True...... I'm guessing but from about 1989/90 when I got my first 3G till the mid-2000s I'd pick up extra magazines whenever I had the chance.....they were cheap.....used guns sold with one magazine; w/ one or two or maybe three going into the "used mags" bins for $10-15..........

There were a couple of "Magazine guys" at local gun shows..... with "tubs" of magazines.........always willing to sell single stack Smith mags cheap... while Glock Hi-caps for $100 was not uncommon in the 90s.


and I had adopted a fairly large family of 3G's that all have to be fed......still got some in the shrink wrap hangers....old and dusty when I bought them......

I think that 3rd Gen magazines fished out of dealer bargain bins are going the way of the dodo bird. The problem around here is that newer shops don't have any 3rd Gen magazines in their bargain bins and old shop turnovers (to new owners) usually result in a bulk sell-off of bargain bin contents for dirt money before the new owners come in.

The trick (around here at least) is to find an older shop still owned by the old fart original owner. Then you have a pretty good chance.

I picked up a CS45 magazine for cheap that way recently. It was mismarked (Model-wise) to boot.