In collecting circles the expression is, buy the <insert addiction of choice> not the story. Bruce Canfield is a prolific gun writer and collector.
http://www.brucecanfield.com/cc-article.html
I remember skimming an article about a very ordinary WWII Jeep that was sold with a pedigree that suggested it had been Eisenhower's personal vehicle that he rode into Paris two days ahead of the Liberation. The bullet holes were German when Ike had had a shootout with his .45 and two Tigers under the Eiffel Tower. Absolutely silly for a smart collector or student of history. The trouble was as each buyer became a seller, every transaction added a bit more, until that Jeep ended in a French museum where it was the
piece de resistance (pun intended) and virtually worshiped as a national treasure.