Our poster Blake had that gun. The interesting part about it is how early a postwar 357 it was. Its awful close to the guns that were still pre-war non-registered. Just a few thousand numbers, and all those weren't magnums.
I managed to cheat the same seller out of a set of prewar N grips. Poor Blake took a beating today. He still had the N grip adapter flopping around in his display case.
I talked to Dave for a while. He's found it necessary to bring along a body guard. That or a porter to haul his purchases.
He did tell an interesting story that I knew the other side of. My long time and now deceased table pard John had a spectacular Colt. Really the gun was pretty gaudy, but if you liked flash (bling), it fit the bill. The very best part of that gun was the set of carved ivory grips. They were quite possibly the nicest set of handgun handles I've ever seen. And I've seen a few. This set was not just ivory, but they had the classic pose of Marilyn Monroe on the ventilation grate. The one where it blew her dress up and she was laughing trying to hold it down. The carving was very well done.
Because otherwise the gun was so awful, it languished in Johns display for a few years. If we had one inquiry, we had hundreds of fools trying to buy just the ivory. It seemed no one wanted that gun. Everyone wanted the grips.
Then one gunshow the gun was there but the grips were gone and an fittingly ugly set of hard rubbers were on it. John's story was that some guy came up and just bulled his way ahead. He just started pealing off $100 bills till John had no choice but to sell the grips. Our poster Dave was the buyer. Good to hear one of us got them. They'd make any gun look spectacular.
In a couple of weeks it will be 3 years since John's passing. Its good to know others still remember him.
