8 gauge

[Jawjadawg]

Can't wait to read the story of how you found the gun. What a great deal. Always good to hear about guns of that nature finding their way to an appreciative home.

The thing about collecting isn't about just finding the gun you want, and then having more cash than everyone else in the room so you are able to buy everything you want regardless of value. Collecting shotguns isn't all about "The Gun". For me, it's also about finding the right gun at the right price. Those Julia's Auctions are interesting after the fact to be able to see what someone was willing to pay for certain guns with Provenance or that are extremely scarce. I also just enjoy looking at the pictures.

For me, it's the "hunt" and quest for knowledge in order to make an informed buying decision. I don't really deer hunt any more, but if I did I wouldn't be real proud of myself if I simply ponied up the $10K or whatever to go out to a place like the K*** Ranch in Texas, and then just picked the biggest genetically engineered buck out of the herd from the corner of a corn field in an air conditioned condo. I sort of view those Julia's Auctions the same way. Someone else did all of the work assembling the fine collection. That, and then there's also the fact that I don't have the cash to play in that sandbox. LOL!

[Bill Murphy]

When I try to figure out totals, I add all the totals from the Grades section. These are extrapolated totals, a bit larger than the actual serial number totals in the appendix. Totalling up from the Appendix as Dean has done, will give a different total. The advantage of using the Grades section is that you can separtate the hammer from the hammerless. The problem with using the excell file is that the Appendix total was "hand picked" from order books and stock books. The excel files were created using only the stock books. The "hand picked" order book entries for eight gauges would have been excluded.

[Bill Murphy]

Would you all please read Jawjadawg's post and hit the "Thank You" button. That's the little "thumbs up" at the lower right corner of the post. Thank you for getting to the bottom of Parker collecting, and ferretting out what's right and what's a little less. Nothing wrong with writing a big check, but dues paying in other ways is kind of nice, too.