There has never been a more closely guarded launch of a shotgun than Benelli’s new Vinci, and once you see what finally came out of the black box at noon on March 31st the cloak-and-dagger secrecy is fully justified.
Description
The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” lets bidders use the Internet to participate live in the auction-room action through the integration streaming audio and video plus Instant Messaging. An encrypted, secure console allows the auction administrator to monitor the proceedings as they happen to ensure precise bidding.
The system also collects and stores a record of all bids and transactions. This helps automatically compile an archive for historical pricing or dispute resolution.
In addition, The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” collects contact information for all bidders, expediting all future marketing endeavors.
The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” is a subscription-based service available on an ad-hoc basis – eliminating any software purchases. The only hardware requirements are consumer-quality video cameras, microphones and one or more PCs. A broadband Internet connection is necessary.
The customers’ database catalog can be fully integrated into The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” or ad-hoc links can be established for each individual auction. Either way, the bidders can preview all the lots of the auction.
For the auctioneer, the Shotgun Life team can provide a customized look-and-feel with your own logo, corporate colors and images. The system becomes a fully integrated extension of your own live auction proceedings.
Benefits
The benefit to auction houses is a vast increase in the number of bidders at a negligible cost to all participants. Bidders can now log into a live auction and reap all the advantages of a front-row seat from their office, home or airport lounge – virtually anywhere they have an Internet connection.
That’s because the Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” has been designed from the ground-up specifically for live auctions.
It is not an e-Bay style system where individual bids are submitted in time-delay mode to meet a pre-scheduled deadline. By comparison The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” is live and in-the-moment – providing a level playing field for bidders who choose to take part remotely.
The system provides lively interaction. Instant Messaging can be exchanged between participants in a group and the administrator. Although the Instant Messaging is only viewable between members of a particular online conversation, the administrator can monitor all the Instant Messaging exchanges.
When the gavel comes down, the Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” includes secure links to all major credit cards, so that the winning bidder’s account can be immediately charged.
The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” is the most cost-effective and secure way for auction houses to increase the number of bidders and sell more fine guns at higher prices.
Features
The follow is a list of standard features in The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion”:
Conclusion
The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” leverages the power of the Internet for the auctions of quality firearms. All the disadvantages of phone-in bidding disappear in favor of a real-time virtual presence in the auction room for bidders from around the world. In addition to expanding the number of participants in an auction, we believe that the Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” can help build loyalty among existing and new customers – providing a significant growth opportunity for auctioneers.
Please contact:
Irwin Greenstein
SGL Media
PO Box 5790
Pikesville, Maryland 21208 USA
Office phone: 410-484-2038
Mobile phone: 443-799-5974
Email: igreenstein@shotgunlife.com
Shotgun Life is the first online magazine devoted to the best in wing and clays shooting. For more information about Shotgun Life visit www.shotgunlife.com.
Media Contact:
Bernard + Associates
Ryan Holmes
(775) 323-6828
ryan@bernardandassociates.com
March 10, 2009 – Pikesville, Maryland – Shotgun Life, the first online magazine dedicated to the best in wing and clays shooting, has expanded its Internet presence into live firearms auctions.
The new Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion”© is a service available to auction houses as a means of expanding their reach to bidders everywhere in the world who have a high-speed Internet connection.
The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” lets bidders use the Internet to participate live in the auction-room action through the integration of streaming audio and video plus Instant Messaging. An encrypted, secure console allows the auction administrator to monitor the proceedings as they happen to ensure precise bidding.
Auctioneers need only a broadband connection and video cameras to get up and running quickly. The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” does not require software downloads, long-term contracts or expensive computer devices. The service is available on an ad-hoc basis for individual auctions.
The system also collects and stores a record of all bids and transactions. This helps automatically compile an archive for historical pricing or dispute resolution.
In addition, The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” collects contact information for all bidders, expediting all future marketing endeavors.
The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” is a subscription-based service available on an ad-hoc basis – eliminating any software purchases. The only hardware requirements are consumer-quality video cameras, microphones and one or more PCs. A broadband Internet connection is necessary.
Benefits
The benefit to auction houses is a vast increase in the number of bidders at a negligible cost to all participants. Bidders can now log into a live auction and reap all the advantages of a front-row seat from their office, home or airport lounge – virtually anywhere they have an Internet connection.
That’s because the Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” has been designed from the ground-up specifically for live auctions.
It is not an e-Bay style system where individual bids are submitted in time-delay mode to meet a pre-scheduled deadline. By comparison The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” is live and in-the-moment – providing a level playing field for bidders who choose to take part remotely.
The system provides lively interaction. Instant Messaging can be exchanged between participants in a group and the administrator. Although the Instant Messaging is only viewable between members of a particular online conversation, the administrator can monitor all the Instant Messaging exchanges.
When the gavel comes down, the Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” includes secure links to all major credit cards, so that the winning bidder’s account can be immediately charged.
The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” is the most cost-effective and secure way for auction houses to increase the number of bidders and sell more fine guns at higher prices.
