No, I’ve been around long enough to see many “claims” fail to hold up due to facts proving otherwise, intentional or not. Many firearms are bringing big bucks simply with claims such as “attributed to”, “reported to be”, etc.

You have irrefutable claims, those that can be proven as true, 100%:

A revolver with a factory letter stating this revolver shipped to the 26th President of the United States, a revolver used as evidence in a trial, listed by make, model, and serial number, matching a revolver in hand, assuming, of course, that serial numbers have not been altered, which is usually the case.

Then you have claims that may or may not be provable, but are possible. A revolver shipped to Frank Butler. Which one? The one associated with Annie Oakley, or one of the other 65 or so Frank Butlers in America during that time frame. As opposed to shipping to Frank Butler of a specific address associated with Annie Oakley’s husband. Or the reverse, such as Frank Butler of Portland Oregon, for example, a place Annie Oakley and her husband never resided.

Then you have claims passed down by family folklore. Such as my father was friends with a lawyer who had a client whose father was on the RMS Titanic and this revolver my father gave me was given to him by this lawyer who stated his client from many years ago whose father was on the Titanic that he had this revolver with him on the Titanic. Might or might not be true.

Or, the above situation is an actual event, involving a revolver shipped around 1900. Let’s say this revolver had this story associated with it, and a factory letter showed that this revolver shipped 2 years after the Titanic went down. Then the claim is easily disproven.

Then there are claims that are not quite right, but are proven or disproven by the factory letter. Folks forget things over time. Someone inherits a few revolvers, says a particular revolver was given to him by Ed McGivern. Letters are obtained for these several revolvers. The one given to this individual, as per their claim, shipped to a hardware store, but the other revolver the individual didn’t say anything about letters as shipped to Ed McGivern.

Then there are claims that can’t be proven or disproven, but add little or no value to a firearm. The individual who says that he was given this revolver by Bob Loveless AND states it was reblued elsewhere, most likely the facts. He’s not even trying to claim Bob Loveless did the work, or at least the reblue, on this revolver.

Then there are outright fabrications, intended for financial gain. My revolver was used by Jesse James. How do I know this? His mother sold my grandfather his gun. Jesse James’ mother bought old guns and sold them in her later years for profit, these guns having no association with Jesse James whatsoever.

Then there are claims that must be true because they have a notarized letter. The notary only affirms the individual before them is that individual and signs the letter in front of the notary. The notary is not verifying claims as factual, or not.

So, in this case, the individual who claims this revolver was given to him by Bob Loveless and even gave information that did not enhance the status of the revolver—there’s a 99%+ chance his statement is true.

The claim I’m going to make about my Smith & Wesson revolver belonging to Teddy Roosevelt. I’m doing that to reap vast rewards. Probably a 99% chance my claim is false. When I tell you it’s a Registered Magnum and you tell me my revolver cannot have been manufactured before 1935 and President Roosevelt passed away in 1919–well, now you’ve just proven I’m a liar.

You have to be careful out there! One big name auction house makes a fortune for their clients based on a very shaky “attributed to” and gives a long story about the times, the individual, etc, while very craftily ignoring or proving the very weak claim.