No, its long since vanished. What struck me was him pricing it that high. He'd sold me one of mine a few years back and while nearly perfect, I was stunned by both him asking so much and me somehow willing to pay it. But that was $3850 and basically a trade with the bait RMs.

One of our gun show regulars is Blake. He's not really a kid anymore, but compared to us oldfarts, he still is. Maybe 4 or 5 years ago he had a moderately well worn 2nd model, and was teetering on the idea of trading it to me for a decent RM. As I remember it, both guns were showing way too much wear to really be considered collectors guns. They were just very nice shooters. He couldn't decide. I think he was afraid I knew something he didn't and that I was trying to skin him. I've reminded him of it recently.

And I can honestly admit I've never shot either of my guns. But I've got prewar K22s to shoot, just outdoorsman. And I've got kind of early Postwar guns that I do shoot.

And an interesting story about my 2nds. I've had one for maybe 10 or so years. Back in that time period David Carroll was passing by and stopped in of a visit. He regularly passes where I live. He came in and we had a nice visit. It was at the old house here, and I had a gun room in the basement. His interest was primarily in RMs, but he wanted to look at 44s and K22s also. So out came the one 2nd I owned at the time. He looked at it for a minute or so, we boxed it back up and put it in the safe. Life continued. Then maybe 5 years ago (maybe more), but at least 5 years since he'd seen my 2nd) he had the other one I got from him. When I looked at it, it was nearly perfect - at the very least very nice. When I suggested to him it was about equal to my other one, he instantly said "no, its better". He was right. Maybe there is a difference between 97% and 98% guns, but it just amazed me David could remember it. And do the comparison that much later in time.

Another 2nd model comment. There seem to be way too many near perfect boxes turning up. I've personally come into 2 of them. One lives with the gun I got from David. The other was a disaster. One of our posters here "found" it in a barn he was tearing down. After a failed attempt to sell it here, he sent it to me, gratis! But I didn't keep it, I gave it to David so he could match it with a similarly distressed gun.

One of my fears is we have a situation (reinforced by the M&P shipped in a Masterpiece box) similar to that with K32s in the postwar. Ray Brazile tells a story about buying a boxcar load of them for almost nothing. Then selling them for obscene profits. His answer is that nearly everyone who paid him his price turned around and made even more. And its why a huge number of postwar K32s reside in boxes. I'm starting to wonder if we don't have a similar situation with 2nds.

The only thing notable about 692,966 is it came with a grip adapter. Both of mine have service grips.

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Dick Burg