Ok I was at a local gun show today and a young gentleman had two tables of various modern and a few old guns. He had two trapdoor Springfield's and a couple of rolling blocks. WAY overpriced but who am I to argue. One of the rollers was in 50-110 and the description said "matching numbers" the caliber and price which was $2000.00. It had a 32 inch heavy full octagon with the wrong barrel sights and some holes for what appeared a long scope mount at one time. There were no caliber markings and nothing on the top flat of the barrel. The barrel had clearly been browned as the patina didn't even come close to the blued receiver and the edges were sharp and not weathered. The action was a 1902 action. The gun was not in original condition. Not even close. One of the trapdoor's was a carbine that had a cut down stock and barrel. The ram rod hole had been plugged. Again he said it was all original and had $2,200.00 on it. Why do people do this? Someone is going to call him out on it. I was tempted to myself but he was so proud of them I didn't want to burst his bubble but somebody is going to educate him and it won't be pretty. 


JMH

Sounds like the fellow simply didnt know any better, but I could be wrong. The Trapdoor might have been "all original" and still be a cut down rifle.  I might have asked him : " How can we tell that this trapdoor is an original carbine instead of a cut down rifle?".   
I might then point out that original carbines did not have holes for ramrods in the stock, filled or unfilled, and that Carbine rear sight is marked "C" and the rifle rear sight is marked "R". At any rate, one must always be polite because we really dont know if the person is simply ignorant of the facts or trying to deceive.

Joe S.

My favorite piece of gun show puffery was a Ruger #3 that a guy had sitting on a table.  the rather bulbous original stock had been "customized" in a way that made one wish for the original stock, and the "S" part of the lever had been cut off to make a sort of Sharps-Borchardt lever profile.  I seem to recall that it was in .30-40 Krag and looked like it had fallen off a shooting bench a few times.  I asked the guy how much, thinking that if priced according to the butchery, it might be OK for a project, and he quoted mer a price not dissimilar to what new ones were going for.  I asked him how he could charge so much, pointing out the modifications that would need to be done to get it back to stock condition.  "Nobody did anything to it," the guy said.  "It's a Ruger #2."

I agreed with him that the incalculable rarity of the model fully justified the price and moved on, treasuring the exchange.

I go to gun shows to look at guns, not argue with people.  I do my research beforehand; if some sucker wants to bite, it ain't me.

Prob'ly the Sharps that Mussolini gifted the Emperor. Sitting in the used gun rack of a store in Poughkeepsie as we speak.

I don't argue with people at gun shows either. No sense in arguing with someone who already knows it all.

One day I was at a gun show and a fellow had a replica German potato masher grenade priced as if it were original. I was in high school long before the seller was born. One day, back when I was in high school, a collector  friend of mine showed me a replica potato masher just like the one this fellow was selling. They were fake then and are still fake. They were being sold by Delta International for about $15 which was a lot of money in the late 1960s. I tried to help the fellow at this gun show and politely  informed him that his grenade was a replica. 

He did not want to hear it and got huffy about it. Its possible that he acquired it in good faith but since he did not want to hear what I had to say I just said OK and walked away.

In the almost 60 years that I have been collecting and shooting, I never once had a bad transaction or encounter with a shooter or gun collector or dealer.  I was not a gun collector but was always interested in historical firearms and picked up a few trapdoors and Mausers, etc along the way. However, I also collected various items of militaria,  and made some very good lifelong friends, but let me tell you, that field is infested with vipers!  I bought a gun book over the phone once, and at the end of the conversation I asked the seller, dont you want my charge card information? She said no, just send us a check when you get the book.  I asked if she ever got burned and she said never. Another time I called a dealer about some trapdoor parts. He said " I will send you a box full, pick out what you want , and send the rest back with your check."   
After my wife started attending Schuetzenfests with me she said:
" Those people you shoot with are the finest people in the world", and she was right!

Joe S