steve004 said

TR – I think the advice Tommy gave you has always been true – throughout my collecting career anyway.  I will also add that now is a really good time for a beginning collector to enter the market.  It’s a buyer’s market for the plainer, vanilla grade, or lower finish rifles.  You still see some dealers and sellers asking high prices for these rifles, but they’re not moving them either.  Those that actually want to sell them, will usually deal with you.  One continuing exception can be auctions – auctions continue to be flush with hype.  

TR

TR said
 Adam, I got into collecting Winchester’s in the 1980’s. The older collectors at that time gave me some good advice that I didn’t take, it cost me money. I hung in there learning from the school of “hard knocks” until I graduated. My turning point was the day I was standing in front of Tommy Rholes table at a national show, getting ready to buy a deluxe 86 he had on his table. I explained that his gun was more than I had ever paid for a gun, he pointed at much nicer deluxe 86 on another dealers table and said buy that one. He followed by explaining,” buy the nicest gun you can afford”. I bought the more expensive rifle and still own it, it’s worth two to three times what I paid and when I look at it, I smile. The rifle Tommy had on his table is probably worth the same now as then.

 If you are a collector, your taste in guns will change with time and original clean guns are easy to sell. Fixer upper guns can turn into a money pit with little resale value. If your a shooter those original clean guns shoot well to. T/R  

 TR- Thanks for the advice!