John, I do not disagree with your observations of many youth today, and also your feeling that of course not all youth are guilty of it, but I guess this is nothing new:

AUTHOR: Socrates (469–399 B.C.)

QUOTATION: The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L. Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277 (1953).

I'm probably younger than most here, at 30 years old. I started upland hunting in 2011 and bought my first dog in 2013. Right from the get go I wanted a Parker.

The quote Dean has:

"I'm a Setter man.
Not because I think they're better than the other breeds,
but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me,
a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture."

IMO you can just as easily replace Setter with Parker.. You never see any old upland art with a synthetic stocked auto loader. There is something about walking up to a setter on point, carrying a 120 year old Parker that's hard to beat.

My problem is I never want to sell ANYTHING. Like some here have stated, I started out with what I could afford and my first doubles were Stevens guns; unlike those who sold or traded their early guns away I just can't turn loose of mine. I've only ever sold three guns in my life; two I bought to sell, and one that belonged to my late father-in-law that I sold because my mother-in-law needed the money more than I needed the gun. And even though he never shot it much and I never shot it at all, I hated to see it go, and I wish I still had it.

Well. Sell is a four letter word!��

Kensal Rise has it right, too.

The young professionals and skilled blue-collar fellows I see at the range and gun club, toting modern guns and black rifles, have the capability of buying the occasional shoot-able, interesting and attractive Parker. If this cohort converged on the vintage gun market, I don't think I would have much chance of even imagining myself a "gun collector".

....due to all that new competition.

But, much appreciated is that such splendid objects of art, industry and utility, as these guns are, can be widely enjoyed, because of the generosity and involvement of Forum posters, quarterly publication contributors and Association activists.

With four grandsons I thought the guns would go to homes that would use them. I'm beginning to seriously doubt it. One wanted a rifle to hunt deer etc for his 14th birthday. I offered him a sporterized 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser with a 2X7 Leuopold. I told him I had 85 grain bullet loads at over 3,000 per second that shoot 1/2" groups all day long for groundhogs, a 129 grain bullet for deer that is sub minute of angle load as well as a 160 gr load. He wasn't the least bit impressed or excited of such prospects. He wanted a new .308 so I purchased a savage for him to use until he was 18 and then it would be his. Other guns I cherish for function and sentiment wouldn't get a second look from the boys. I am seriously thinking of thinning out a few more closets.

There no love for the classic rifle cartridges (or a Parker, Fox ect) by todays youth. That 6.5X55 is an excellent round and if I were to have another rifle built that would be a strong consideration. There's no dust on that or a 250 Savage, 300 Savage, 257 Roberts or the tried and true 7X57.

At the end of the day were just getting old:)

To each his own I guess. I have friends and family members who wouldnt think twice about dropping $3-4K on a AR build, but think that dropping over $1k on a shotgun is the height of lunacy. "Don't you know you can get a Turkish made semi auto for $500?!?!"