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I agree with the point made above as it relates to purchases in general. In this thread's case, there seems to be a lot of inconsistencies stated about who knew what and when that has not been made clear to many interested in a conclusion.
Related to vintage in general, some dealers may move a higher percentage of "top collector quality" than others. How they acquire stock is not always clear, since these pieces may have changed hands many times from original owners, collectors and dealers and provenance isn't always available. Original owners also may have had repair work done on a piece where original parts were replaced with more recent service parts (inserts, hands, etc.), even though the piece didn't change ownership. Only buying from collectors is also no guarantee, if you don't know how they acquired or if they didn't conduct a thorough evaluation at time of purchase.
I subscribe to the view that each watch has to stand on it's own merit and be evaluated as such. One may also choose to just buy from those they feel warrant a high level of trust and stick with them. Either way, it doesn't mean you should take a pass from doing your own assessment and homework, so you are at peace with what you are getting at a price paid that works for you.
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