I, too, was under the impression the older ones had the great disparity of quality issues. I haven't seen that many of the older ones from the 70's and 80's. The ones I imported were in the late 90's. They were wonderful. I still have one, a #2 20 that is excellent. But now they are pricey when new and I think there are better values. The Spanish guns have a poor history of holding their values, arguably deserved because of the wide variation in quality. I always ordered an extra set of strikers and firing pins from AyA but never needed them.
