Not that inexpensive from a retail viewpoint, as the U.S. Revolver Co. guns sold for about the same price as the Iver Johnson guns and were of equal quality. But it is likely that I.J. made more money per unit on U.S. Revolver guns than on its "own" brand.
The major difference was that the I.J. transfer bar safety was not used on the U.S. guns. The latter were sold through mail order houses, not through I.J.'s system of "licensed (by I.J.) dealers" of which they made much at one time. Their "authorized" dealers kept I.J. revolvers from getting into the wrong hands (sound familiar?) and prevented cut-price sales. So, while the company was hand wringing and voicing phony concern about "unauthorized persons" and unwarrantied sales, they were happily selling (as U.S. Revolver Co.) guns to mail order companies to be sold to anyone with the money.
Jim
