If the amount he spent on restoring/making over his gun scares off potential buyers and thereby keeps prices on such guns lower, I'm all for it.
The re-coloring was not needed. He got a good price on the bluing. He could have had the chokes opened, or choke tubes installed, by Mike Orlen for a lot less. Likewise opening the chambers (and maybe lengthening the forcing cones). I dunno whether Mike has a dent raiser but I suspect he does; $125 for a small dent strikes me as a little bit high, but not by much. I paid a local smith $100 to have a dent raised and a thorough disassemble-and-inspect on an old hammergun. He probably could have polished and opened the bores a bit by himself with a power drill and steel wool.
But, he went the retail, name-brand route and it's his money.
