[Jeff Higgins]

Tabby, how can that be "strike" number anything on this thread for me? Your story is the perfect example of what I've been talking about. You are a guy who watches this stuff like a hawk, has educated himself in the various nuances that add or detract value, and you got unusually lucky by your own admission. After a lifetime of searching at that.

If George is willing to commit at the level at which you have committed, willing to educate himself to the level of a collector like yourself, he, too, may just get lucky a time or two in his lifetime as well.

Far more common, however, are the guys who bought that once in a lifetime National Match Springfield, only to find out it was faked. There are more of them in circulation today than the Armory ever made. Or how about "Custer battlefield" Trapdoors - my God, if Custer really had the number of troops at his disposal that are represented by "authentic" Trapdoors "used in the Battle of Little Big Horn", he would have absolutely kicked their asses. Or how about "Singer" 1911's, Walker Dragoons, and on and on? And that's only the blatant fraud. The whims of the collector market are even more hazardous to navigate, and virtually impossible to predict. Unless one can rise to a level where one helps steer the market, which is pretty rarified air. Hell, even with your expertise and connections, you are still at their mercy. Guys like George even more so.