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Welcome to the "Revolution"

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mrfarb

No War Eagles For You!
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For many years, I have studied Luger pistols in general. (About 2-3 years ago a thread about deaths head Lugers got me interested in the idea of SS Lugers, even though I swore I would never collect them, so I dove in - big mistake, the pool is dirty). This general research was an offshoot of the 98k books - its known as an interdisciplinary approach. Basically, I researched as much as I could about WW2 German Arms production in an effort to glean information useful to the task of writing books on 98k rifles. In that research, I found a lot of (what I considered) very curious attitudes about reworks and SS Lugers in the Luger establishment community. I found some really great minds in Luger collecting, and some great books. I met and interacted with many great guys who seem well versed in Lugers. But I noticed a distinct lack of research outside of Lugers by the average collector, like working in a box with no openings which would allow them to see the world around them. It's not all of them, in fact its probably a minority.

Luger's have probably been collected since the first day they were created. I know during and after WW2 the fervor increased, with GI's searching high and low for a "Luger". A lot were brought in to the States. As it is, the Luger collecting field is very old and mature. There is a dogma that exist which was very difficult for me to classify. I realized recently what that dogma is - its a sales pitch from the dealers of the past. They can deny it, but dealers and hucksters took control of Luger collecting many many years ago, all in the name of profit. A similar thing is happening right now to 98k collecting truth be told, with a few exceptions - we (as in this forum) are fighting the takeover. "Condition condition condition" is the law of the land there - where a 90% condition pistol is on the edge of being deemed collectible, and mint (seemingly impossible mint by the way) pistols are the creme de la creme. Luger's with the chosen pedigree are even more expensive - such as Krieghoff Lugers. There are some very rare Lugers which probably demand those prices, some real gems, I exclude those - I'm talking about the service pistol. But, in my opinion, this situation created by dealers long ago, before the current collector group even thought about Lugers, really hurt the field. It really reminds me how the dealer led Champagne Rune helmets ruined SS helmet collecting, and "exotic freshies" taints camo helmet collecting. FYI, I'm not pointing the finger at any current dealers, this goes back years.

A reworked Luger may as well be a Leper. Replaced parts, worn finish, rework stamps --- all black marks on the scale. So why is that? Fakes, plain and simple. There are so many fakes that fakes are used to create other fakes. The 70's fakes seem to be easy to spot, but the newer fakes are probably going to be tougher. Lugers have to be the most heavily faked of all the pistols. You have to be well studied to buy a Krieghoff Luger with any confidence. Also, dealers seemingly market "deaths head" Lugers with no idea how to authenticate them, much like dealers market fake SS rifles. Can they even be authenticated? We shall see, that is one purpose of this new endeavor. To bring the Leper colony out of the darkness and put the skills we've honed on 98k fakery to the Luger world.

With that all said, I like dirty, worn and reworked Lugers. My friends like them. We like SS Luger's too. When you are told SS Luger's don't exist, it defies logic. Actually, quite a few arguments about Luger pistols seem to defy logic. We will discuss the theories and put them to the test.

In closing, I'd like to say, please don't use this forum to attack other forums. We aren't here for that. The truth is what we are after, nothing less. As we dig deeper, we will all learn together as we do daily with 98k collecting. Lets start this new Luger collecting journey with an eye on the future. Leave the old ways to their own devices. Lets try to save reworked Lugers from the ash heap of the "its a shooter" mentality. But lets do it our way, with humor when its needed, and seriousness when its time to work. Lets have fun with this. We can create our own little corner of the Luger world, and they can keep theirs. In fact, I originally intended to create a separate forum for the Luger nerds, but realized WE do a lot of this together already. We already have a bunch of closet Luger guys here - and it lends itself to the interdisciplinary approach I spoke of.

Which leads me to the title of our new forum. LOL. I was drinking bourbon one night a few weeks ago and came up with that "Insurgent Luger Collectors Union" title. I still laughed at it over the next few days, and now it's stuck. We have a webpage too: www.modernlugercollector.com - that was also concocted in a bourbon haze. I polished it off a little since, we'll add to it later. I already have a submission from Ryan about the SS Lugers, but bear with me as I add photos to it and convert it to HTML and add it.
 
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