I know that prices on GI .45's have skyrocketed lately, but I'm trying to determine if I'm that out of touch.

At a gun show today, and some guy had a GI mixmaster on his table. Nice clean Ithaca slide, and a nice, clean property-marked Colt receiver. Both were Parked. Problem is it was a 1911, not an A1. The thumb safety was a blued late model commercial unit. Hammer looked like a 1911 spur, and the grip safety looked like an A1. Even so, I thought it would make a decent shooter if the price was right. I've got a GI thumb safety in the parts bin.

Well, the guy said he couldn't take less than $1150 for it. I put it down, said thanks, and walked away. So am I being naive about current pricing, or was that guy dreaming?

Drugs and alcohol were involved.

He doesn't want to sell it.

I'd give him 300 bucks and tell him he can keep the slide.

For a mixmaster to be worth that kind of money it better bd a 'correct' one. By correct I mean all the parts need to be USGI,  and correct for the time frame of the pistol. Once you start seeing 1911 and 1911A1 parts, never mind commercial parts the jig is up and you have a $600 shooter at best.

He'll probably get it.  Not right away maybe, but it will sell for close to that price.

$600 mixmaster?  Not for several years.

Rebuilds on M1911 frames are common, but it shouldn't have any commercial parts. Again, there is nothing wrong or unusual for a U.S. pistol to have an M1911 frame with any combination of USGI parts from any period. However, they would never have issued a rebuild with different finishes on the frame and slide, such as the original blued M1911 frame with a WWII Parkerized slide. The last thing is, it really wouldn't be a shooter because the WWII slides were only spot-hardened. I mean you could shoot it but you wouldn't be able to predict if or when the frame might crack. So I'd say the subject pistol was over-priced considering the commercial safety. It's 'shooter' status is of no concern because even rebuilds are sought for the fact that they certainly have more history than a pristine example, many of them having been used in WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam and every other hot spot until the '80s.
I guess $750 would be a better price considering the questions.

I think only if you're overly cautious. There are a lot of GI surplus guns still being shot out there with no ill effects. I wouldn't put any hot loads in one or use it for high round count competition, but I and my friends have shot a lot of GI .45's with no ill effects.

The RR I had in VN had passed through a lot of hands, and a lot of use with no visible issues. I'd like to know what became of it.

The WWII slides cracked almost as bad as the WWI. About 1950 they finally developed the fully-hardened slide. Very many pistols received these slides before the pistols were obsoleted in the '80s. Authorities on the USGI 1911s never recommend shooting the old slides. You might get away with it for a long time and you might not. On a rebuild it's not critical because you don't lose any value if you have to put another USGI slide on it, but for an original pistol it's a catastrophe.