1980 Service Merchandise catalog (pics)

[den68]

I guess somebody finally decided to get rid of their catalogs after 25 years! I picked this up at a thrift last night and thought I'd share a few pics. Check out the price on that VCR. has anyone ever seen that "Took a Lickin' from a Chicken" game? Looks interesting. the description said it was like tic-tac-toe. your victory music was "Old MacDonald".

http://www.quikey-c.com/den1/elements/service1.jpg

http://www.quikey-c.com/den1/elements/service2.jpg

http://www.quikey-c.com/den1/elements/service3.jpg

[Kid Ice]

I'm a little surprised the price was that low on an Atari in 1980.

Yep, I remember "Take a Lickin". LOL

That VCR rocks! They used to have channel dials on them so you can set the channel to record from (TVs at that time had dials to change the channels).

[chrisbid]

dam 15 bucks for a blank video tape in 1980's dollars @_@

[Chunky]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=232&item=3187452700

ug the price, but if i ever see the chicken out there i'm gonna pounce on it.

I love old catalogs. I still find things i always wanted....still want them but never can find them. I need to dig for more 80's Sear Christmas Catalogs.

[Captain Wrong]

Ooooh! This is so rad! I love looking at the old catalogues, thanks for the scans!

We used to have a Betamax that looked kinda like that.

And yeah, I remember that chicken thing too.

[Mr. Smashy]

I swear that I used to have that exact same backgammon set. :)

[l_lamb]

We had the identical VCR but with Sylvania's name ($779) on it back in 1979 and it would only record up to 4 hours on a T-120 ($19.99 on sale) tape. It was hooked up to a cable box with a dial and a HUGE A/B selector switch. The "remote control" was a wired pause/play switch that you actually slid back and forth. The best part was the audio dubbing feature. We would take recorded stuff then dub in audio from commercials or soap operas as they were playing. My dad's M*A*S*H tapings were ruined. :embarrassed: It's listed at 44 pounds, and I remember as a kid I could barely lift it.

[Captain Wrong]

The best part was the audio dubbing feature. We would take recorded stuff then dub in audio from commercials or soap operas as they were playing. My dad's M*A*S*H tapings were ruined. :embarrassed: .

My sister and I went one better than that, we hooked in microphones and provided our own dialogue. LOL Man, what I would give to still have those tapes around.

[Aswald]

Omar, the LED electronic backgammon game...

[den68]

The best part was the audio dubbing feature. We would take recorded stuff then dub in audio from commercials or soap operas as they were playing. My dad's M*A*S*H tapings were ruined. :embarrassed: .

My sister and I went one better than that, we hooked in microphones and provided our own dialogue. LOL Man, what I would give to still have those tapes around.

heh heh, I still have ones my buddies and I did of old Leave it to Beaver episodes. incredibly stupid yes, but funny as hell.

my wife thinks her brother had that chicken game. I'll see if he still does.

[Arcade Antics]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing, Den!

I find it particularly funny that they even devoted space to PICTURES of those batteries. LOL

[scooterb23]

Took A Licken' From A Chicken...man I loved that game...and man, was I bad at it. I will never forgive my cousin who, after losing to it...kicked and broke it :(

I hate you now Den...after 20 years of not thinking about it, I now have the musical opening from that game stuck in my head...

I used to have all those old electronic games :(

[charitycasegreg]

$500 for that tv?! 700 for the vhs machine?! @_@

[Jasoco]

THAT'S A VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDER!?

Oh. My. God.

I MUST have that. eBay must have one. I love old electronics.

We didn't get our first VCR until they were more known and did not look like that. Ours looked like the ones of toda.. uh, the 90's. (Today they're all silver. Ours was of course black. Like everything in the later 80's and early 90's.)

I like the remote is corded. For "Editing commercials". Hows that for an eye catcher. "Wow! I can edit out the commercials!!!" I really want that. I wonder what category number on eBay would have stuff like that.

