Larry,
A Darne is much more coveted in Europe than it is here. And, a Spanish gun is more coveted in Spain than here.

Manufacturers understand that. Exports are priced accordingly. An R15 was about US $2000 more, in France, at the time I was doing it, than here. You can call whatever you want, but, that is a fact.

My point on the 311, which, you've managed to miss several times now, is the quality difference between a pre and post war 311 doesn't matter much since it is a $500 dollar first double. In either case, they will sell for about what you paid for them, any manufacturing changes aside.

A friend recently purchased a used, cased, 12 gauge 701, and I can assure you, it cost a hell of a lot more than your idea of $2000. If it hadn't, I would have bought it.

I'm sure you went to gunbroker and elsewhere, and saw BSS 12 gauges for the same $1400-$1600 asking prices that I have. The same guns, the same prices, for the same past couple of years. Anyone can ask anything they want, but, they aren't selling for that.

And, you know it, too. You also know that the cased William Powell and Son boxlock 12 I bought well used in 1981 appreciated more than your new BSS example between that time and when I sold it in 2005. As did my MacNaughton boxlock.

Both, good quality, used, British boxlocks. Sold without advertising, at my local club just by showing up, and shooting them.

Those BSS sporters are few and far between. Browning collectors, aren't. That might explain the price difference better, since, we have at least three people, in just this post, that didn't think too highly of the BSS trigger.

Did they put a better trigger in the Sporter?

I think the Beretta is a better gun, period, and the options that were available to Beretta buyers in the era when both the BSS and the Beretta were sold were just icing on the cake. I think the American hardware store guns are a better value and a better use of limited funds, in this case, and a good learning gun for someone new to the double game. Double guns aren't for everyone. I think the Browning BSS has a well deserved reputation of having a crappy trigger, backed up here in this post, and it is asthetically unpleasing, cumbersome, and a poor choice for a field gun.

I also think you would stand a better chance of selling, rather than talking about it, good quality British boxlocks vs any NIB BSS, today.

Good luck with the A5, Larry.

Best,
Ted