to someone close to you that wanted a nice looking Luger in good mechanical shape and didn't care about collector value. Since it has been refinished previously, you could have the part where the DL is scratched repolished and reblued without further harming the value.

If you auctioned it, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it brought $600 or $700... or more from someone who liked the way it looks...

-John

03-12-2002, 11:52 AM	#7
John Sabato Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: The Capital of the Free World Posts: 10,156 Thanks: 3,003 Thanked 2,309 Times in 1,098 Posts	The DL is not the only problem... it's been re-blued! Now that I have seen the photos of the Luger, it is obvious that this Luger has been refinished previously and therefore has little if any collector value because it is not "original finish". The finish on Miltary Mauser Lugers is good, but not that good - this one has been polished to a high lustre and then re-blued. I own a pistol similar to it, a byf 41, but I can't place a value on it because it is not for sale. You can see photographs of my pistol in the owner's corner (link on the left) under my name... What you have is still a nice shooter and would be worth at least $400 and perhaps a hundred or two more to someone close to you that wanted a nice looking Luger in good mechanical shape and didn't care about collector value. Since it has been refinished previously, you could have the part where the DL is scratched repolished and reblued without further harming the value. If you auctioned it, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it brought $600 or $700... or more from someone who liked the way it looks... -John