I also love the TV. I would love the two of those.

...

$24.95 for a 4 hour VHS tape??? HOLY CRAP!! $500 for the TV. $700 for the recorder. $25 for the tape. What a long way we've come. @_@

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Oh lord. I used to have that chicken game! Noisiest thing I'd ever heard at that point in my young life. LOL

I sure hope that the 2600 comes down under the $100 mark soon. ;)

[evg2000]

well, besides the vcr, tv, backgammon game, and the tiger football game, I've got everything else (including the chicken)

charles

evg2000

[Flack]

We got our first VCR in 1978. We had a package deal that also included a video camera (black and white). It wasn't cordless like cameras now, it had a separate box that connected to the VCR and then the camera connected to that box. We used to tape every Christmas with it. Last year I used my capture card to take all those old tapes and turn them into VCD's. Yes, I have video of a 5 year old Flackster emptying his stocking and discovering all 8 Star Wars figures, as well as getting his first X-Wing and TIE Fighter. For the first year or two, VCR's were only 2 hour (like ours). This was a pain after a couple of years because when 4 hour tapes came out they would play twice as fast on our VCR. I believe in 1980 we sold our old VCR and bought a 2/4 one from Sears (as seen in the ad).

I remember the little corded pause button and still have ours (just ran across it the other day). My dad paid me $5 a night when they first aired Shogun on television to sit through the whole thing and take the commercials out while it was recording.

Our next VCR was one of those "portable" ones. Came with a camera and the VCR. I'm going to say the VCR portion weighed at least 20 lbs, and the camera was probably another 5 at least. I remember taking it to the zoo with my mom and watching her lug that piece of crap around. When we would get home, she would have a bruise on her shoulder from it.

Jasoco, if you are serious about picking up one of those VCR's, head to your local thrift store. I see them there all the time, at least once a week. I'd pick one up here for you but I'm guessing shipping would be a couple hundred bucks.

[Chunky]

here some link for no reason!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50604&item=309106950

[sniperCCJVQ]

Any other pictures from that catalog ?

[Lady Jaye]

Jasoco, not all VCRs produced today are silver-colored. We just replaced our old Sanyo VCR last week by a brand-new black Sony VCR (http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=FzYRukaBeD8R8AYAIVYbsQmRIp9wwPt8C2k=?Cat egoryName=hav_VHSVCR&ProductSKU=SLVN900&Dept=hav). And there was also a black JVC VCR (it looked like shit, tho, so there was no way I'd pay for it).

[Neo-Jorge]

Service Merchandise used to so rock, I remember going there to buy all kinds of things with my folks as a kid, to pots to pans to irons to jewlery. I remember I bought my Copy of Castlevania there for a cool 37.99 It was such a deal since most places wanted 49.99 for it. It was so cool getting stuff there you had to take this stupid little clip board and write the item number of the item in the glass then you went and paid for it and then you were off to this little waiting area where they would send your goods down this little elevator and they would call your # when it was ready for pick up.
Ahh the memories......


Thanks

[Lady Jaye]

So then, I guess it worked a bit like Consumers' Distributing did in Canada? At Consumers' Distributing, you'd look at the items in the catalog on site, write down what you wanted to buy on an order form, bring it to the counter and, after a few minutes, they'd bring the items from the backstore.

They'd sell stuff from jewelry to toys to videogames to electronics, etc.

[Jasoco]

Well, currently not all new electronics is silver, but that certainly is the way the trend is going. Not that I mind, but I do get lots of customers asking "Do you have it in black?" "Sorry, they only make this model in silver." or "Sorry, they discontinued the black one, (RCA TV that is the same model, but they changed the color and don't sell the old one.) They're all Silver now." "Eww, I don't think I like the Silver. I was used to the black."

