My most rewarding gun purchase was a minty Colt Woodsman for $150. Unfortunately it was rather short lived.
Maybe around '95 I had a fellow come into my shop around 8 PM on a Friday evening. Just before I closed. He had an absolutely beautiful Colt Woodsman. Nice fellow and talkative. He made it clear he needed to get $150 for the gun, so who am I to argue. I saw this nice pistol as a keeper for myself. I gave him his $150 and closed the shop.
Saturday morning I opened at 9 AM and there was a gentleman waiting on me to open. Before I had a key in the door he was telling me his brother sold me a Colt Woodsman the night before. The gentleman even knew what I paid for the gun.
With the shop open he presents copies of medication prescriptions his brother is on and is explaining his brother has mental issues. The gentleman was talking me darn near to death and offered $300 for the gun wanting to buy it back. This gentleman had a pile of paper he was showing me. Like I need this on a Saturday morning first thing?
Apparently the brother overheard a family conversation about finances and felt they needed exactly $150 to cover an expense so he grabbed a family heirloom and ended up selling me the gun. It was a local family.
My wife and me had a very good rapport with Bedford, Ohio where our shop was with local merchants and law enforcement. We were known as straight shooters and honest people, not unscrupulous gun dealers. I told the gentleman to just give me back my $150 and let's call it fair. I told him I was in the business to make money and support a hobby, not to screw people, let alone handicapped people. He was happy, I was happy and he went on his way. I felt good about that. I have never come to own a Colt Woodsman.
Later that same day an older gentleman who had visited a few times came in. This was just a nice guy who visited several times. We would always just talk and he loved Bear my shop dog who was always there when I was open. Hell everyone loved Bear. He came in with a gorgeous Model 1873 variation of a Springfield Armory Trapdoor with an 1887 stock cartouche and an old Winchester lever gun. He wanted me to have the trapdoor and took $300 for both guns. I sold the lever gun for $300 and kept the trapdoor. Never saw the gentleman again but six months later a gentleman came in with a box of goodies and said his brother wanted me to have them. He explained his brother was the gentleman who sold me the trapdoor and Winchester. He had died of Leukemia. He knew he was dying when he sold me those guns for pennies.
Maybe there is something to that Kharma stuff?
Ron