On my way home from church I stopped in at Books-A-Million for coffee and, much to my surprise and delight, they had a copy of the 3rd Edition Standard Catalog, which I promptly bought. What a cool book!

China has one of the most advanced printing industries in the world, especially when it comes to four-colour process. This makes them ideally suited to do short runs (under 20,000 copies) of books like this; if produced in the USA (say 10,000 copies) the retail cost would probably double, if not triple. (By way of comparison most automotive books I buy these days seem to run over $100, and usually have a print-run of about 2,000 copies.) At $42.99, and with 432 pages, I think the 3rd Edition of the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson is value for money. Could it be made better? Well, I'm not sure "better" is the word I'd choose, but I would like to see it available in DVD format or in a slightly easier to manipulate paperback edition similar to some of the other "thick" Gun Digest Books.