Diggory is well versed in the old wive's tale about bad condition and refinishing affecting American guns more than British guns. He doesn't believe it all because he realizes that low condition and badly refinished British guns sell for much less than better ones. Unfortunately, many gun people have been fed this pablum for so long that they believe all Purdeys, refinished and ground down, or not refinished or ground down sell for the same money. It is not true and Diggory knows it. The Brits like condition and originality just like we do, and they pay for it just like we do. I can buy his Birmingham guns all day long for a very few hundred dollars in ground down condition. Find me a ninety year old mint Birmingham 20 gauge and it will sell for a fortune, just like a ninety year old mint Parker 20 gauge. Diggory's logic has nothing to do with anything except that there are way fewer shotgun collectors in GB than there are in the U.S. If there were as many people in GB interested in shotgun collecting as there are in the U.S., the search for condition in lower grade guns would be on the same level. An educated observer like Diggory should realize that the search for condition, which he disrespects a bit in American collectors (read the first part of his essay) is the right approach in collecting. He certainly leans that way in his DGJ articles about UK auctions.