Anyone Else Love Old Catalogs? H.e. Harris 1954

I have been scanning some items for sale and ran across some old catalogs.

Here are a couple of sample pics from a 1954 Harris catalog sent to customers.

Besides the historical reference to pricing, etc., there are some interesting articles on collecting.

Personally, I find the reading very interesting. The picture of the family is quaint and I love the truck.

I remember that catalogue. I bought from Harris when I was about 10 and first starting out. I still have all the stamps I bought from them.

I well remember those catalogs, too. As a kid collector, I couldn't afford Scott catalogs, so the Harris catalogs (and many of their stamp supply items -- including albums such as the Independence and Traveler, which I eventually upgraded to the Liberty and Statesman) were priced more in my affordability range and many were even available at the local Woolworth's ... remember those giant grab bags of stamps?

As I grew older, I realized the disparity between the Harris catalog and the Scott catalog in terms of "value" ... as the Harris catalog was meant to be used to buy the stamps you wanted from them at the price quoted rather than returning a catalog "value" for the stamps.

Good or bad, it did introduce me to stamp collecting. Fortunately, I learned early on that their awful "Crystal Mounts" were junk and remounted most of my collection into better mounts as time (and money) allowed.

Here are some scans I made last summer of the first 15 pages of the 1955 edition

http://www.mystupidhobbies.com/Stam...atalogs.html

Mike33 - great pics.

wt1: When you look at the process of dealing with stamp orders at that time, imagine the mark-up required to make a profit after paying all those employees. No wonder the prices in the catalog were what they were.

Mike,

Thanks for the link to your Harris catalog pages. It's neat to see the prices of the stamps, especially the early imperforates.

I used to buy from H.E. Harris in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I still have their 1981 catalog.

One of my earliest catalogs from Stanley Gibbons 1897. The older ones are occasionally more useful than modern as they give details of postcards, envelopes and wrappers which the modern S.G. does not.



The cheapest Penny Black was 3 old pennies which, in modern coinage, equates to 1.25 pence. Back then you could buy a reconstructed sheet of 240 Penny Black stamps for £20.

Recall that 20 pounds in 1897 is a lot of money. I have no idea what the modern equivalent is, but I do know it is a lot.

Here is a 1945 Ackland's Catalog.

For those who might like to view the entire catalog, a scanned it into a PDF. Link below; note, this is an 11MB file.
don

http://DD-DESIGNS.CO/dnloads/acklands_1945.pdf

".....20 pounds in 1897...."
£1475 ($2480) in present day terms....

Thanks VERY much for posting these. I also have purchased that catalog, because I could remember having it when I was a kid. I also have loved being able to purchase a color catalog for Minkus albums, and a late 1950s wholesale catalog from Grossman Stamp Company, which sold wholesale to stamp dealers only.

1923 Scott "Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue". Pretty cool to have the whole world in one volume. Shown is publisher's page and two advertisements from the catalogue.

Stampfan9: I was intrigued by the label on that 1923 Stamp Catalog that reads "W.C. Henry Philatelic Service". As it's always interesting to connect a name with a photo, I thought this was interesting:

As always wt1, thanks for info that I know I could never find. Great graphics on the cover of the publication.

3Dadeo,

Thank you for those HE Harris scans. I particularly enjoyed the picture of the Harris Building on 108 Mass Ave. I remember that building well as Harris was my "go-to" way back when.

Sadly, I also remember their "new quarters" over on Summer Street almost in Southie. This might have been the 1970's. New construction, cheap and unassuming, single story, maybe 400 sq ft. Nothing like the heyday. Then..., that too was gone.

Jack Kelley

oh, and I see that Scott #650 listed for $.65 in 1954. $11.50 at MYSTIC today, sixty years later!

Jack Kelley