Jim said:
While those fake "Red 9's" are perfectly good shooters*, they have little collector value, so anyone buying a broomhandle should do enough research to be sure he is getting fair value for his money.
This!
Shooter grade used to run around $500 but I'm not current on the C96 market. You can still get the barrels relined, it's a fairly affordable operation.
Many of these were restored, reblued back in the 50's and now 60+ years later they can appear to be original with very minor wear. Inspect a collector grade very close. I see reblues passed off as original often.
Ever numbered part must match, stocks are numbered to the pistol.
A forerunner to your "Red 9" this 1916 Wartime Commercial, This variant is distinguished by the first appearance of the New Safety. It superseded the Prewar Commercial, perhaps as early as 1912. The war didn't start until August 1914, but this variant is called the Wartime Commercial nonetheless. It is identical to the Prewar Commercial (the later variety with six rifling grooves), except for a few changes -
* New Safety
* "NS" monogram added to back of hammer
* Hammer milling changed for New Safety
* Solid safety lever knob (no hole)
* 50-1000 meter tangent sight, without "900" meter mark. Most Prewar Commercials have sights with the "900" mark
The Wartime Commercial can be easily distinguished from the Prewar Commercial by the hammer, which is marked on the back with an intertwined NS monogram, and the safety lever knob. The only internal change is to the hammer. The number of grooves in the grip panels continues to vary.
The authors of System Mauser note serial 290090 as the lowest number Wartime Commercial they'd seen. However, my database has one with a much lower number - presenting serial 232232, a Wartime Commercial in all respects (New Safety, 30-groove grips, tangent sight without a "900" mark, etc).
System Mauser gives an observed high serial of 433900 for Wartime Commercials. My own database lists Wartime Commercials up to 426651.