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Found this on egun, the german equivalent of Gunbroker!
The guy had the serial number of this Remington Rand indicated as 44948948
http://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=3741427
after several requests he corrected it to 4948948.
All the research I've done on the web points to the direction that this is an non-existant serial number!! They stopped at 24XXXXX didn't they!? Is it a fake or did I get something wrong???
Last Remington produced was 2465139.
After calling the seller and having him taking a closer look he mentioned that the starting "4" looks different than the second "4". Furthermore Mr. Langguth believes it could have been a "1" turned into a "4", what would make it a 1944 Ithaca (S/N 1.848.948). This would also match the FJA marking on the left side of the frame (yes, he confirmed that one to me).
I would request a close up photo of the serial number, as it is not sounding good.
Thanks a lot for your help Promo!!!!!! But i'm afraid it comes to late as I didn't have the cojones and retreated from the auction!
I had a friend placing a bid for me, after he called me on my mobile, it was maybe a little hasty.....when I checked the auction in the evening I found out about the funny serial number! So I called the guy next morning, a few days back now. He was very friendly but didn't know where to find the Remington Rand to check the serial number! He said that he might have gotten something wrong! Then my friend send him a message via egun asking again for the serial number, the answer from the seller was " 44948948 " !!!!! When my buddy got back to him, stating that it had to be a fake pistol as this serial number was never used he came back with number "4948948". This is also recorded in his description on egun! By then I was really worried, the elusiveness of the description, it is not written that it actually is a Remington Rand, it only states that it is marked as such, combined with the apparent reluctance of the seller to shed a light on the serial number issue and the very bad quality of the picture had me convinced that it was too big a risk to go on, specially so as I was prepared to pay a hefty price and our bid was accordingly "substantial". I had already planned to drive to his shop on friday to have a look at the gun and, if I would have been satisfied with what I had seen, I was mentally prepared to do a "snipe" for 1500€ on saturday morning, just before the end of the auction.
I can't tell if the gun is a fake or not, but I can tell that german gun shop owners seem to have an easy life. If the guy had shown a little initiative and if he had done half an hour research on the internet, he would have been able to put a decent description onto egun and he might have ended with a much better result. Not to mention the fact that there had to be at least four inquiries before he started checking the serial number in a serious way!
Mr. Langguth sells SUCH a large quantity of arms and is a single man company, so he doesn't even have the time to do a little more research on any of his pistols. I wouldn't bid 1500 Euro on that one, there are better pieces for half the price on eGun. And the auction has not ended yet :)
So as a buyer you have to throw the dices? That's not what I call a serious business model, if you do not get a decent answer after three attempts, you will not want to commit yourself. The "Masse statt Klasse" is a very short sighted approach, unhappy customers spilling his guts on the web can be lethal!
In the case of Mr. Langguth you just have to know that you need to call him, he is very friendly and open to any questions - but in most cases you do not get any answer at all to e-mails. Due to that, I've already made a good buy for little money several times ;) .
I had him on the phone...he was very friendly but couldn't be bothered about checking the serial nimber on the 1911A1:)
It really doesn't require any research to put a gun's serial number in an ad. He might not know a Type II from a Type III Remington Rand and doesn't want to find out, but can't be bothered for a serial number?