I don't get the hate going on here. I like "black widow" Lugers. Yes, it's a hokey made up name coined to make the poorest quality Luger more collectible. But if you collect Lugers it's an important variation. The salt blue finish and plastic grips stand in sharp contrast to the fine quality Lugers manufactured before WW1.
Regarding the Luger that started this post, it had "armorers replacement" grips. We know they were not original to the gun as manufactured, so it is no longer factory original. The question becomes who installed them and when? Unless you are the veteran who picked it up and brought it home after the war, it's anybody's guess. They could have been installed in the 1960s to replace the "cheap plastic" grips it was wearing. Or maybe the Germans did it in 1944. We will never know.
A childhood friend has the Luger his father brought home, complete with capture papers. It's in excellent condition. The vet was a Forward Observer in the 80th Division, fought from Normandy to Germany except for a short period of time when he was recovering from wounds. He told us how he came by the Luger. No, he didn't dispatch an SS officer in hand to hand combat. They were cleaning out a town, the surrendering Germans were tossing their weapons in a pile in the town square. A German approached the pile, took his belt and holster off, as he was about to throw it in the pile the vet took it out of his hand. The vet slid the holster off the belt and tossed the belt into the pile.
The Luger is a byf 42 in a brown dta 41 holster. Neither mag matches. The rest of the gun matches except for the grips, which are wood and serial numbered but not to the gun. This is how it was brought home. Who's to say when the grips were changed? Could have been the Germans, could have been the vet who preferred wood to plastic. If I had known at the time the grips were mismatched I would have asked the vet about it. Again, we'll never know.
The vet was a pretty cool guy, I learned a lot about the war in the ETO from him. He carried a Thompson, among his many stories was how SS prisoners were routinely culled out and shot. But that's another story.
In my world a gun is either factory original and matching or it is not. It's like being pregnant, there is no in between. Armorers parts are replacement parts. Period. I do make allowance for guns that went through a depot and are so marked.
I don't specifically collect Lugers but over the years I have owned a fair number of them.
None of this is meant as a defense of Legacy's actions, or to cast aspersions on anyone else, this is just my personal collecting philosophy developed over the last 50 years.
