... and this was one was
not inexpensive when I bought it several months ago. But I wanted a really nice 1917, and this was the best one I could see anywhere at the time I was looking.
Low serial number (under 25000), so it has all the early features: radially grooved hammer, concave stock tops, GHS cartouche. I haven't rechecked, but I seem to recall it shipped in January 1918.
I haven't shot this one, though I have no policy that prevents me from doing so. I did acquire a much rougher and much cheaper Brazilian a little later that turned out to have even more challenges than I had expected based on the auction description; I put some work (and a couple of new parts) into it and ended up with a very nice .45 shooter. The Brazilian is in an easy-access location now; it's one of my go-to guns in the event of an unlikely home invasion.
To the OP's original questions, I think you'd have to commit to spending over a grand for a decent specimen and well over that for one in high condition. The ones with early features are a little more in demand and often command higher prices. An almost new Army 1917 (and improbable as it may seem, they do exist) will push two grand. The commercial 1917s are priced higher because they are scarcer. The 1937 and 1946 Brazilian contract guns are often less expensive because they are usually (but not always) kind of beat up when you find them. The 1937 guns mostly have flat-top frames and square-notch rear sight channels, but the 1946 guns, which were made up from early-'20s parts that the company reacquired from the government, have rounded-top frames with a round-notch sight channel. And there are a very few postwar new-production non-export 1917s, some of which have S-prefix serial numbers. For some reason I suspect one of these might appeal to you if you could come across it at a decent price.
The serial numbers can be really mixed up on these guns, so it may take some thought to figure out exactly what you have when you are looking at a candidate for acquisition. You can research shipment dates for the 1917-1918 military production in military materiel books or on web sites.
Some people like population stats, so I'll mention that over 200,000 of these were made. That exceeds the total production of all other long-action N-frames, which basically means guns produced before 1950. There are about 75,000 total units in the .455 Hand Ejector series (First and Second models combined) that the company produced mostly for the British and their allies in WWI. So commercial production of N-frames and .455 HE production are approximately equal. Total long-action N-frame production comes to around 350,000 over 42 years (1908, when the .44 New Century was introduced, up to 1950, when the short-action N-frames were introduced).
What...? I sense laughter............