Features
The follow is a list of standard features in The Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion”:
To arrange a demonstration or to have your questions answered please contact:
Irwin Greenstein
SGL Media
PO Box 5790
Pikesville, Maryland 21208 USA
Office phone: 410-484-2038
Email: igreenstein@shotgunlife.com
Shotgun Life is the first online magazine devoted to the best in wing and clays shooting. For more information about Shotgun Life visit www.shotgunlife.com.
Shotgun Life “In-the-Room Live Connexion” © 2009 SGL Media
“In-the-Room Live Connexion” © 2009 SGL Media
The shotgun stood upright in a museum-quality case, halogen lamps kindling the mystique of the Prodigal Son.
The Browning Superposed in front of us was a one-of-a-kind called Golden Days. Belgian master engraver Dany Matagne had spent 300 painstaking hours detailing the doves, bobwhite quail and Gamble quail with gold, green gold, copper and palladium – the entire landscape study framed in a floral scroll. If ever there was a rendition of upland heaven, it was here on the receiver of this $80,000 Superposed.
A venue for traditional wingshooting will soon open, tailored specifically for women – and it’s about time.
Called the Ladies Shooting Syndicate, it’s the brainchild of Blixt & Co. in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Ladies Shooting Syndicate is by membership only. It organizes splendid shooting trips to luxurious destinations for like-minded women. In effect, Blixt & Co. has transported the Golden Age of Shooting into the 20th century for women with adventurous sensibilities.
The superb Austrian firearms engraver, Martin Strolz, accepts two assignments at most per year. Now Martin tells us in a phone conversation that he is available in 2010 – for only one gun.
Martin tends to work close to home in the town of Steyr. He teaches engraving at the Higher Technical School, and the few outside assignments he does accept usually originate from the prestigious gunmaker and outfitter, Lechner & Jungl, in nearby Graz.
There was a golden time in America when fresh-faced kids could routinely bring their guns to school, stash them in their locker with books and lunch boxes, and then after football practice all run out to a big field and shoot at rusty cans and elusive squirrels with their very own .22.
As a girl growing up on a ranch in Texas, those days are still a living memory for Judy Rhodes – and it’s her mission in this God-given life to share that boundless joy with other women today.
Judy has been toting a gun since the age of four and she got her start hunting rats, pigeons “anything that was a nuisance” using her first Red Ryder BB gun. At 8, she got her first real gun, which was a .410 shotgun.
Judy recalls that during those days she was “a ringleader of organizing people to go out and shoot. Maybe 30 kids would go after a game… only two girls, and the rest were guys…it was a time when girls weren’t encouraged to play sports.”
But being a rancher’s daughter, Judy said she didn’t know there were any limitations for girls. “I was used to the call of the wild.”
Little did Judy know at the time that those wonder years of her life would set the foundation for her to become one of the leading advocates for introducing women to the shooting sports and that very same call of the wild.
When she left home to attend Oklahoma University, her natural talents as a hunter and leader roped in some “Yankees” from the East Coast, where she demonstrated her early talent to get people involved in the kind of life that Judy loved.
She recalled how she had invited those East Coast guys back to her home in Texas. “It was my first time around Yankees who had never been exposed to the outdoors,” she says, laughing.
Judy remembered how she would get them on a horse and to touch a cow – often the first time her new friends got that close to livestock – or any big animal. Then, at night, Judy introduced them to hunting as they stalked coyotes.
After college, Judy returned to Texas where she landed a job as an interior decorator working on high-profile projects such as the Ritz Carlton in Dallas. Back home now, she got right back into hunting, which turned out to bring her some business because there simply weren’t that many women at the time who shared her passion for the sport.
One day, she was on the job and “a cowboy gets in the elevator. He’d just come back from hunting in Wyoming.” What neither of them realized was that they both worked for the same company. In fact, as the vice president of finance, he signed her checks.
The stars were aligned, and they got married. For their honeymoon, they went hunting in Wyoming.
In 1999, Judy was recruited to the board of the Women’s Shooting Sports Foundation — an arm of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The charter of the WSSF was to get women more involved in the shooting sports and hunting, as well as function as sort of a lobbying group to influence manufacturers and retailers on the special needs of women shooters (and Judy has some strong opinions about that).
When the WSSF ultimately dissolved, she started the Texas Divas, which is short for Texas Women’s Shooting Sports/DIVAS. It is now known as Women Outdoors Worldwide – Divas WOW – and remarkably is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.
Today, DIVAS has members in 49 states and 15 foreign countries. Over the years, DIVAS has taught over 800 women how to shoot a shotgun. They don’t call them chapters, they’re called liaisons because it’s a sisterhood – women who need encouragement to enjoy the outdoors.
Her motto is “Women Helping Women…Women Teaching Women…Women Supporting Women.” Her leadership in shooting, hunting and civic organizations led to a major story with photograph (including shotgun) in the Today Section of USA Today in March 2006.
She has also been featured in stories promoting women’s positive outdoor experiences throughout the world, including broadcasts on German Television and the United Kingdom BBC Television.
