I do quite well, thank you very little. The world will ever see your true self...me, I’ll dismiss you as soon as I hit “send”.
That said, let me tell you a couple of stories....
I have seen more than a few surplus GI .45s, mostly M1911A1s—thankfully nothing really notable like US&S or (God forbid) Singers—that had been buffed with a wheel on a bench grinder and chrome plated. The straight lines of the frame and slide (even some of the small parts) had been distorted, and the lettering had been blurred. In some cases, even the “UNITED STATES PROPERTY” had been removed.
Also, my old jeweler had an M1911 under the counter as his “store gun”. I looked closely at it the last time I visited him...it was a 1918 Black Army with the “UNITED STATES PROPERTY” ground off and covered overall with black house paint.
By the time a restorer like Turnbull got done with one of those, you’d have more into it than a pristine one would be worth. You seriously gonna tell people that screwed-over pieces like those are worth a premium?
I don’t lowball people...but I’m not about to unduly build their hopes up either.
I have run into that attitude over and over in the gun hobby and it's annoying. As I know you know, reasonably honest 1911s - like honest Lugers and honest Colt SAAs - command a premium and they are going up while we watch.
On the other side of the coin, I have seen many, many collectors cheat people who walk in with their late husband's "bring-back" .45 by telling them that something's "wrong" with pistol but they're willing to give them a little money for it anyway. Then they gloat to their buddies on how much their new acquisition is worth compared to how little they paid. Seen that over and over.
More often than not, there are real treasures out there and I am proud to say that I never cheated anyone. If their pistol's a good one, I have always paid a fair price, even to the point of showing them the current Blue Book values.