Sounds like an analogous situation to the 1994 cult film, Reality Bites The film tells the story of an aspiring videographer working on a documentary called "Reality Bites" about the disenfranchised lives of her friends and roommates, a bunch of 30-somethings. Their challenges exemplify some of the career and lifestyle choices faced by Generation X.
Let me fast-forward to "Generation X plus 40 years":
Like George, some recent experiences, not all good, have involved my participation in the appraisal and attempted sale of what I perceived to be some very valuable guns in varying degrees of "high" condition and originality. Unfortunately, my perceptions were singular, based on values and conditions of what were considered very desirable firearms "back in the day". I then underwent (as a requirement of sale) two separate appraisals, 9 months apart. The results and impact are very much what like George describes; their value(s) had except in a very few cases diminished considerably, and in fact the appraisers in both cases cited "moderate to highly inflated estimates of condition and value" (bearing in mind that none of these guns had been appraised in over 30+ years).
It is indeed a bitter pill to swallow sometimes, but as the author of the fabulous book, "Objects of Desire", a seminal guide to the vagaries and intricacies of the antique trade, puts it, "If you really want to know what it's worth, send it to auction!" Caveat Consignor.
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