Ten years ago you could buy a H&H Royal 12 ga in excellent shape for GBP5000. Today you can sell that gun for twice that sum of money and you will have had plenty of pleasure along the way. What makes that a lousy investment?
This doesn't require that you steal the gun. Just pay the going rate for a quality gun and you won't get hurt. And avoid buying a lemon by spending $100 to get a knowledgeable technical person to look at it.
There's also an opportunity to create instant equity if you buy smart. But this requires a few years' experience, esp. if you get off the beaten track a little. You don't find this kind of gun on a knowledgeable dealer's rack. You may need to go overseas to find them.
I suspect that our buyer thinks he can get into the latter category of purchase. He can only do that if he has a consultant who is willing to do a lot of looking around and be on call, for not much money.
He is probably going to need two advisors: a gunsmith to do technical evaluations, and a consultant to advise him on pricing. In my experience, good gunsmiths aren't that current on pricing.
Forget buying new. No matter who the maker, you can't make a return buying new doubles. They cost a lot more to build than they fetch in the secondary market.
My advice to this guy would be to pool his money with a similarly-minded but more experienced buyer, and then to buy whole estates or collections together. Then sell the guns off over time, keeping one or two each that fit/appeal. The keepers will probably be "free" unless you really screw up.
