Caveat Emptor
Thanks, does the 9x21 add to or distract from collectibility?"(and etc., before and after)
I've pondered the very same since first seeing that particular firearm weeks ago. Notice it's had no takers in that period of time and, since it went off the board on 29 Aug., hasn't re-listed.
Here's my concerns with the firearm:
NO BOX - A really rich price for a no-box gun. Others offered of same construct in the last couple of weeks saw high-price sales @ around the same price BUT . . .
FINISH - it's really, really good. You know, perhaps such wouldn't be unusual had the lister's other Model 39s didn't also look pristine or close to such, even though they, too, have no box to offer. It's been my experience that rare is the next-to-pristine or better gun finish when the manufacturer's original box is unavailable. Still, the finish, while decent looking, just lacks the, uh, "class" of a first-rate S&W bluing - even should that bluing be an original, 50-or-60 year-old bluing. It is this collector's opinion that offered are refinished guns, whether done 10 years ago or 10 weeks ago. And THAT definitely diminshes a value.
ISRAELI - The proofs are Israeli. There's no reason to think the worse of something for being Isreali. But there are a HUGE number of Isreali guns suddenly making their way to the US market. I'm curious as to why, naturally, but I'm just as interested in what else may be on the near horizon coming in from that land. Just in the last five days Robertson Trading, which has been around for awhile and has a decent reputation in Ol' DC's eyes, listed an "Israeli" Model 39 at auction with (surprise!!) a "Duracoat refinish." "Something is happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear . . ." (with all due respect to Stephen Stills)
CALIBER - My copy of The Blue Book Ammo Encyclopaedia says the 9x21 cartridge (an Israeli design) is "obsolete." Just two weeks ago I checked to see if any 9x21 was available on the market and yes, yes it is. Only the place which said it had eight boxes didn't have even one on hand and wondered aloud as to how the 9x21 was even on their Website in the first place. "It isn't Parabellum, right?" Ol' DC fielded while speaking over his handheld portable radio. Such doesn't exactly portend plentiful 9x21 ammunition stocks to me.
ALL OF THE ABOVE isn't to say this collector wouldn't buy the firearm, but I'm only willing to do so at roughly the present price if allayed are my concerns and fears. OTHERWISE, the price will have to come down somewhere around $600 to $1k to offset those fears sufficiently to, well, allay those fears.
Later.