Magazine Trade - Values?

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A Luger collector would like to trade a aluminum bottomed (correct type for a 1937 S/42) mag he has for my WW1 era (serial numbered on wood bottom, but no other markings)mag. My mag is in very good condition - no dents or dings, metal and wood in great shape. If his aluminum bottomed mag is in like condition, is this a fair trade?

[Frank]

Mike, hello again! All else being equal and you are not talking about a situation of matching a magazine with a pistol serial number, the wood bottom is worth more than the aluminum bottom for the 1937. Some aluminum bottom magazines have a higher value than the wood bottom, but it depends on the type and markings. I would guess that you should get a $30 to $40 premium, plus the 1937 magazine for your wood bottom mag.

Remember I said all else being equal. Wood bottom magazines often have loose bottoms and this will reduce it's value!

Good Luck!

[Big Norm]

Mike,
as an Imperial Era luger collector, I would never trade an original, numbered wood bottom magazine for an aluminum bottomed magazine unless the aluminum bottomed one had unaltered markings that matched one of my few Nazi Era Lugers. Please note that I mentioned unaltered aluminum magazine. Many of these aluminum bottoms have had their old numbers filed off and new numbers applied, some amateurishly. But if neither of the magazines serial numbers matched any Luger involved, then why bother? Its still a mismatch.

The only exception would be a plastic bottomed magazine. Non of those were numbered. So seeking an appropriate magazine here would be proper. On second thought, another exception would be certain commercial wood bottom magazines would be proper for certain commercial Lugers. But thats another long story.

You should never use an original magazine for shooting because all of them are prone to breakage. For casual shooting purposes, modern magazines work just fine and are less valuable.

If you have a numbered, original magazine that does not match your Luger and you want to get rid of, then contact Don Hallock. He publishes a list of magazines about once a year for people who are looking for magazines that match their Lugers.

Everytime I go to a gun show or visit another Luger collector, I carry a long list of serial numbers of my guns that I am looking for the matching magazines for. Last year I bought an ugly shooter Luger only because it had a navy magazine in it. I changed magazines and immediately sold that gun.
Big Norm

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Thank you all! My Imperial Luger magazine has a tight wood bottom (sounds like an invite to a sexual pun). How can I determine if the correct aluminum base mag has not been altered? Will there be a flat spot on the bottom that should be round? The number on my Imperial mag is #4802 It worked fine in my 1937 S/42 yesterday at the range.

[Silvereagle29]

Just a thought, any re-numbered magazine can be easily detected, as Norm said above they generally are rather amateurish. On the other hand,some were actually re-numbered in Germany during the big conflict. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to determine who did the work, WaAUSA or the Germans. Certainly, a few by the Military but most were done by the Police. In my opinion, the re-numbered Police magazines are ugly but normally correct.

As for black plastic based fxo magazines, I believe Mauser numbered a few and found it to be extremely time consuming due to the method used to number the magazines. The normal method was not suitable because many were broken in the process. Consequently, about the - w - suffix of the 41-byf production Mauser nearly stopped numbering all P 08 magazines. In my travels, I have seen several of these numbered black plastic base magazines and have about four in my personal collection.

I recently purchased about 150 numbered wood bases from a dealer in Europe. The bottoms are DWM, Erfurt, Navy and a few blanks. They will all be on Luger magazine list 018, too late for 017

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I am looking for a serial #8016 aluminum base mag. - Do you have that one?

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