1903 Colt Hammerless, but I too am "Froogal" (or perhaps just cheap, tight, miserly or some other adjective) It is on my shopping list too and someday I'll find one I think I can afford.
Jerry:
Eat your heart out,my friend … but I recently acquired this Colt 1903 in an online auction for a successful bid of Can$110.00! (about US$82.00 currently) …
There aren't many positive things about existence under Canada's idiotic firearms laws, but one thing is that I happen to be "grandfathered" to own and acquire "prohibited handguns".
One type of firearm legally "prohibited" in Canada is "handguns with a barrel length of 105 mm or less or that discharge .25 or .32 calibre ammunition", but under section 12(6) of the Firearms Act, anyone who already legally owned at least one such handgun when that prohition came into effect, is "grandfathered" to not only continue to own (and shoot) it, but also to legally acquire, own, and shoot any other handgun covered by the definition. (It is not legally possible to acquire this "grandfathered" status in any other way, and one can only dispose of such handguns to another person wo is also "grandfathered" … OR they can be passed on to a child … who then can legally own them and pass them on similarly, but cannot acquire more. One of my two daughters has her Possession and Acquisition License, and owns firearms, so ...)
Because of the "prohibition" in Canada, with the resulting very limited market for such handguns, prices for them are ridiculously low in this country, and I have decided to keep my eyes open with a view to acquiring a mini-collection of pre-WWII .32ACP (and possibly also .25ACP) handguns. In the same auction, I also picked up TWO nice Browning Model 1900 .32ACP pistols (one for Can$90 and the other for Can$80 … didn't expect both bids to win!) Furthermore, in another upcoming auction (scheduled for Sept 29) I currently have the high bids on a Savage Model 1907, two Mauser Model1910s and two Browning Model 1910s, among a few others … could end up owning a few more duplicates! I am currently "high bidder" on some of these at Can$10.00! (Mind you, my maximum bids are higher, of course, and bidding will jump up when the time of the actual auction rolls around.)