mawkie
C&R Whisperer
-One of Mawkie's Rules of Acquisition is that you want to put eyes on every lot in an auction, aka the old saw to "leave no stone unturned". Deep in a Midwest online only auction was a lot with the title "no description". There were two grainy 20 ft photos of a pocket pistol and no other info. I instantly knew it was special and after about 30 seconds of head scratching a name pop'd into my noggin: "Korovin". Didn't take but seconds to verify that my memory was right. I was staring at a Soviet Tula-Korovin or TK pistol in 6.35mm.
-A search for comps showed a crazy low of $800 around a decade ago and a crazy high of $4500 by Scotty at Pre98 back in '21. The other three pre-pandemic sales I found were in the $2-2.5K range. So that was my market average to work with. Bidding a week out was weak so I threw a stupid low bid of $750 at it and crossed my fingers that nobody else knew what it was. Only took a couple of days for that fantasy disappear as two other bidders showed up. Normally I would throw out a max proxy bid and stick with that line in the sand. But this time I decided to just stay $100 ahead of my competitors, representing a stronger hand than I actually had. Each time they nibbled at my proxy bid, always coming $50 short, I would add another $100 to my bid.
-Just two day before the auction end, with me as high bidder @ $1100, I get a phone call from the auctioneer, telling me that he was having to approve each of my new bids manually. Something odd happening with the auction site. He expected to be busy with another live auction at the time this one closed so he suggested that I enter a max bid instead of my leapfrogging strategy. Didn't want a bid of mine to go un-approved when the auction closed. So I went with my typical 80 point strategy and when the dust settled I got it for $50 under that. The reserve bidder was that close. Had he thrown just one more $50 bid it would have been his instead.
-The day after the auction closed the auctioneer called to get payment and shipping info. He mentioned to me that the owner of the TK had no idea what it was either and offered to sell it to the auctioneer for $250. The auctioneer declined, much to his regret. Later on, when he saw my $750 bid he decided to search the 'net, figuring I knew something he didn't. He was right. That's when he had his "oh crap" moment. Knowledge is King!
-The late Joe Leiper assembled a very good primer on the TK over on Gunboards about 15 yrs ago. Sadly many of his photos are gone but luckily other TK owners uploaded their own so not a total bust. A good article, worth reading. Ian and his Forgotten Weapons site has a nice video covering the TK as well.
-Around 500k of the three variants of the TK were produced from 1926 until 1935. This one is of the 2nd variant with plastic grips secured by spring latches (vs the screw mounted wooden grips of the 1st variant).
-The Tula Korovin is a blow-back, single action, striker fired pocket pistol with an 8 round magazine. It's a bit larger than the Colt 1908 or FN 1905. It was the first Russian designed and produced auto pistol. Joe's article states that the Russians had a hot version of the 6.35mm built with a heavier bullet and bigger powder charge. The larger, stronger construction allowed the TK to handle the higher pressures involved but it would also function fine with std .25ACP rounds.
-In spite of 500k built there are few TKs to be found in the US. You'd have to ascertain that most, if not all, got here in the hands of returning GIs. While never officially adopted by the Soviet military, the TK was used by members of the NKVD as well as Soviet officers and Communist Party members.
-This one has a chunk of the right grip missing and most of the bluing faded to patina on the left side. The right side bluing is in pretty decent condition. It's a neat pistol with decent sights for something this size and holds well in the hand. The bakelite grips sport the text "TOV" which looks much like "TO3" and stands for Tula Weapons Factory in Russian.
-A neat find that came when I least expected it. Had to make a strong play for it as I doubt I'll see another for sale anytime soon.
-A search for comps showed a crazy low of $800 around a decade ago and a crazy high of $4500 by Scotty at Pre98 back in '21. The other three pre-pandemic sales I found were in the $2-2.5K range. So that was my market average to work with. Bidding a week out was weak so I threw a stupid low bid of $750 at it and crossed my fingers that nobody else knew what it was. Only took a couple of days for that fantasy disappear as two other bidders showed up. Normally I would throw out a max proxy bid and stick with that line in the sand. But this time I decided to just stay $100 ahead of my competitors, representing a stronger hand than I actually had. Each time they nibbled at my proxy bid, always coming $50 short, I would add another $100 to my bid.
-Just two day before the auction end, with me as high bidder @ $1100, I get a phone call from the auctioneer, telling me that he was having to approve each of my new bids manually. Something odd happening with the auction site. He expected to be busy with another live auction at the time this one closed so he suggested that I enter a max bid instead of my leapfrogging strategy. Didn't want a bid of mine to go un-approved when the auction closed. So I went with my typical 80 point strategy and when the dust settled I got it for $50 under that. The reserve bidder was that close. Had he thrown just one more $50 bid it would have been his instead.
-The day after the auction closed the auctioneer called to get payment and shipping info. He mentioned to me that the owner of the TK had no idea what it was either and offered to sell it to the auctioneer for $250. The auctioneer declined, much to his regret. Later on, when he saw my $750 bid he decided to search the 'net, figuring I knew something he didn't. He was right. That's when he had his "oh crap" moment. Knowledge is King!
-The late Joe Leiper assembled a very good primer on the TK over on Gunboards about 15 yrs ago. Sadly many of his photos are gone but luckily other TK owners uploaded their own so not a total bust. A good article, worth reading. Ian and his Forgotten Weapons site has a nice video covering the TK as well.
-Around 500k of the three variants of the TK were produced from 1926 until 1935. This one is of the 2nd variant with plastic grips secured by spring latches (vs the screw mounted wooden grips of the 1st variant).
-The Tula Korovin is a blow-back, single action, striker fired pocket pistol with an 8 round magazine. It's a bit larger than the Colt 1908 or FN 1905. It was the first Russian designed and produced auto pistol. Joe's article states that the Russians had a hot version of the 6.35mm built with a heavier bullet and bigger powder charge. The larger, stronger construction allowed the TK to handle the higher pressures involved but it would also function fine with std .25ACP rounds.
-In spite of 500k built there are few TKs to be found in the US. You'd have to ascertain that most, if not all, got here in the hands of returning GIs. While never officially adopted by the Soviet military, the TK was used by members of the NKVD as well as Soviet officers and Communist Party members.
-This one has a chunk of the right grip missing and most of the bluing faded to patina on the left side. The right side bluing is in pretty decent condition. It's a neat pistol with decent sights for something this size and holds well in the hand. The bakelite grips sport the text "TOV" which looks much like "TO3" and stands for Tula Weapons Factory in Russian.
-A neat find that came when I least expected it. Had to make a strong play for it as I doubt I'll see another for sale anytime soon.
