Well, it all depends on the definition of "cheap"----and that pesky time frame. Very recently here, someone asked what it was like 20-30 years ago---"it" being this dubious activity in which we're all engaged---to one degree or another.

So------it's the mid '90's. There's an internet of sorts, maybe. I for one don't know anything about it, because I'd had an expert and devoted staff who deemed it proper that I be spared such irritants earlier, when the rest of the world was learning "computer". At the point in time when my employer decided it was time to enter the computer age, and installed computers in all offices and work stations, my lead secretary had the computer removed from my office the day after it was installed. I was probably in, or about to be in an airplane on my way to or from somewhere---and never even saw the computer. So, while the rest of the folks were learning/using computer, I was "protected". It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now----maybe not so much.

At any rate, I shopped for guns with The Gun List back then---a weekly classified advertising newspaper of sorts. It arrived one day, and I spied a 6" 2nd Model Single Shot ($700)---and almost wet my pants!! I was on the phone instantly!! "Oh Honey!", the nice lady said; "That's been gone for a week or more." I'm at once shattered---and more than a little bumfuzzled. How the hell can that gun be gone for a week or more, when I just got my paper? Come to find out, I hadn't been paying close enough attention to my shopping aid---which could be had by "Next Day Air", for a measly couple of hundred dollars a year. Shortly thereafter, my copy of The Gun List arrived in my office every Friday morning at 10:00---and my schedule had miraculously been adjusted such that I was almost always IN my office at 10:00 every Friday morning---and if you were to call, a nice lady would tell you Mr. Tremaine was not available at the moment--and would return the call later that afternoon. And so it was that I collected neat old S&W target guns.

Now I didn't consider 357's to be target guns----target grade certainly, but no serious competitor in their right mind would select one for use in a match. That said, I also figured everybody should have at least one Registered Magnum---simply because of their historical significance. Now I'd had a few, but they weren't SPECIAL-------REALLY SPIFFY. And here, staring out at me from the pages of The Gun List was an 8 3/4" RM---described as AS NEW. The price was $2,300----high for the times----but AS NEW. I was on the phone more or less instantly. The seller was flabbergasted---noting the ad was just published the day before---and he didn't expect any calls for a week or more. I was a happy camper!! He was not inclined to reduce his price----noting I was the first of what he supposed would be many calls. I was not surprised, and paid the $2,300. I kept the gun around for a spell, in spite of the fact it didn't even look like a target gun (barrel's too long, and it carried a Marble bead front sight----pretty much like your very first .22 single shot rifle when you were 12 or so). I traded it for one that looked like a target gun several years later----traded with Ray Cheely---Mr. Registered Magnum to those of you who require an introduction. He was attracted to my rifle sighted version because "I've been looking for one with sights like that.". Now you know right off that anyone who's been "looking for one with sights like that" has a BUNCH of them---maybe too many even---if there is such a thing. Suffice it to say he was "THE MAN". If he needs any further recommendation, note he and Dave Ballantyne were those selected by the authors of SCSW-4 to write the introduction to the 357 Magnum section.

So------my one and only RM came from good stock, is as new (as were most all of Ray's)---and cost $2,300---20 or 30 years ago. (And just to add insult to injury, it's wearing the most drop-dead-gorgous and elaborately checkered and finished pair of Roper thumbrest targets you have ever seen. They came on an as new Outdoorsman (maybe $1,100)----20 or 30 years ago).

Now you know about "cheap" AND the "good old days". Almost makes you cry, doesn't it?

Ralph Tremaine