Im asking to see if anyone local has one that I could come over and check out to see if I want to drop the coin on one and to see how superior it is to my $50 Chinese copy.

I have one. PM me

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If you have the copy I have seen, the biggest problem with it was that it has a different (cheaper) pivot that will loosen when panning. Try panning the thing left and right a few times, if the tension changes you have your answer. The real atlas should not have that problem at all. Otherwise, they are pretty simple mechanisms and seem to be a straight copy. Materials and whatnot are obviously unlikely to be as good either.

Yup.  That's why I wanted to look at a real one.