Recently I bought a 1968 Sears catalog. Sears represented middle-America for decades. It is fascinating to look back at the cost of living, fashion, and interesting items that are not available now.

Sears used to sell pistons, rings, cams, complete car engines and many more items. Can you imagine Wal-Mart stocking those?

This rifle is $1,131 in 2024 money.

I sure do miss those days. I was telling the young guys at work about sears selling rifles in their catalogs. I still think they don't believe me, lol

Is the women's undies section still in the catalog?

For the webs...

Is there a section in that catalog selling homes? I think they did way back in the day.

As for modern gun prices, those should be considered crimes against humanity imo.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
Is the women's undies section still in the catalog?

Stand it on its spine, it falls open to those pages.

A car player for 45s? Awesome.

The craft homes were until the late50's,IIRC. Many of them were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
Is the women's undies section still in the catalog?

That was close to the pictures in a Playboy in those days.

Am I the only one to wonder where you can buy vintage store catalogs?

I have an old Sears catalog, that got from an antique store, from 1909. You could get just about everything from Sears back then, and have it shipped right to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
Is the women's undies section still in the catalog?

That was always my first stop!

quote:

Originally posted by Cassandra:
For the webs...

Most of them are online here:
https://christmas.musetechnical.com/

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Originally posted by mjlennon:
Am I the only one to wonder where you can buy vintage store catalogs?

Ebay has them. My mom still has a catalog from I believe Montgomery Ward from the 70's, they even made a song about the one male underwear model in it who was showing a little bit more than he should have.

The "Allstate" automobile (Kaiser "Henry J") was listed in the Sears catalog, but could not be ordered directly through it. They sold a number of firearms (even an M1 Carbine clone) and other sporting goods like bicycles under Ted Williams and "J.C. Higgins" names. The Gun Control Act of 1968 ended direct mail order purchases of firearms.

When my family was living overseas in the 50's and 60's in third world countries the Sears mail order catalog was one of the most iconic things connecting us to home. I remember spending hours paging through it thinking about how wonderful our live would be if we actually could be living in a place that allowed such riches.

Most of our Christmas wish lists were from the pages of the catalog, and delivery was at least as certain as we get these days.

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Originally posted by smithbc:
I have an old Sears catalog, that got from an antique store, from 1909. You could get just about everything from Sears back then, and have it shipped right to you.

It was the Amazon of it's day.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
Is the women's undies section still in the catalog?

Stand it on its spine, it falls open to those pages.

Hahahaha!

Oh yeah, I well remember those days. In 1960, I bought a Springfield 03-A3 out of a catalog for $18.00. I was 13 years old.

The $1100 rifle is a fancy commemorative rifle, with it looks like fancy wood and an octagon barrel. The plain jane 94 on the bottom of the page is $816 in todays dollars. Probably about what a new or near new condition poar 1964 one is worth today.

I saw a new or near new post 1964 1894 at my FFL. Had all the inner box wrapping, warranty cards, and hang tags. It looked like Christmas morning to me, as I'd have been 14 in 1968. I think the buyer got it for around $900 on GB.