OK I'll admit I too often find guns produced early in the production to be attractive. I often check a sn to see when a particular gun was built. But if I think about it later in the production some bugs get worked out so they should be better. Now I know sometimes quality get cheapened up or some changes are made that just don't improve the gun so I'm not talking about that.

Is it because it's closer to the designer's original vision of the gun? Another reason? Or is my premise wrong?

I guess why I'm asking is I'm look at 2 rifles, foreign military rifles, very similar but one was probably made the first year of production and the other several years later. I find myself more interested in the older one and questioning "why?"

Why do people seek "1st. Editions" of books?!

Why collect 98 Mausers when you can collect 91s?

Why collect high number 1903 Springfields when you can collect the defective low number rifles?