Just got back from Cabela's. While my gun didn't arrive yet, I looked at all of the 16 and 20 Elsies. I must admit that I am VERY, VERY interested in the one for $995. Everything looked good and in nice working order. The only issues I saw were:
3 small dents on the barrels muzzle of right barrel seems "roughed up" choked F/F I didn't even notice the left side screws.
Barrels had good ring ot them, gun fit me and not pitting or excessive metal issues. I met an Elsie collector there and he concurred with my findings on the $995 gun.
The $2195 20 has some nasty pitting on the barrels. No way that they should be aksing 2195, imo.