Thanks Salopian,

This helps now put it into some better perspective for me.

You stated: "which is precisely why my 'Best'gun will be of superior or inferior finish and quality than some other owner of the same 'Best'".

Are you saying that some of the better known names used several different enough suppliers for their best grade guns that one can sometimes see signifant differences between essentially the firm's same best model? Excluding the engraving of course.