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P38

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clm128

Well-known member
hi all

Was lookong to aquire a p38 and was hoping someone could tell me if this looks like a good option? What kind of price tag would you put on it

Thanks
 

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Looks fine. It would have been easier to post a link to the pistol rather than screen shots. The sellers description is flawed. It is not a “scarce pre letter block”, but a mid war production In the O block. There is nothing special or scarce about this pistol. A picture of the correctly numbered locking block is necessary if I were a buyer and, also, note that the grips are not correct for a spreewerke. I consider this a small thing overall as trading them for proper grips or buying a set should be easy. $975 with one original mag and one post war, incorrect grips is not a deal in the USA. Not sure what the Canadian market is like. If I were buying this in the USA I wouldn’t pay more than $700 assuming the locking block matches. You will either have to buy the right grips or find someone who will trade. Just a P.38 collector’s perspective.
 
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NathanLM said:
Looks fine. It would have been easier to post a link to the pistol rather than screen shots. The sellers description is flawed. It is not a “scare pre letter block”, but a mid war production In the O block. There is nothing special or scarce about this pistol. A picture of the correctly numbered letter block is necessary if I were a buyer and, also, note that the grips are not correct for a spreewerke. I consider this a small thing overall as trading them for proper grips or buying a set should be easy. $975 with one original mag and one post war, incorrect grips is not a deal in the USA. Not sure what the Canadian market is like. If I were buying this in the USA I wouldn’t pay more than $700 assuming the locking block matches. You will either have to buy the right grips or find someone who will trade. Just a P.38 collector’s perspective.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, im perfectly fine with it not being scarce or rare since it would be my first pistol as long as everything checks out. 975 cad is 730$ usd right now so i geuss price wise we are not far off, ill try and negotiate a bit.

I didnt post the link because i understood we are not allowed to post live sale links.... maybe im mistaken.

One question, what do you mean by a picture of a correctly numbered letter block?
 
NathanLM said:
..It is not a “scare pre letter block”, but a mid war production In the O block. There is nothing special or scarce about this pistol.
Click to expand...

Lol. How dare you rain on that sellers hyper-bowl. :laugh: I'd say last week of April 1944 probably. I like the Spreewerk pieces.
 
clm128 said:
Thanks for the info, im perfectly fine with it not being scarce or rare since it would be my first pistol as long as everything checks out. 975 cad is 730$ usd right now so i geuss price wise we are not far off, ill try and negotiate a bit.

I didnt post the link because i understood we are not allowed to post live sale links.... maybe im mistaken.

One question, what do you mean by a picture of a correctly numbered letter block?
Click to expand...

I meant “locking” block. It’s an internal part that should
Have last 3 numbers of SN and the letter block.
 
clm128 said:
I found a production chart online, and according to the chart this particular pistol would have been made in april 1944....... now i understand Heavy mechs comment :facepalm:
Click to expand...

No issues. Not the first thing that pops when you search. They do a pretty good job there and when you look at the monthly production totals you can kinda figure out when. Of course none of these production totals were totally linear with all that was going on.

Honestly I'll bet there's some docs out there. Seems the Czech facilities had some? I bet someone knows but I wouldn't be surprised.
 
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heavy_mech said:
No issues. Not the first thing that pops when you search. They do a pretty good job there and when you look at the monthly production totals you can kinda figure out when. Of course none of these production totals were totally linear with all that was going on.

Honestly I'll bet there's some docs out there. Seems the Czech facilities had some? I bet someone knows but I wouldn't be surprised.
Click to expand...
Jan Balcar has visited the facility, and what is now the grounds since the majority of the buildings were demolished, on a few occasions. Jan also interviewed several former workers to learn as much that could be learned. He and Ron Clarin co-authored the P38 Pistol Spreewerk Production book (https://www.checkpointcharlies.com/...clarin-s-p38-pistol-spreewerk-production.html) and helped contribute to the PDF http://www.p38forum.com/P38ProductionDates.pdf. I believe the only changes that differ from the PDF are related to the 0 and 00 series pistols, which were produced in parallel with the A and B prefix serial ranges, but I will be honest, I have not had a chance to read the book in it's entirety. It's a good book if you're interested in Spreewerk. Ron frequents the P.38 forum on a daily basis, but I have only seen Jan post every once in awhile, but they are around if you are interested in discussing topics.
 
NathanLM said:
Looks fine. It would have been easier to post a link to the pistol rather than screen shots. The sellers description is flawed. It is not a “scarce pre letter block”, but a mid war production In the O block. There is nothing special or scarce about this pistol. A picture of the correctly numbered locking block is necessary if I were a buyer and, also, note that the grips are not correct for a spreewerke. I consider this a small thing overall as trading them for proper grips or buying a set should be easy. $975 with one original mag and one post war, incorrect grips is not a deal in the USA. Not sure what the Canadian market is like. If I were buying this in the USA I wouldn’t pay more than $700 assuming the locking block matches. You will either have to buy the right grips or find someone who will trade. Just a P.38 collector’s perspective.
Click to expand...


Here is the locking block, someone told me kt should be white and not blued, looks blued to me.

Thanks again to everyone who shared info here. Always great to learn new things about these. Really appreciate it.
 

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clm128 said:
Here is the locking block, someone told me kt should be white and not blued, looks blued to me.

Thanks again to everyone who shared info here. Always great to learn new things about these. Really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Someone doesn’t know Spreewerk locking blocks are lightly blued. IMO many Spreewerk pistols have had blue removed from locking blocks by collectors “fixing” them. Looks ok to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
mrfarb said:
IMO many Spreewerk pistols have had blue removed from locking blocks by collectors “fixing” them. Looks ok to me.
Click to expand...

Grip swappers making 'black widows'?? Swapping the correct handguard for a Durofol one? I'm sure there are others I missed.
 
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