Lacquer- is it gold?

I've been re- building/furbishing/juvenating saxes for about 6 years now. I've had/have some real beauties. I buy them, de-dent,fabricate parts, if necessary, and get these old babies to play real nice. Some need extensive, some not so extensive work on them and always resoldering of parts. I usually chemically strip and hand polish. They do look great after this is done but of course they don't have - original lacquer, or any lacquer. Anyone think it is better to leave what lacquer that is left on the horn and sell as is? It looks like crap relatively speaking to a stripped and hand polished horn. I guess I'm asking because I'm thinking of re-lacquering some of the horns I have. Besides the fact that it is work intensive and there seems to be so much stigma attached to a re-lacquered horn. Yeah, I know all the spew about buffing and taking brass off of the horn by buffing but seriously, as a marketting feature, is this an issue? There are people who like nice shiney great vintage horns or are there more out there that think once the lacquer is off the horn is tainted forever? Any response would be interesting.

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