I think 5 bills was a very decent price. I bought one of the Lyman .45 cal. B.P. rifles in the mid 70's in a "kit" form (metal in the white, unfinished stock, etc.) which my son & I built together as a project. As I recall the "kit" was around $100.00 & the factory "finished" (as yours) was just under 2 bills. We altered the stock, which we stained the old fashioned way with a soaked plug of tobacco. We made some custom accessories such as a stag handled patch knife, brass powder measure, engraved & browned the barrel & cut our initals on the brass patch box cover on the stock. We left the adjustable rear target sight, but filed down the rear of the front sight and added a bead of nickle silver and made the front sight look same as his .22 rifle, and made additional alterations. It turned out beautiful. We shot it and played a lot. It was extremely accurate out to 100 yds with a "maxi-ball" which we cast from pure lead. He still has it and has taught his 3 sons the fun of black powder shooting with the rifle he and "Pappa" built. As a kid, he really had fun out of our max. load of 70 gr. FFg the first time he touched it off under the covered line at the rifle range. The old timers laughed, and the others wanted to know "what the hell" is that kid shooting? Haven't seen one like yours in years.