Thread: Sears sure has changed, for the worse!

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Originally Posted by 34_40

As long as "they" don't recognize you as trying to return one earlier!

I think that might be a problem. I made a "little" fuss, not quite to the point of them calling security on me, but I wasn't exactly quiet either.

Don

Now that the Chinese are becoming more affluent corporations will be looking for cheaper labor,wait till we see "Made in Haiti" on our tools and parts.That would be scary.

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

YEP it was a wine and cheese deal the D.C deal there going to give it a fast paint job and flip it on E BAY.they were going to make it in to a theme park with a zoo but there was to much crap from the monkeys for them to clean up. you know all the years of it just piling up and no more green back paper to wipe there butts with.... so there going to paint over it all. some air freshener and try to make a buck.... buy stock in the pine tree air fresheners i hear there stock... is going to go up soon what and white wash

Just now got my breath back from laughing so hard at this post .
Thanks for that, Pat.

Heres a link to one of those giant online places where you can get just about anything including typical car stuff like a car battery.

All this talk about Sears had me feeling somewhat nostalgic for the old days, so I bought a 1959 Sears catalog on Ebay. I thought it would be neat to see some of the old ads from when I was 14 years old and making lists of all the car parts I wanted to order...........but with a dollar a week allowance they might as well have been a million bucks.

Here are some pictures I took of some of the items from that catalog. Sorry for the poor picture quality.

Don

A few more. We actually owned that riding mower, what a POS. It had solid bearings in the live rear axle and you had to keep turning the grease cups to keep the axle from eating it's way through the bearings. Sure beat walking though.

Don

Wow Don That is cool. I still look at the price of an outboard engine and cringe. Even back then they were expensive! I think most of my boating friends have spent more on their engines than the boat it is in! It would be cool to own one of those original craftsman stand up chest of drawers/tool box. Cool styling!

Steve, I sat and went through the catalog last night and it was amazing the vast variety of products Sears carried back then. Everything from clothes to entire kitchen cabinets to boats. How about a reman flathead for $ 169.00?

The only area that didn't seem as appealing to me as it did when I was 14 was the womens lingerie dept. I bet I wasn't alone in getting some of my early education from those pages.


Don

I like that Scrambler, 1.33 hp per cu. in.! Oooo weeeee! If I remember correctly those were made by Puch and rebranded Allstate.

Though Pops, my first thought was "14 yr old"............hmmm wouldn't that be 1859?.....................

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

I like that Scrambler, 1.33 hp per cu. in.! Oooo weeeee! If I remember correctly those were made by Puch and rebranded Allstate.

Though Pops, my first thought was "14 yr old"............hmmm wouldn't that be 1859?.....................

Yep, the Sears catalogs from my youth actually had mules, flintlocks, and slaves for sale.

I bet some of those old Sears scooters and motorbikes are worth a good penny now. I owned a Montgomery Ward 250 motorcycle and it was made by Bennelli, so Puch could have built the ones for Sears.

Don

What was really different about those times was that you could mail order a pistol. Then the crazies like Lee Harvey Oswald put an end to that practice. (Not that Lee used a pistol, but just that things tightened up much more after JFK)

Don

For some of the younger or foreign folk not familiar with Sears private brand name origins, they have a page for that: http://www.searsarchives.com/brands/index.htm

Don: Not sure if your catalog is old enough or not but Sears used to sell Kit Houses. I have worked on a few of them here in MI. Realy good materials for the time.. The windows didn't have counter weights but had dowls in the side of the sash and matching holes in the frame to hold them open.

No Charlie, no homes in this catalog, but I do sort of remember seeing those kits. In fact, I think I saw an actual home, the guy told me something like it showed up on a big truck and they built it up from there. But it was so long ago the details are fuzzy. Sears also had farm catalogs and ones like that, so the homes may have been in a separate catalog from the main one.

I remember when I was a kid it was a big deal when the new Sears catalog would come in the mail. I was surprised to see some show up on Ebay, most of them met a terrible fate in the outhouse. (Some things about the good old days weren't actually so good! )

Don

seeing that were on old Sears stuff are old house before they tore it down .there was a old very small iron pot stove must of burned coal in it ? was by the old coal room . i all ways was looking at it when i as a kid had the world casted in the lid . we moved out 37 years ago they said we could go in and there it was that small stove ? water heater ? two pipes going in it ? i pick it up it was still sitting were it been sitting over 40+ years .any one see any thing like this ?