Guess I should just tell them that they should get used to it. Everything used to be wood accented. Then they moved to black. Black was here for 15+ years. Now it's silver. Makes you wonder what will be next. Maaybe the retro egg shaped bright colors of the 60's and 70's. LOL

[NintendoMan]

Awesome PICS DEN,
I love seeing old pictures of things, it makes me laugh to see that a blank vhs cost $15, and a VCR $600+, WOW!!
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

[SoulBlazer]

Yikes, that is the most UGLY eletronic device I have seen! I can't believe VCR's looked like that at one time! O_O

When did the first VCR come out, anyway?

My parents bought a Quasar in 1984 and that thing worked until 2001. Now I go through VCR's about once every three years. Go figure. :o

[Jasoco]

Yikes, that is the most UGLY eletronic device I have seen! I can't believe VCR's looked like that at one time! O_O How old are you? You have to be old enough to appreciate the style electronics once had. The wood and metal. The dials and sliders and switches. Before everything was all digital. When it was all mechanical.

It's a thing of beauty. :D

[Blackjax]

Yep. We had an even OLDER VCR -the RCA Selectavision. It had to be released in the 70s, since I still lived in New York at the time and we moved to Chicago in September 1980.

There was a certain satisfaction to pressing those buttons. ka-CHUNK LOL
And the spring loaded eject mechanism. POP! *tape rattling* *dad yelling for not keeping hand on top of tape mechanism*

Because of this thread, I pulled it out of the basement. Would you believe the damn thing still works! They sure don't make em like they used to.

[Flack]

The first VHS VCR was released in 1977. Like I said, we had ours in '78 and with the camera it was about a grand.

I mentioned this thread to my dad and he said in the late '70's he was a member of some videotape rental company that operated almost exactly like Netflix. He said there were no places around here to rent movies and that he belong to a "mail order" VHS tape company. Go figure!

[SoulBlazer]

Me? I was born in 76. I don't know when my folks got their first VCR, I just remember that Quasar one (and yes, it was mostly black). I'm trying to remember some of the early electronics we had.....and I'm coming up with a blank. LOL The Atari 2600 is the earilest thing I can recall......

I DO remember using it on one of those old style TV's, though, the ones with the two dials, one of the channel and one of the RF band? Was that it? I never used that one....the volume was controled by a slider switch. And the rounded corners that I came to hate cause it blocked out some of the image on some games. :D

[Lady Jaye]

One dial on these TVs were for VHF channels (02-13) and the other one for UHF (14+).

[ChickenLickenstillticken]

I love my chicken game! :D My dad gave it to me for my fifth birthday in 1981 and I was so sick that morning. I still have it and the chicken is still ticken away! It is extra special now that my dad has passed away! Good luck finding one.. I have seen them on ebay before! :D

[Aussie2B]

My family has always been REALLY behind the times when it comes to technology and electronics. We were using a TV with the two dials into the 90s, and we didn't get a VCR until around the mid 90s. When my parents divorced, my dad kept the VCR and the TV that came after the dials one (which he's still using to this day... all the TVs in that house are from the mid 90s). My mom is even worse. She wasn't convinced to get a VCR until just a few years ago, haha, and she's STILL using a TV that requires you to get up and pull a knob to turn it on (and push it to turn it off). Thankfully we can use a remote by using the buttons on the TV to set it to channel 3 and then turning on the VCR and using its remote (we did the same thing before the VCR when we had a cable box). I guess I'm keeping the tradition of using ancient technology alive with my stubbornness to continue using outdated PCs with outdated software (Windows 98, MS Word 97, etc.) and old game consoles while the newer ones collect dust. :P And everytime I visit my mom I whoop out my old tiny TV (that I've had since I was around 10 years old) with its RF input only and play my old Nintendo systems. :)

[diediemydarling]

i got a service merchandise catalog from '96
and some sears catalogs with nes, gb, genesis, etc

[Blanka789]

That thing is sweet looking! :D I really wish everything would stay in the "black" era of the 90's, but that's probably why I'm stuck there myself. LOL

[mills]

IT seems that the new color for electronics is white.

