I guess I'm the real newbie here. I got my first one just a few weeks, maybe a month ago. A 12 ga, 28" Trogan, from 1924, that I found on the rack at my LGS. When I was a kid my grandfather had a Parker 20 (probably a Trogan from what I've learned here) and I had always wanted one, but never could afford it. I was surprised to see that this one was tagged at $850.00. I got it for $750.00. It had been refinished but to me that didn't really matter. I didn't buy it as a collector piece but as a way of connecting back to a time when I was a shirtail kid dragging along behind the grown-ups. I didn't even dare ask to see those guns, much less to shoot them.
I've never been a bird hunter really. Some early season dove hunting when I was younger, but that's about it. I don't hunt much at all now, but I do slip out back from time to time to pot a squirrel in the fall. I think I'll take this one along sometime.