BINGO!! In Jeff's initial post he made reference to a DH as an example. Call me an "engraving snob" and I will fully agree with you. I appreciate the work of one engraver over that of another and will unashamedly admit it every time. In fact, there is one engraver who's work I wouldn't have in my collection... remember, we're talking DH here. On Grade 5 and higher Parkers his work is exemplary. Nevertheless, I am drawn to the engraving more than some other aspects of a Parker and this can be broken down into year-periods. So, the snob in me dictates that I will not own a DH or DHE from the late teens to about 1931..... sorry If I have offended anyone. :duck:





.

Dean you should refer to yourself as a "sophisticated buyer" vs the "snob". Sounds so much more professional don't you think ? Means basically the same thing though in some instances :)

:biglaugh: That made me laugh Randy.... me "sophisticated"...:rotf:


Okay, I'll be a sophisticated buy:rotf:er.... see, I can't even say it without laughing.





.

It is a veritable "Rubics Cube" matrix of condition, engravers, features, provenance etc...In my opinion undefinable as a rule..

Speaking of age vs. value . . . wouldn't a Parker that was built with the replaceable wear plate in ~1905 and later have a little more added value than those built previous to the wear plate?

That is what I mean by the impossibility to define any single characteristic such as age as a rule.

I will ask this question. If presented with two Parker guns, new in the box, exact same age and configuration, would they still have absolutely equal value?

Depends on which one has the nicest box! :cool:

or the nicest wood, or three dogs instead of four birds on the bottom, or who engraved the gun, or one has darker case colors, and on and on and on....including which has the nicest box!

There's the BIG question. You said nothing about condition Mark and that particular factor is and has always been the most deciding factor on a Parker's value.... Condition, condition, and of course, condition.





.

New, same age and configuration - equal value?
 

Two thoughts come to mind:

1.) Notice first, Parker Bros. got the same price for them. So yes (then and now [for me]), they have equal value in the market place (in general).

2.) I would still want to get to examine them to pick out which one I get to buy and keep. I have seen three (3) from 1926 that are all Grade 3 and appear on the same page in Price & Fjestad. The journeyman engravers’ work (not the dogs and birds) are in the same patterns, but different enough to notice and I have preferences there. I might even pay a little more to get the one I liked the best. So, not “absolutely equal value” to me.