Answer:
With black powder for the most part unless you know the maker the serial number will not help. The best way to find the maker is old fashion research. Look at the online auctions at auction arms, gunbroker, 24hour campfire and in catalogs like track of the wolf and dixie gun works, also the blue book of modern black powder values can help. All of these are available online and if you are a NRA member the blue book can be viewed at nragive.org. Compare what you have to pictures and descriptions and you should be able to find your maker.
The best way to determine actual value is to search the on-line auctions, such as www.gunbroker.com and www.auctionarms.com or even www.proxibid.com enter your details in the search and see what is selling and for how much. You can also search the archives and or sold items to get an idea of what your gun is selling for. Another place to look is The blue book of modern black powder values, available from www.midwayusa.com and www.bluebookpublications.com as well as many of the other hunting and firearm stores. Also available to NRA members on - line for free at www.nragive.org That will give you an idea of the general value. Guns tend to have some regional value too, say a Thompson Center Seneca may be worth a bit more in the north east than in the mid west, and a Ruger old army may sell higher in the northwest than the east coast. Don't forget condition has allot to do with value, and with black powder the bore is king. You may have a gun worth for example $500, but the same gun with a bad or rusted bore may only be worth $150 so compare apples to apples.
WALLMART has em for about 100.00 bucks and out the door complete kit ready to shoot except powder and any sporting goods store has that even wall mart