Welcome to the world of overpriced new shotguns. Used guns like the 870 1300 and 500 Mossy are indeed great buys. I bought a nice 870 for a 100 bucks ...with an extra bbl. The Express guns are really good values. 870's are into the 6 million figure now. The only difference between a really nice A-5 and the Gold....is the fact that the A-5 will appreciate in value ...while the Gold will go down. Not a real(gag) Browning person anyway.. The only one I know I have is a BL-22 I purchased in a buy it all deal about 10 yrs ago. Never shot it. Not real keen on the other B guns either.(Beretta, Benelli). I do have an Extrema waterfowl gun. But don't really use it much. Getting ready to sell it. Also have a Benelli(another way overpriced B gun) I did however buy the darn thing really cheap. and got a free case of shells. The Browning Gold has a reliability problem and so does the Extrema. The Browning breaks and the Extrema doesn't function really well in COLD weather. The Benelli however seems to work all the time...and doesn't seem to break easily. It does however have more recoil than the others. Buy an 870...you really can't go wrong with them. I happen to have 4 for some strange reason..one in each of the gauges(less the 16). The small gauges are fun to shoot. I am a 1100-11-87 shooter and own more than 10. They are fairly reliable and much cheaper than the B guns. I also have a B SXS..426 E Silver Pigeon. Kicks terrible(I'm a wimp). Gotta get rid of that devil.