Maybe that’s where she got the TV bug. She started Divas in the Outdoors Television Show for reaching women and families worldwide. The show taught simple techniques from professionals. Divas in the Outdoors was the number-two show on MOR (Men’s Outdoors and Recreational) shown on Direct TV, DishNetwork, Comcast and Turner Media.
All the while, Judy has been to South Africa 18 times, in addition to Spain, Argentina, Scotland, England, Canada and Mexico, as well as all over the U.S.A.
Her leadership, enthusiasm and commitment have made Judy the voice of outdoor women within the industry. As you can appreciate, she has a word or two for shotgun makers.
“Make guns that fit us.”
Judy believes that the Beretta 391 semi-automatic is probably the best-fitting full-size gun for women on the market. Otherwise, she recommends that smaller framed women get themselves a youth gun.
But knowing Judy, we can expect to see a lot more shotguns on the market tailored to women.
“When we conduct our clinics women are afraid and we tell them that women can’t be afraid. They know what guns can do, but don’t know how to use them. But once a woman hit her first target its amazing how they want to go out and be a marksman and buy their own guns,” she observed.
There was something else Judy discovered about women involved in the shotgun sports.
“Women enjoy the smell of gunpowder.” She went as far as to say that women considered the smell of gunpowder a turn on.
Does that mean there’s a new women’s fragrance in Judy’s future? Not really, but she is exploring the possibility of returning to TV this September.
“It will involve a lot of women and the outdoors,” she said.
Judy honestly feels that she has been chosen by a higher power to get women involved in hunting, shooting and the great outdoors. “It’s a sisterhood, a bonding, to make sure we have that next generation of women shooters. This is a mission I believe that I have in life.”
Irwin Greenstein is Publisher of Shotgun Life. Please send your comments to letters@shotgunlife.com.
Helpful resources:
For the First Time, the Shotgun Industry Can Combine Quality Editorial With Digital Advertising Aimed at Affluent Shooters
Pikesville, Maryland, January 15, 2009 — Shotgun Life (www.shotgunlife.com) opened the door to a new, digital era in the “Best Gun” category as the first online magazine devoted to wing and clays shooting.
In addition to the digital format, Shotgun Life breaks new ground as the only publication with comprehensive, quality editorial of both wing and clays shooting, and a section devoted to the rapidly expanding audience of women who participate in the shotgun sports.
By being online, Shotgun Life lets advertisers, for the first time, adopt a complete “cradle-to-grave” strategy that begins by reaching a new generation of Internet-savvy professionals and retain their loyalty through a lifetime of upgrades to higher quality shotguns, accessories and shooting venues. At the same time, Shotgun Life appeals to the established audience of affluent shooters who use the Internet in their daily lives.
Moreover, Shotgun Life lets advertisers reach readers in places that were previously off limits, such as the workplace.
In addition to the free online magazine, Shotgun Life publishes a free weekly e-letter whose mission is to help shooters improve their skills with tips from world-class instructors. In less than four months, the Shotgun Life e-letter has garnered nearly 700 subscribers who signed up for it. As another new marketing tool, the Shotgun Life e-letter is the first online, direct-response vehicle for the shotgun industry.
“We have been beta-testing Shotgun Life since the middle of September 2008, and now it is clear that the industry recognizes that the need for a robust online venue is long overdue,” said Publisher, Irwin Greenstein.
We anticipated an extraordinary weekend of shooting and dining, since we also had dinner reservations at another great American institution, the Culinary Institute of America in nearby Hyde Park.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec consectetur ipsum vitae nisi. Sed leo orci, posuere et, blandit non, laoreet eget, massa. Quisque interdum egestas ligula. Mauris libero enim, cursus quis, aliquam vel, varius et, lorem. Phasellus elit augue, convallis eu, posuere a, luctus vel, lorem. Suspendisse potenti. Nam adipiscing, mauris vitae tristique posuere, ligula dolor blandit libero, a ultricies ipsum metus a quam. Vivamus sed est. Donec lacinia pharetra sapien. Fusce id lorem ac nulla fringilla interdum. Pellentesque justo nisl, vehicula id, volutpat ac, laoreet eget, quam. Quisque eget erat eget turpis malesuada accumsan. Maecenas sit amet nisl. Fusce posuere. Nam auctor.
Join an elite group of readers who receive their FREE e-letter every week from Shotgun Life. These readers gain a competitive advantage from the valuable advice delivered directly to their inbox. You'll discover ways to improve your shooting, learn about the best new products and how to easily maintain your shotgun so it's always reliable. If you strive to be a better shooter, then our FREE e-letters are for you.
Shotgun Life is the first online magazine devoted to the great people who participate in the shotgun sports.
Our goal is to provide you with the best coverage in wing and clays shooting. That includes places to shoot, ways to improve your shooting and the latest new products. Everything you need to know about the shotgun sports is a mouse-click away.
Irwin Greenstein
Publisher
Shotgun Life
PO Box 6423
Thomasville, GA 31758
Phone: 229-236-1632
