A little stroll down memory lane...
Tonight I stumbled upon the box for my dad's GS32 Speed Six, which is a shooter that is not usually kept in the box.
I opened the box and decided to check under the "flap". I found this ad for Dave Cook's Sporting Goods in Denver,
where my dad got the gun.
I have mentioned before that I looked and looked for a stainless Speed Six in the late 1970's and could never find one,
settling instead for a blue gun along about 1980. The Speed Six was scarce due to most of them being funneled
to meet LE needs. My dad found a stainless one a few years later and bought it - on sale - and then also managed
to get a better "repeat offender" discount on it.
Regularly $234.50 (MSRP in 1982), on sale for $199.99, he got the stainless gun for the price the blue one was
on sale for - $179.99 (dealer cost was $178.22). The date on the full page ad in the morning newspaper matches the
date on the receipt, so dad must have gone downtown (where the 16th & Market store was) on a Saturday just to buy
the gun (noted as "1 only" in stock).
Dave Cook was bought out in 1988, my dad died in 1998, and the Rocky Mountain News closed up shop after 149
years earlier this year in 2009. As I recall, the Denver papers got all PC after Columbine and would no longer take
advertising for firearms. These days it seems hard to imagine a dealer having to take out a full page newspaper
ad to reduce firearm inventory!
Check out some of the other prices too! There were several 9mm Speed Sixes listed at the various stores for $209.99,
too bad my dad thought those were such a bad idea.
FYI, here is a little blurb I found online about Dave Cook Sporting Goods:
The Fontius building was owned by the Cooks — a family whose troubles outdid even the Dikeous'. Their empire was launched in 1925 when Dave Cook made an impulse buy of 144,000 fishing flies. His entrepreneurial instincts evolved into Dave Cook Sporting Goods, a string of 21 Colorado stores. But the Cooks had lately become better known for their bruising family clashes over money and real estate. Ousted family member Max Cook, Dave's brother, would go on to open his own sporting-goods store and dabble in real estate, buying the Steel's building in 1961. By the time Dave Cook Sporting Goods was bought out by a competitor, in 1988, all that was left of the Cook empire was a collection of properties and an imbroglio of family squabbles over them.
And here is another blurb about Gart Bros. Sporting Goods, who ended up buying out Dave Cook:
In early 1988 Gart bought Dave Cook Sporting Goods Co. for about $20 million. Dave Cook was a longtime rival to Gart and the number two sporting goods retailer in Denver at the time of its purchase by Gart. While the first Dave Cook store had opened in 1932, there were 21 by 1988, all located in Colorado, except for a single store in Casper, Wyoming. Gart and Cook had been bitter competitors for 60 years, frequently engaging in price wars, but were now joined together in a 48-store regional sporting goods empire. Herb Cook, son of founder Dave Cook, initially joined Gart Bros. following the sale, but resigned--along with other Cook family members--in early 1989. Although at first Gart continued to use the Hagan and Dave Cook names on its acquired stores, by the early 1990s a gradual conversion had resulted in all the stores bearing the Gart name.
Tonight I stumbled upon the box for my dad's GS32 Speed Six, which is a shooter that is not usually kept in the box.
I opened the box and decided to check under the "flap". I found this ad for Dave Cook's Sporting Goods in Denver,
where my dad got the gun.
I have mentioned before that I looked and looked for a stainless Speed Six in the late 1970's and could never find one,
settling instead for a blue gun along about 1980. The Speed Six was scarce due to most of them being funneled
to meet LE needs. My dad found a stainless one a few years later and bought it - on sale - and then also managed
to get a better "repeat offender" discount on it.
Regularly $234.50 (MSRP in 1982), on sale for $199.99, he got the stainless gun for the price the blue one was
on sale for - $179.99 (dealer cost was $178.22). The date on the full page ad in the morning newspaper matches the
date on the receipt, so dad must have gone downtown (where the 16th & Market store was) on a Saturday just to buy
the gun (noted as "1 only" in stock).
Dave Cook was bought out in 1988, my dad died in 1998, and the Rocky Mountain News closed up shop after 149
years earlier this year in 2009. As I recall, the Denver papers got all PC after Columbine and would no longer take
advertising for firearms. These days it seems hard to imagine a dealer having to take out a full page newspaper
ad to reduce firearm inventory!
Check out some of the other prices too! There were several 9mm Speed Sixes listed at the various stores for $209.99,
too bad my dad thought those were such a bad idea.
FYI, here is a little blurb I found online about Dave Cook Sporting Goods:
The Fontius building was owned by the Cooks — a family whose troubles outdid even the Dikeous'. Their empire was launched in 1925 when Dave Cook made an impulse buy of 144,000 fishing flies. His entrepreneurial instincts evolved into Dave Cook Sporting Goods, a string of 21 Colorado stores. But the Cooks had lately become better known for their bruising family clashes over money and real estate. Ousted family member Max Cook, Dave's brother, would go on to open his own sporting-goods store and dabble in real estate, buying the Steel's building in 1961. By the time Dave Cook Sporting Goods was bought out by a competitor, in 1988, all that was left of the Cook empire was a collection of properties and an imbroglio of family squabbles over them.
And here is another blurb about Gart Bros. Sporting Goods, who ended up buying out Dave Cook:
In early 1988 Gart bought Dave Cook Sporting Goods Co. for about $20 million. Dave Cook was a longtime rival to Gart and the number two sporting goods retailer in Denver at the time of its purchase by Gart. While the first Dave Cook store had opened in 1932, there were 21 by 1988, all located in Colorado, except for a single store in Casper, Wyoming. Gart and Cook had been bitter competitors for 60 years, frequently engaging in price wars, but were now joined together in a 48-store regional sporting goods empire. Herb Cook, son of founder Dave Cook, initially joined Gart Bros. following the sale, but resigned--along with other Cook family members--in early 1989. Although at first Gart continued to use the Hagan and Dave Cook names on its acquired stores, by the early 1990s a gradual conversion had resulted in all the stores bearing the Gart name.
