I just picked this up online and just received it about an hour ago. The pictures were sort of hard to tell the originality of it. But as soon as I looked at it in person, I'm pretty sure this is a parts scope. I haven't messed with the A4 in years, so I want to make sure I am not wrong in my assumption as I'm sure I've forgotten more than I remember on the A4.
Looking at the scope, I think the whole thing has been refinished. I think the tube has been possibly been re-blued. And the data plate and eyepiece seem to be phosphate. Which I don't think anything was ever phosphated on the M73B1, even late production. So that would mean for sure refinished. The serial number on the side appears to be finished over, and it has Telescope M73B2 under the serial and it appears to be almost gone except it is halfway visible in the right light.
Also I can't get it to focus right. The optics are pretty clear, but it won't focus. I would imagine to focus it, you would just turn the objective, but it makes no difference at all. I had a few M73b1's back in the day and I don't remember ever having trouble getting them to focus. It's just very blurry. So I imagine it needs to be serviced. I think ironsight used to do it, but I think it was about a $100 and a year wait. And I have the patience of a teenager on this stuff. So I don't know if anyone else does it faster?
But I would imagine this is a parts scope that has been refinished. Am I correct? If it is, I might just see if the seller would take it back . What do you guys think?