You got 1 whole box of those, eh Larry? When you going to buy another? Might want to have a word with your broker. You might want to also keep in mind that tungsten hit $175 a pound, circa 1977. When there were dozens more mines operating.
Maybe SSSs aren't 311s, but a name, London pigeon gun ain't a SSSs. Rocketman might shed more light on that than I could, but, I think we are talking, at minimum, tens of thousands of dollars. Haven't seen any SSSs for that kind of dough.
The whole soul argument from Japan, Inc. should be tempered with the understanding that were it not for the NSX, and the GSX (Corolas won't be collectable, but these already are) Ferarri would not have been shamed into building stuff that didn't fall apart, like just about any 308, and Ducati would not have been allowed to run 1000cc twins in Superbike, while the Japanese were limited to 750cc fours.
You want soul? Listen to a 1969 Honda 750 at idle. If you haven't been paying attention, these are worth larger amounts of money to collectors as same vintage Harleys. Or, any rocker adjusted Suzuki GS four, including the first rendition (oil/air cooled) of the GSX, circa 1985, or so, as the engine is coming on to the cam, right around 8500-9000 RPM, when that little 750cc engine is well on it's way to the 12,000 RPM redline, and making more than 3 times as much power as any air cooled Harley lump will ever make.
Form follows function, and while a lot of us aren't running out to buy Parker repops, we aren't running out to buy Parker originals, either. Most of the guys seriously thinking about using such a gun in the future would be much better served with the repro SSS, since, it can eat whatever.
Lot of soul in that notion-being able to use your gun. No matter what.
Best,
Ted
