Parker has the most name brand name demand. But if Winchester or Colt had made doubles for 50 years Parker collectors would be much fewer. Few brand name collectors go as overboard as Wichester or Colt collectors. You could say that Model 21's are the "best" because their lowest grade sell for several thousand more than Parkers lowest grade.
To me Parkers have too many parts and never evolved. No one can convince me that they had the "perfect" design within two years and needed to make no changes for the next forty years. Parker was just a cheap yankee too tight to change designs or tooling unless absolutely forced to do so. Guns were never more than a side line when Parker Brothers owned them and even in later years they were more of a name brand than a real money maker for Remington.
The flip side is which gun held up the best. I have never seen an Ithaca that did not work. In fact I have almost never seen any double that did not work unless they had been screwed up by some gunsmith making poor repairs. Ask a gunsmith which guns they have to repair the most and which the least. To a shooter "best" is reliabitly, to a collector it is value, be it quality or workmanship, design, materials or even just increasing value of their collection. Two different things.
