Bat Materson used to do the same thing.
I met Col. Jeff Cooper and had the urge to ask if he would sell his 1911. I was in the middle of wondering if I could afford it and backed off.
There was a doctor who had his Scout rifle signed by Cooper with a magic marker. I realized he now had a rifle he would be nuts to continue to use after that.
If you caught him in a good mood, he'd have chuckled and asked you what you were going to throw in for boot. When I met him, he admired the work done on my not-exactly stock M1911/Commander by the late Armand Swenson, and I offered to trade him for his gold-plated and trimmed M1911A1, which I believe was one that came back from the War in the Pacific with him. The *How much more for boot* answer was the reply I got...so no deal. We both knew I wasn't really serious.
There was a doctor who had his Scout rifle signed by Cooper with a magic marker. I realized he now had a rifle he would be nuts to continue to use after that.
Colonel Cooper was curious about the yellow plastic grip on the ejection port side of my M1911A1, and I explained to him that it was an old tank crewman's affectation, being severely discouraged by higher headquarters, but frequently observed in our tank battalion, which at the time had posted the highest-ever tank gunnery scores recorded on the NATO/USAREUR gunnery range. In a tanker's shoulder holster, the only grip that shows to a viewer is the rightside/ ejection port-side grip panel.
He dug around in his stuff and came up with a well-used and yellowed ivory grip panel for the other [slidestop] side, smooth and uncheckered. And he signed it for me.
It's now instead on the Swenson bobcat he had handled and admired that day. The Colonel was most certainly a class act.