I wholeheartledly agree. One must be the first purchaser of a gun to get it for the best price. What I mean by first purchaser is that one must be the first one to realize what the hell he is looking at. I have seen items pass through a few hands without going up much due to lack of knowledge of what they had (this is rare these days, though) If one is able to scour the shows, classifieds, and internet, one is able to find deals from time to time. This also true of any collectable-i.e. good (not so)common sense.
I found my Purdey by the way, and a Holland and Holland too! I hit it somewhere in the middle price wise of first purhcaser and retail but I am quite happy with the quality of both. I probably passed on 100 guns to get to what I wanted though.
