If you want a solid WWII gun, go with a good P38 as they are still the best bargain going. There were three makers of these. Walther made the most, and most of the pistols you'll see from them have the code "AC" and the year of manufacture on the frame. So a gun made in 1943 would have AC43 stamped. Early guns had 480 stamps, and if you ever see one of those, grab it as they're in the thousands of $$$$. Mauser made the second most, and are considered to be the highest quality. These have "BYF" stamped on the slide. The third maker was Spreewerke, which have "CYQ" and sometimes "CVQ" (which is believed to be the result of the stamp's letter Y being damaged) on the slide. Spreewerke pistols are horrible from a production standpoint (gross machine marks, improper finishing, bad fit, etc.), but they were made mainly by concentration camp labor and not skilled craftsmen. I have a Mauser BYF44 that was made in July 1944, and would really like to get a Spreewerke pistol because of the historic significance of who made them and the story behind them.
After manufacturer and year, the biggest consideration is import status. The Russians captured millions of firearms after the war, and kept them for future use. They started dumping these on the US market a while back. These are genuine wartime pistols, but for some crazy reason the Russians decided to just dump them into tanks of hot blue, which destroys their original finish... and value. The Russian guns are easy to spot as they are very dark in color, the red and white-painted safety markings on the slide are now black, and the Russians usually stamped a letter "X" on the slide to show it was captured. You can also take the grips off and look at the disconnector lever. This will be chromed silver on a non-Russian gun, and black on a Russian gun. Lastly, look for import marks. These are on the barrel of post-war guns, and usually on the front strap of the frame of wartime guns that were imported.
A good condition wartime trophy pistol is worth $1,000-$1,400. A good imported pistol is $700-$900, and a Russian gun is worth about $500. The nice thing is that most retailers don't know a wartime P38 from a post-war P1 made in West Germany, and often price their guns based on the P-1's value of about $450. I found a nice Spreewerke import for sale in one pawn shop for $299, which was worth double that, and should have bought it on the spot but took time to consider it and lost it. I also found my trophy Mauser pistol in a pawn shop for $450, and knowing that gun was worth about three times that I snapped it up in a heartbeat. So keep checking the pawn shops.
