I, for one, certainly hope they are worth the price as I am currently waiting for a 29-3 I won on gunbroker for 599. Mine is a 4" nickle wearing pachmayr grips(ew) that needs some polishing. According to another forum post response, it has a manufacturer date of 1988. I plan on shooting 240gr lead rnfp's through it mostly, with occasional big boomers for range effect.
Dirty Harry is definitely a cool movie to admire the 44mag, but there was also the first movie with Eddy Murphy and Nick Nolte, 48hrs. The scene in the hotel was my favorite with Ganz trying to shoot Cates with his own gun using the 4" 44mag Smith, fun. Almost all revolvers in that movie(my preference). Check it out sometime.