.45 Luger... a bargain!

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Like most rarities, it's how the item is packaged and timing of the sale. This gun didn't really get the pre-sale publicity others have and times are tough even for the uber-rich. My guess would also be Spielberg.

On Sunday, under very different economic circumstances, the coveted .45-caliber Luger found a new owner for half that price at a public auction in Anaheim.

The gavel came down at $430,000 from an anonymous bidder. With the 15% buyer's premium, the 103-year-old weapon fetched $494,500.

"It's a great bargain; he'll be very happy," said Greg Martin, whose company, Greg Martin Auctions, ran the sale. "The mystery of the million-dollar Luger has been solved by the market. But it will always be known as the million-dollar Luger."

Proxy bidder Paul Cole, president of Gun World in Burbank, said he represented a celebrity who chose to remain anonymous.

"The buyer has a huge firearms collection," Cole said. "He wanted to make this the crowning jewel of his collection. He's really excited; he's in tears. And it's really hard to get him excited."

Martin had hoped for a higher price, noting that last year his firm auctioned the Colt Single-Action Army revolver, Serial No. 1, for $862,500, one of the highest prices ever paid at auction for a firearm.
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I got a couple of those for the kids to play with - ought to go check the toy box and see if they are still around.
 
I wonder if the Luger collecting craze is dying down. The WWII and 50's generation were really into Lugers. But then they were also into Model A's. As they have died off the Model A market has really softened, I wonder if the Luger market is following that trend.

For me, a Luger is a curio. I don't care for 9mm. Not practical at all for self defense: Two hands to operate the safety, balky magazine, reputation for being fincky with ammo. With fixed sights it would be a bother to sight in.
 
For me, a Luger is a curio. I don't care for 9mm. Not practical at all for self defense: Two hands to operate the safety, balky magazine, reputation for being fincky with ammo. With fixed sights it would be a bother to sight in.
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two hands to operate the safety? I've only held a luger and I could do it one handed easy, I could learn to switch it off on instinct.
 
A .45 Luger is a true piece of history but for that price I could get about 10 other super highly historical guns. I once turned down a really nice Paterson Revolving shotgun for $15k serial number was 3 as I recall. I've kicked myself for not buying that one but 15k was a serious stretch for me at the time.
 
i was always taught that collectibles were the worst form of investments

either way if i had the money to play with i would have attempted to buy it
 
I guess to each their own, the market may be softening on "million dollar lugers", but the market on the regular ones has not.

I absolutely love lugers, if the prices were falling, I would be very happy, as that would mean I could buy more.

If you have an honest luger, the last thing I would worry about is its value depreciating.
 
Nice, if I had a bunch of cash sitting around I didn't need, I'd buy one. Better than collecting 1% interest in the bank.

I love Lugers and anything German military related.
 
They were being made in Houston, Texas were they not?
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are you talking about the stainless ones?

we used to have a gentleman out here in northern CA who used to make them in his workshop by welding together 2 9mm Lugers, his work was beautiful and he left them in "the white" with a finish that looked like stainless. i think his name was martz
 
Read the caption- the buyer is not Spielberg.

An Indonesian billionaire purchased this .45-caliber Luger, one of only three made for the U.S. market in 1907, for $1 million in the late 1980s.
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the .45 luger sold for 1 million 10 years ago to the previous owner. there' only one still in existence. guns & ammo had a big article about the sale. (back when i still read gun rags lol)

not totally surprised to see it sold for half that recently. collectibles frequently rise and fall in value/popularity. coins, stamps, comic books, etc...
 
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There was a time when the Iraelis used a lot of Nazi guns. I have a Nazi FN 98-Mauser they converted to 7.62 Nato back in the 1960s.
 
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