My 1100's all have the diamond inlay in the grip cap. Remington used some nice wood on those back in the day. The design was long ago eclipsed by modern automatics, but the guns do handle and point well. They all have aftermarket trigger groups or trigger parts and good crisp triggers. When they break, and they all have at some point, parts are available and cheap. Some day I just shoot an 1100 to remind me where I came from. A great many people got into the game with that model. It's as much a part of our history as any doublegun.
I did buy a pre-Cerberus Wingmaster because I could see that the corporate raiders were going to take every nickel out of the product and I wanted a real 870 while they were available. It's quite a nice gun with very straight grain and strong walnut. The finish is very good I think.
The older Remingtons had a nice machine blue on them and that finsh has held up pretty well on most of them. Of course, you would never mistake a Model 11 for an FN made gun. I do have a 31, but I'm less impressed than some folks with the design. The trigger with the way it lifts is just weird. The 870 was a piece of genius and sales numbers have rather proven that.
I do hope the STS shell remians unchanged, although there is small chance.
Good luck to the new investors. They will need it.