I am going to chime in here to comment about Spanish steel. While undoubtedly there were some Spanish guns with soft steel, I have disassembled Urbiolas, AyAs, Laronas, Arrietas, and Ugartecheas and found that all these guns were made from properly harden parts --no soft steel.
If you decide to by the AyA, buy with confidence that you are buying a quality handmade gun.
Where the RBL triumphs over an AyA is precisely that it is a machine made gun. Thus, all the screws inside, hammers, sears, and all the other parts are machine made and fit perfectly. The AyA will have small rough unfinished handmade screws inside and file marks from the gunsmiths who made those parts. But, everything where it counts and on the outside will be finished properly.
Now in IMHO the RBL falls short in many ways. The engraving does not look right to my eye, nor does the scalloped action. I shot several rounds of skeet with a 20 ga. RBL with a SST, SFE, and pistol grip and it felt dull and unexciting in my hands. In comparison, I shoot a 16 ga. Arrieta 578 from John Boyd's shop. I let the owner of the RBL shoot my Arrieta and he was amazed by it and wanted to trade me (plus cash) on the spot for it. I respectfully declined.
If I were to order a 16 ga. RBL, I would make sure that is had double triggers, a SFE and a SG it the hopes that it would be more lively. Also, if you do some shopping and are willing to buy a used but not abused gun you may find several alternatives to a RBL or a 4/53 in this market for $3,000. Finally, I am not so sure that the RBL will always hold value as many claim. I recently saw a nice RBL that was shot very little for $2500. Where new Spanish guns really loose value is in the upper end of the gun market --say about $6000. That is where you take a beating on resale. One the other hand, on the low end of the market I have actually made money on every Spanish gun I have owned.
