I never knew these existed. Has anyone here visited a gun library..if so fill us in.
Libraries get loud as gun stores crop up in retail outlets
By Joseph T. Hallinan
Wall Street Journal
Posted on Tue, Nov. 15, 2005
When Junius Morgan, a great-great-grandson of J.P. Morgan, wanted to sell a pair
of custom-made shotguns that had been in his family for generations, he turned a
couple of months ago to an increasingly popular venue: the gun library.
Gun libraries are high-end gun stores, often with leather chairs, dark wood and
Old World art. Some of the guns are new, and some, like Morgan's, are
"previously owned," traded in or sold by other owners. But all have a certain
cachet to go along with price tags that can hit six figures.
Like many retailers in the world of hunting, gun sellers are increasingly
chasing the high end of the market, where the pace of sales and the fatness of
profit margins are largely immune to economic downturns.
Gun libraries are popping up in mainstream retailers like Bass Pro Shops, which
started opening them two years ago and now has them in four of its 26 U.S.
retail outlets, and Cabela's, which has installed libraries in 11 of its 14
stores nationwide since the 1990s.
These retailers have found that even average Joes are willing to cough up big
bucks - from $500 to $175,000 or more - for guns dear to their heart.
The libraries are also appearing under the banner of elite gun makers opening
U.S. outposts. The British firm Holland & Holland, with a store in Midtown
Manhattan since 1996, moved it to a new location last year, and Italy's Beretta
has its own "galleries" in New York and Dallas.
Beretta says strong demand, especially for double-barreled shotguns, has led it
to expand the floor space of both stores.
Morgan sold his guns at Griffin & Howe, which years ago acquired the venerable
firearms business of Abercrombie & Fitch (no, it wasn't always a teen retailer).
Stored at Griffin & Howe's Bernardsville, N.J., headquarters store are ledgers
going back decades, noting such transactions as A&F's sale of a .505-caliber
rifle to one "E. Hemingway."
Morgan, 58, who recalls playing games at A&F as a child in the 1950s, was
selling a pair of 12-gauge shotguns made in England and bearing the famous
initials JPM. The price tag: $36,500 for the set.
While gun libraries are increasing in popularity, the vast majority of the $1.4
billion in annual U.S. gun sales continue to be made at sporting-goods stores
and mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart.
But big chains like Cabela's are devoting more and more space to libraries
designed to be cozy, inviting - and lucrative.
One of Cabela's newest libraries opened last year in Hamburg, Pa. On a recent
Saturday afternoon, library manager Andy Riedlinger saw dozens of customers come
through, among them John Schoennagel. "I come in here just to admire them," says
the 76-year-old retired meat cutter from West Lawn, Pa.
Schoennagel had come to Cabela's to look for clothes, not guns. But as he
wandered through the gun room, a rifle caught his eye: a .22-caliber bolt-action
Winchester Model 52, offered for $700. "They don't make 'em any more," he says.
So Schoennagel drove home, grabbed a favorite Remington rifle and brought it in
to trade.
After a little haggling with Riedlinger, the deal was closed.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/living/13171215.htm
Libraries get loud as gun stores crop up in retail outlets
By Joseph T. Hallinan
Wall Street Journal
Posted on Tue, Nov. 15, 2005
When Junius Morgan, a great-great-grandson of J.P. Morgan, wanted to sell a pair
of custom-made shotguns that had been in his family for generations, he turned a
couple of months ago to an increasingly popular venue: the gun library.
Gun libraries are high-end gun stores, often with leather chairs, dark wood and
Old World art. Some of the guns are new, and some, like Morgan's, are
"previously owned," traded in or sold by other owners. But all have a certain
cachet to go along with price tags that can hit six figures.
Like many retailers in the world of hunting, gun sellers are increasingly
chasing the high end of the market, where the pace of sales and the fatness of
profit margins are largely immune to economic downturns.
Gun libraries are popping up in mainstream retailers like Bass Pro Shops, which
started opening them two years ago and now has them in four of its 26 U.S.
retail outlets, and Cabela's, which has installed libraries in 11 of its 14
stores nationwide since the 1990s.
These retailers have found that even average Joes are willing to cough up big
bucks - from $500 to $175,000 or more - for guns dear to their heart.
The libraries are also appearing under the banner of elite gun makers opening
U.S. outposts. The British firm Holland & Holland, with a store in Midtown
Manhattan since 1996, moved it to a new location last year, and Italy's Beretta
has its own "galleries" in New York and Dallas.
Beretta says strong demand, especially for double-barreled shotguns, has led it
to expand the floor space of both stores.
Morgan sold his guns at Griffin & Howe, which years ago acquired the venerable
firearms business of Abercrombie & Fitch (no, it wasn't always a teen retailer).
Stored at Griffin & Howe's Bernardsville, N.J., headquarters store are ledgers
going back decades, noting such transactions as A&F's sale of a .505-caliber
rifle to one "E. Hemingway."
Morgan, 58, who recalls playing games at A&F as a child in the 1950s, was
selling a pair of 12-gauge shotguns made in England and bearing the famous
initials JPM. The price tag: $36,500 for the set.
While gun libraries are increasing in popularity, the vast majority of the $1.4
billion in annual U.S. gun sales continue to be made at sporting-goods stores
and mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart.
But big chains like Cabela's are devoting more and more space to libraries
designed to be cozy, inviting - and lucrative.
One of Cabela's newest libraries opened last year in Hamburg, Pa. On a recent
Saturday afternoon, library manager Andy Riedlinger saw dozens of customers come
through, among them John Schoennagel. "I come in here just to admire them," says
the 76-year-old retired meat cutter from West Lawn, Pa.
Schoennagel had come to Cabela's to look for clothes, not guns. But as he
wandered through the gun room, a rifle caught his eye: a .22-caliber bolt-action
Winchester Model 52, offered for $700. "They don't make 'em any more," he says.
So Schoennagel drove home, grabbed a favorite Remington rifle and brought it in
to trade.
After a little haggling with Riedlinger, the deal was closed.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/living/13171215.htm
