I don't think that he meant that (just because they're relatively common) they're any less desirable. There are a lot of great m*** produced things out there. Here's an earlier one with the larger numbers that just sold on Epay for $46.
Found it, sorry, it was a Smiths. Hadn't paid that much attention to it, it was in a whole box of guages I'd bought cheap at a swap meet, because there were two SW cable tachs and a couple green stripes in the box. Bunch of old suns and RAC's in there as well.