Here’s an article I wrote twenty years ago for this blog’s host, Backwoods Home magazine.
It’s still relevant today, although the mentioned prices have gone up significantly. There’s one exception to that, though. With the trend toward 9mm pistols pre-cut to mount optical sights, there are a lot of 9mm, .45, and particularly .40 S&W caliber semi-automatic pistols that have been traded in by police departments and are selling for bargain prices in the $300-400 range, like the Gen3 Glock 22 .40 in the photo.