number of walther collectors

No idea how such a guesstimate would be determined, but we can see a steady rise in prices as one indication of sustained and growing interest in vintage ZM and Ulm Walthers. Likewise, Manurhin prices are rising, which suggests to me a second-level knowledge about post-war Walthers. I would guess that those buyers are not predominately people raised in the post-Wonder 9 era, but perhaps those folks are actually more appreciative of old-school quality once they get more educated. My entirely uninformed $0.02

Generally speaking collecting seems to be a bit of a last century thing so I am somewhat pessimistic on the subject?

AFAIK there is only 1 truly serious Walther collector. He is known in these parts as "Der König" or "The Walther King."

Um we have number of good collectors at the yearly meeting of the P.38 forum in Louisville KY at the end of February. Usually 80 to 100 attendees.

bakersfieldkelley said:

Does anyone have an idea of how many serious Walther collectors there are? ...

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How serious does one have to be?

M

DeutschlandUberAlles said:

I guess I'm a "collector".

In the past 9 months.......
Seven P5s, 4 appear NIB, including a 2 barrel (.30Para/9Para) "Cat 1062", a Deutsche Bank Munich security gun, and a Lang.

A NIB P88C with Nill grips.

Two HK P7 M13s, a shooter and a spotless appears NIB example.

Two Sig Sauer P6s too.


The crown jewel of the collection....

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LifesizePotato...is that you?


I'd love a P5 Lang.


I have 3 P38s, and 9 guns total, so, YMMV...

What is a collector? Number of guns? Time to acquire? Money spent?

Or enjoyment/care of whatever you have?

I keep wondering why the Walther King is no longer active on the forum. It was a gun photo of his that led me to this forum. I really enjoyed his posts . . . nothing but guns and incredible gun photos.

I've always suspected that he is the guy in Germany that had the PzKw V in his basement, and got in big trouble because of it.


It's interesting that this subject came up, as we were discussing it at the last gunshow of the season on Saturday. Consensus was pretty grim. The younger folks that are into guns prefer modern, practical weapons that require little maintenance. They wouldn't know a Borchardt from a Webley and don't care that they don't know the difference.

Yeah, I wondered about Tanfo’s collection getting a bit edgy for the Deutschland authorities.

BlitzPig said:

I've always suspected that he is the guy in Germany that had the PzKw V in his basement, and got in big trouble because of it.


It's interesting that this subject came up, as we were discussing it at the last gunshow of the season on Saturday. Consensus was pretty grim. The younger folks that are into guns prefer modern, practical weapons that require little maintenance. They wouldn't know a Borchardt from a Webley and don't care that they don't know the difference.

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I've opened the eyes of several 20something employees at Modern Outfitters, Dallas.


These employees have seen most of my "all metal" classic handguns (P5s, P88C, HK P7s....) and have really taken an interest. One is currently in the market for a Luger, and another has been working me to sell him a P5.


Even these younger "poly gun" fans come around when they see/handle/shoot metal classics.


One M.O. employee even commented my Walther P88Compact w/Nills has "character" that no poly gun can come close to.

NotEnoughP38s said:

No problem.



He said in his P5 video only 100 (one hundred?!) Langs were made?


I think it is fair to say the P5 is the P38's ultimate development. It is just so gorgeous in proportion and function, with a few modern touches.



It would be my unicorn gun.


Perhaps one day...$$$

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Stating under 100 produced P5 Langs is a very safe statement.


From the info I've been able to gather online, it seems a total of 88 barrels were produced, 8 left Ulm as replacement parts (see Earls and the $6k Lang barrels for sale), 12 barrels were mated to slides ONLY, and were sent to the German pistol ranges where LEOs swapped these onto their standard 3.5" barrel P5 service pistols.


This leaves ~68 complete P5 Langs having left Ulm.


The P5 is the final evolution of the P38, and I certainly consider the #81 Lang the unicorn of my collection.

DeutschlandUberAlles said:

Stating under 100 produced P5 Langs is a very safe statement.


From the info I've been able to gather online, it seems a total of 88 barrels were produced, 8 left Ulm as replacement parts (see Earls and the $6k Lang barrels for sale), 12 barrels were mated to slides ONLY, and were sent to the German pistol ranges where LEOs swapped these onto their standard 3.5" barrel P5 service pistols.


This leaves ~68 complete P5 Langs having left Ulm.


The P5 is the final evolution of the P38, and I certainly consider the #81 Lang the unicorn of my collection.

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Well stated!


Just wish I didn't need to sell a kidney to get one...

NotEnoughP38s said:

Well stated!


Just wish I didn't need to sell a kidney to get one...

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There was one purchased for ~1k from a guns store about 2years ago.

DE Pistole said:

I keep wondering why the Walther King is no longer active on the forum. It was a gun photo of his that led me to this forum. I really enjoyed his posts . . . nothing but guns and incredible gun photos.

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I posted about Tanfoglio a while back; no replies. When he was still active I asked him what restrictions applied to him and he replied "I may own anything". I pm'd him last year. No answer. I miss his posts.

Compared to earlier times, there is unfortunately a concentration today: fewer and fewer people own more and more weapons. However, I would not necessarily speak of collections, but rather of accumulations. But a collection and an accumulation probably have one thing in common: One can no longer say for sure how many weapons he or she actually owns.

I can call myself a collector and an accumulator too. The PP series represents more than half of all my weapons. There I collect according to criteria. With other weapons my purchase depends mainly on the mood and my purse.