I bought a Conn Victor cornet on eBay week before last. It looked terrible in the pics, and I won it for $29. It arrived a few days ago and it did look bad - but it was all there, and the valves are in really good condition. I unstuck the mouthpiece, cleaned and oiled the valves, and played it a little (with my mouthpiece, of course). It played nice, even though I'm sure it's filthy inside and the valves are out of alignment. It has a patch on the leadpipe, though, and the engraving on the bell has been buffed waaaay too much during a previous repair.
Now, here are some before and after shots I took this morning. I removed what was left of the lacquer with Krylon OFF! paint remover, and polished it (for hours) two nights ago with MAAS metal polish. I took it to brass band practice last night and played it on a couple of songs to get a feel for tone and intonation issues, and let me say, this is a VERY good-playing cornet, even with the valves not aligned. I just dropped it off at the local instrument repair wizards, Southeastern Musical Services, for new corks and felts and a valve alignment, and to get a couple of slides unstuck. The only thing that would keep me from doing a complete restoration on it (assuming I still like it after a few months) is the over-buffed bell and patched leadpipe. These two things don't seem to affect the play of the horn, but do affect the collectability and value, so I'll probably just keep it as a player. FYI, it's a 1963 Conn 5A Victor cornet, .485 bore - a pro horn in its day, and fairly rare today.
Before 
After 
