BSA Century The Most Overpriced 'Classic'?

[Hsing-ee]

The schnabel-stocked BSA Airsporter Century always seems to command prices far higher than it appears to be worth.

In my small experience of Airsporters, the best ones are the Mk 1, the Mk 2, the 'S' and the RB2. The Century just seems to be a 'classic' because they only made 1000 (I mean 1000! that's a lot, certainly compared to the much more interesting Falke 80 which only numbers 400 total), and because everyone has conspired to name it as a classic. I wonder how many of them have actually been shot? They are all in their boxes with their buffer washers turning to cheese aren't they? Or am I wrong, did BSA 'do' something to this pedestrian version to make it work better than its contemporaries which were not fitted into the long stock?