My first 788 in 22-250 was on sale at Big 5 for $99 in ~ 1980. It is in an MPI stock and is on it's second 26 inch Lilja barrel and has a Canjar trigger. It is very accurate and I am pretty fond of it.
FWIW, I had a young fellow who pestered me to refinish a birch 788 stock to look like it did when new. His dad's gun.
Birch stocks are a PITA to get the stain right and so I grabbed a LA 788 stock that was in my bucket o' stocks and went ahead and refinished it the same and did it first. I hadn't done a birch stock in years and wanted his to come out good for him. You have to use pre stain conditioner and rub the stain in and then buff it and then you have to put a few coats of polyurethane on before you can even think about steel wool and sanding between the first few coats is completely out of the question.
I tried to talk him into Tru Oil, but he really wanted polyurethane on it and since I was doing one, I might as well do both. I really don't like doing polyurethane on gun stocks, but he is a nice kid.
Both stocks came out looking quite nice and I decided to sell the one I had. I put right in the description that it had been refinished and had polyurethane and not the two part finish Remington used that has a catalyst in it. I think it got bid up to a couple hundred dollars. I can't remember if I put it up on eBay or Gunbroker. That surprised me, the price that this bolt has been bid up to leaves me gobsmacked.
This one shared a bolt with a 243 for a while, it is the one I paid ~$150 for a bolt for. It was free and the stock I refinished and sold came off it. It had a great 308 barrel that I sold and gave the money to the guy who gave me the barreled action and the Winchester barrel I put on it. Factory 788 barrels are a first rate SOB to get off w/o cutting a relief groove in front of the shoulder first.