Different strokes for different folks. Americans seem to prefer their classic and antique guns completely refinished to resemble new, the Brits will reblack or rebrown and have the stock rechequered and refinished when the original finish is worn enough that the original weather protection is compromised. Unfortunately in this country, extensive refinishing often results in damage by over buffing or sanding, resulting in the wood level being taken below the adjoining metal surfaces, beautiful hand engraving being blurred, washed out and faint, screw holes dished, corners rounded instead of crisp, and often inappropriate finishes used. Careful precise and correct restoration requires tedious painstaking work, usually by several different specialists - mechanical such as rejointing a loose gun, honing pitted bores, ejector work, making and timing replacement worn screws, blueing, blacking and browning, stock repair and refinishing, chequering, case colouring, all may be by different people. All of this work takes time to do and to move the gun from one person to another and this costs money - lots of it. So you can easily spend more for the gun and the restoration than the true market value of the finished product if you aren't careful when choosing your project. For me, a candidate for a complete makeover must first be of fine original quality and be in very good condition, no rust, no pitting, no serious barrel dents, very good barrel wall thicknesses, no broken, cracked or badly damaged wood but little or no original finish. Above all, never having been previously scrubbed, buffed or refinished. Really I prefer an original with honest light wear and scrupulous care to most restorations I have seen, which to me just appear to be a masquerade. Also remember, the highest value collectibles of any type are the highest original condition specimens, pretenders don't cut it, the crude refer to those as fakes. You can only be original once. The listed gun by Edwinson Green (a very good but little known maker) is a very basic grade hammer gun which, while undoubtably well made, was probably at the bottom of their price list and is nothing special compared to countless others made at this time. IF the wall thicknesses are good and IF the bores are excellent and IF the gun locks up tight with the forend removed, it would make an attractive hammer gun shooter, but it isn't collector grade. My guess is that the asking price is near the total investment someone has in this gun. Is it worth it? Not to me, but maybe to somebody.
