There is no way to know which gun to letter until after you get the letter.
The remedy to this fact is to letter ALL of them----which is what I did---and thought of the letters as "frosting on the cake"----and I still have copies of all the letters to keep me company--and a pile of money!
Every once in a while a letter comes along that makes it all worth while. My once in a while letter treats with the 22/40 (K-22 Second Model) that was given to Philip B. Sharpe. That which makes you sit right up and take notice is one line at the end-----says "This is a very important revolver."
The importance was measured in a very objective manner when I decided it would be best to leave behind a pile of money rather than a pile of guns---and called David Carroll to tend to the liquidation of the collection. It took a tad over three years, simply because of his methodology. He sells the common, everyday stuff on Gun Broker ------which is a comparatively quick and dirty method---"Wham bam, thank you Ma'am!"----done and done!
The special stuff is sold one on one, and that takes longer---although it didn't all that long with this gun. It was sold sight unseen with one brief phone call which ended with this response from the prospective buyer: "I'll take it if it's not over ten thousand." Given that guidance, it sold for just a bit less than that----and I'd paid $3700 for it. The bad news here is the fellow I bought it from had owned it for ten years---and never lettered it.
"Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats YOU!"
Now my collection was target guns, from the beginning (NM #3's) to the end of the "5 screws", 65 guns (from the later 1870's to the mid 1950's)s---and a handful of autoloaders from later on. A collection of guns from a later period is perhaps less likely to contain "a very important revolver"-------but you'll never know without the letter!!!!
Ralph Tremaine
Another little tid-bit is once you have a letter, you can get whatever the S&W Historical Foundation has in the way of correspondence/documents/assorted dic-doc pertaining to the gun before it left the factory. More often than not, that's interesting----and every now and then it's earth shaking! One such pile of paper on a first year Registered Magnum laid out all you would ever need to know about the history of the entire program when it comes to whys and wherefores. The cost begins with what was a free search (don't know if there's any charge now, but if there is, it's chump change) followed by an insignificant charge for copies of whatever they find----AND if you're a member of both SWCA and the Historical Foundation you pay $75 for a letter instead of $100-----either of which is a fair chunk of change compared to "the good old days" when letters were free, but today's letters are still a bargain when you consider the content----especially if they're compared to letters from Colt and Ruger, both of which are maddening by comparison.
...Ben
