About 12 years ago, one of my buddies who spends most of his free time at local flea markets called me at work one day and said "What's a .416 Rigby worth?" "Made by who?" I asked. "Rigby" he said. I was fairly busy and said "What are you getting at George?" "There's a guy out here at the flea market with one trying to sell it to get some Christmas money." I said "A real Rigby?" He said yes. I said "I seriously doubt there's a Rigby walking around the fu*ckin' flea market in Po-Dunk South Carolina. What does it look like?" "Well, it's a old bolt action with open sights. It doesn't have holes for a scope and there's some kind of crest on the receiver. The blueing is pretty worn. He wants $600 for it." I thought George was just punking me but after I told him I needed to get back to work I thought about it. George is a hunter but doesn't know squat about big bore guns and I seriously doubt he knew what a Rigby was, at least not enough about them to fabricate a pretty accurate description of a pre-war Rigby Mauser. I called him back a few minutes later and asked if he was serious and he swore he was but while he was on the phone with me the guy sold it to somebody for $400 because that was the best offer he had gotten. I still cringe about that one...
The other one that stands out wasn't a friend but a customer that walked into the first gun shop I work at about 20 years ago. He asked if we had any ammo for a .25/35. I did and laid a box on the counter. I asked him what kind of rifle he had and he said it was a Savage. I said "A Savage 99?" He said he didn't know what model it was but that he had just bought it in a pawn shop in a sleepy little town down near the coast. "I've got it in the truck if you want to see it." When he brought it in, I almost fainted. It was a lovely 1899 Carbine in almost perfect original condition, probably 90%. I asked him what he paid for it and he said "He sold it to me for $300 because he had had it for about a year and ammo is hard to get." I nearly cried because I had driven by the very pawn shop he bought it in about a month earlier and didn't stop....
