It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to be active on the website. I have moved full-time into firearm sales and also moved to a bigger location so my focus has been in the real world rather than the virtual–but in the last couple of months, I’ve managed to build out a collection of M-Series guns almost by accident.

Of the above pictured guns, the only one that I actively searched for was the 17TM which is a simmunition version of the FBI’s 17M. The FBI contract with Glock required production of all the training versions of the weapons to be supplied so there are sim guns as well as inert practice guns (the “P” versions that are fully functional except for the ability to fire). Within the collector community, we’ve uncovered a dozen or so of the TM 17s and exactly TWO of the PM 17s, but presumably there are versions of the 19 as well.

All of the guns in the above picture are actual FBI contract guns save for the FDE 19 that was covered in a previous post. While they were not likely ever issued to the FBI, they are blue-label guns with the FBI internals (nDLC coating and specially marked barrels). The 19M MOS is especially rare on the civilian market with as few as five being in collector hands.

Sooo, cool story bro, but what do we do with these guns? I’m an ardent Gen 1 collector mainly for the history and the rarity of those guns. The early development of the company and the firearm just fascinates me and we know they aren’t being made any longer so there’s a little bit of safety associated with those investments. In the case of the M guns, we really can’t be sure about that; Lipseys has already released civilian versions and while they weren’t quite the same gun, just the fact that they were marked with the “M” stamp hurt the value of the FBI spec guns on the collector market. When you’re talking about the only difference being the label on the case and the internal coating on the parts, it can be hard to justify spending three times the money for the “real deal.”

What complicates matters for me even more is that I have stumbled into every one of these purchases just by happening to be at the right shop on the right day. A couple were also included with a collection I was purchasing (for the gen 1s) and decided to buy the whole lot. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than to be good 🙂

With that said, I’m very curious what will happen to the value of these guns over time. As I’ve probably over-stated multiple times, I got in to this hobby because of the tremendous investment potential of early Glocks. However, once you’ve started down the rabbit hole, it quickly becomes a Pokemon situation where you are trying to catch them all… In the case of the M-Series, it is definitely an example of ME being the one caught! Hope you all enjoy.