500Nitro,

I agree with your comments.

It sounds like you have quite a network of collectors/buyers around the world. That's a great system if it works. What about internal competition? If you see fit to include me in this network at some point, I would be interested.

I don't recall the 450/400 you mentioned in regard to SafariTom, and I don't see a user by that moniker on the user list. Could that have been another forum? A lot of users also post on AR, but I really haven't warmed up to that forum. Too widespread. Not focused on DR's. In my opinion the hard core DR enthuiasists would do well to stick to NitroExpress because of its focus on DR's. That would improve the traffic on this forum and improve the discussion of DR's in general.

There are exceptions to your observation of .500+ being real sellers. Cabelas still has that Westley Richards .500NE it's been hawking for quite some time. I suppose it's just too high at $46k. That's what I thought when I first saw it. You might remember that I launched a post to compare that rifle to a David McKay Brown .470 that was on the Westley Richards website. The DMB is long gone, and the Westley remains.

Two other .500+ rifles that are lingering are the Francotte .577NE on Champlin's and the H&H .577NE on Roosevelt & Drake. The H&H was recently reduced from $135k to $95k. The Champlin site is down this morning, but the Francotte was still there the last time I looked. It's priced mid $40k. In my eye that Francotte is a real sleeper, but probably too high priced (it's hard to say in that caliber, though). It's an SLE with only scant engraving. I have not seen the rifle, only the website pictures.

I'll be interested to see what is offered at the Vintagers next week.

Regards,
Curl