[Stark]

This is one old post brought back from the dead but I still love old catalog adds.

[unbroken]

I work at a retailer and use price points like that end in .97 or .83 ..ect signify that the item is on clearance(ex. 99.97, 150.83..ect) Why would an atari be on clearance in 1980?

[boatofcar]

I can't believe Service Merchandise survived until 1999!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_merchandise

I think my family bought our first VCR there, a GE in 1985 or 86. I wish I could find a picture of it online, but for some reason no one seems to be interested in archiving pictures of old VCRs :)

I think that was the last thing my parents bought there. Circuit City came to town in 1987-88, and they started shopping there for electronics.

[izret101]

Thats wicked cool.
I love looking at those old sales catolougs.

Thanks for the scans Den

[starchildskiss78]

I can't believe Service Merchandise survived until 1999!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_merchandise

I think my family bought our first VCR there, a GE in 1985 or 86. I wish I could find a picture of it online, but for some reason no one seems to be interested in archiving pictures of old VCRs :)

I think that was the last thing my parents bought there. Circuit City came to town in 1987-88, and they started shopping there for electronics.

I forgot that Service Merchandise lasted that long either (actually didn't close their last stores until 2002.) I got my first (Model 1) Genesis there and some of my games. Pulling the tag and bringing it up front was weird but awesome at the same time.

[Candycab]

Pretty cool find :-P

I still have one of the smaller handheld Football games , works like a champ to this day.

I recently ran across some good Jpg scans of 1982 and 83 Videogame mags.

Like this one

http://static.flickr.com/42/76800898_9fbeb4e5f0_m.jpg

If anyone is interested in them I can shoot them over MSN Messenger, there is 5 or 6 of them complete at about 35 megs raw. :D

Have a great Holiday !

[YoshiM]

Wow, someone was digging in the archives.

I too love old catalogs. It's probably one of the best "true" ways to look back in time. Fashions, trends, etc. all right there in full color.

My family didn't get a VCR until like 1983 I think. It was a Sears brand Beta: no remote, top load with the two mechanical knobs, wood grain body with silver trim and button panel. Oh wait, there was a remote: me. I can remember running up to the console TV to hit Pause for commercials.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

The best part is that this old products have the same prices (or lower) than now in my country... :/

Matías

[NEOFREAK9189]

I love seeing old pictures old stuff
any pic of stereo stuff and clothes

i got a catalog from the 90s

[Blanka789]

I love seeing old pictures old stuff
any pic of stereo stuff and clothes

i got a catalog from the 90s

Could you put some scans up? I LOVE 90's stuff, and would love to see some.

[diskoboy]

Holy Jesus, that takes me back!! I remember that very Catalog!

The first Service Merchandise store in the US is now a Chinese Grocery Store in a very bad part of Nashville. Sad. And I assume that you live or lived in Nashville, TN. Because SM didn't start chaining out until around '82-'83. EDIT: Nevermind.. Guess I should read the notes on the side of the posts :D

I used to have one of those "Lil Genius" calculators.

Any Sears Wish Books between '80-84 in that catalog pile?

[Buyatari]

Any other pictures from that catalog ?

Man in 1st grade my buddy brought one of these on the bus. We eyed up the bra and women's underwear section the whole way to school. Ahh the days before internet porn.....

[Candycab]

Bump !

Scans I found are here in about 5Meg Zipped chunks for any interested ...

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/bluecars@sbcglobal.net/lst?.dir=/Old+Videogame+mag+scans&.view=l

Thank You ..Please Drive Through :D

[Captain Wrong]

OUTSTANDING!

Thanks.

BTW, to continue the VCR discussion, we had a Sony Betamax. This would have had to have been 1977-79, when pops worked part time in the appliance section at LS Ayres. (We got a lot of gadgets ahead of the curve that way.) It had presets for 8 (I think) channels and you had to set them manually with a little screwdriver. I don't even remember it having a remote.