But be honest, it's not easy to tell. In my hand, I have a copy of Blue Book of Gun Values (BB, 1992 Edition). Before the listing of those boring referencing gun price data, the author talked about practical gun collecting. Most collector book does not talk about this, but BB did. The author said:
"In this business, the experience gained in running guns through your hands has no substitue. I have known people who would quote from memory every gauge, choke, barrel, stock variation available for a Model 12 Winchester, yet these same people can't spot a reblued gun."
He said "in this business", in collectors' context, read it as "in this hobby". What he said was: experience is hard to gain via just reading books (beware not reading books is even worse, that's implied). So, even buy a few bad ones at cost of losing capital is not necessarily horrible, buyer gains experience in this process. Same for the tools.
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