The Syracuse gun was out of production early in 1905, and at that time all of America's "best" makers were still scrambling to improve their guns, except that LC Smith had already undergone their last improvement (save for the FW frame); and Fox was yet to arrive on the scene. In my opinion, when SAC left the scene; they were as good, or better than any of their market contemporaries (but your question is a loaded question, and one over which a spittin' contest ain't worth the effort). As to prices of SAC guns on today's market, I've never seen a SAC serial number above 40,000; and it seems that for an American maker's guns to be collectible, that maker needed to have produced more guns and have created a larger following. Low grade guns kept the SAC in business, so the vast majority of the surviving SAC guns seen for sale these days will be low grades; the Grade OO, Grade 0, and Grade 2 which only differ in appearance as to type of barrel steel used in manufacture (fluid steel/"Triplet Steel", Twist/"New Twist",Damascus/"Improved Damascus" respectively, with Improved Damascus also being used on the Grade 3 gun). These low grade SAC guns were "built for business" (not looks), are extremely well fitted and finished (maybe our forum member with the near new Grade O gun will post pics again); but are butt ugly once the original finishes are worn and faded. Grades of SAC guns higher than Grade A (the B, C,& D guns) are very rare, are beautiful guns, and command a good price when they are found (but not on the scale of a Parker, Lefever, etc from a similar grade range). The highest grade SAC gun, the Grade D, was cataloged at $475 in 1903 and '04; that's higher than a Parker AA or Lefever Optimus from the same period; and they did sell some unknown number of Grade D guns, as I had recorded more that 10 Grade D guns when I quit keeping serial number records. Too much information to relate here, but if you revisit old issues of the DGJ you'll find much more of my SAC research published there.
