In terms of price, Ithaca SKB and Merkel are not in the same ballpark. They're also very different guns. SKB borrowed a lot from the Webley & Scott 700 series when they made their guns. So you've got a Japanese takeoff on something British . . . with a few American quirks thrown in, like a single selective trigger on all of them; beavertail forends on all but the Model 100. So you're comparing a sort of Brit styled gun (minus the American quirks) to something that's very Teutonic. The common German side by sides--Sauer, Merkel, Simson--all resemble each other very closely.
I've owned a bunch of both. A warm place in my heart for both, because an SKB 150 12ga was my first sxs, and a pre-war Sauer 16 (pretty basic gun) my 2nd. You're not likely to encounter many problems with either. I currently own a 47E 20ga and recently acquired a 16ga 201 OU. Still working on getting used to the latter. I also have an SKB 280 20ga. A local sporting goods store has that same gun but with 25" barrels (mine has 28") in nearly new condition for $1,000. It's on consignment so might well sell for less. If there's a better sxs out there for that kind of money, I don't know what it is--although I wish they'd put a splinter forend (like the 100) on the 280's.
