Originality. A few home truths

[SpikeDD]

Hello Villiers,

I'm thinking you may have slightly misunderstood the point of my post. Everything has a market value, that's a given. Market value of a certain item, whatever it may be, is affected by many things, condition, rarity, etc.. A rifle in it's "as left the factory" or "as built" status carries a certain "market value". Any deviation from that would lessen it's "market value".That doesn't mean I want it because of it's higher value...I want it because it is "as built". Peter's post is spot on for what it represents, an absolute fact of certain production circumstances. That circumstance does not translate to something not being " as built " or "as it left the factory" does it ? How could it possibly mean that ? Can you also explain to my why that would also translate to the only reason a collector would want such a rifle ? I've clearly pointed out I take no monetary consideration in the purchasing of rifles and I can hardly believe I would be the only one.

A rifle which has been assembled from a collection of parts that had been outsourced from different subcontractors and assembled at a given arsenal doesn't translate to it not being genuine or original, it's just a matter of fact to it's production and it carries a certain "market value", a far different story to say a 1942 Maltby which is now sporting a Fazakerley barrel, isn't it ? If you are in fact talking about a Maltby rifle sporting a Fazakerley barrel or trigger guard, etc, then I would have to say that those "minute parts" not being Maltby marked would certainly affect it's "market value".

Please, lets call a apple what it is... a apple. If we were to accept that a rifle couldn't be a genuine Maltby, BSA or Fazakerley as it leaves the arsenal because some of its parts may have been made by a subcontractor, then it should also stand to reason that every stamp collector has been mislead as to their stamp collection being genuine because I'm pretty sure the Post Office doesn't own a paper mill which would make every stamp just a cobbled up mess of ink on paper with no genuine originality to the Post Office.