Thanks for the update.

Lots of "sticker shock" expressed here, and lots of indignation about perceived price gouging by a quasi-governmental organization.

What I took out of the article is:

1. The Secretary of the Army is authorized to release up to 100,000 pistols to CMP.

2. There is currently no Secretary of the Army, so until a new appointment is made this program is rather moot.

3. There is no statutory requirement for release of the pistols, only an authorization to do so. The next appointee may act or not, as he/she may see fit.

4. No one at CMP has seen any of these pistols, or knows with any certainty whether or not they will ever see these pistols, or has any concrete information about condition, etc. A CMP officer has offered an opinion, based upon long experience with surplus US military arms, that certain percentages will be within certain established grades. That may or may not be proven out by experience.

Personally, I will withhold judgment until more is known and an actual sales program comes into existence. If that should happen I would be surprised if the military actually delivers as many as 10,000 per year, and even more surprised if CMP is able to process and sell half that number per year, at least until all the kinks are worked out of the program.

Currently on the collector market an original M1911A-1 with all correct parts and in very good to excellent condition will bring between $1600 and $40,000, depending on maker and rarity. A beater, mix-master, re-arsenaled piece with who knows what combination will bring $700-plus. In short, I don't think that a benchmark of $1000 for a "service grade" original pistol is all that unreasonable. These are more than serviceable firearms, they are historical artifacts.

Maybe, just maybe, there will be a few pristine examples. Perhaps a handful of fully correct US&S pistols will turn up. There may even be a Singer or two lying in government stores. Of course, all of those will be auction pieces and we would have to compete with every deep pockets collector in the country for any chance at all!