My wife ordered a wood trebuchet model via amazon and it came with a copy of the American Science & Surplus catalog. I’ve been enjoying thumbing through this thing.
It’s a bit of an anachronism, a printed catalog with over 700 items, and every single item has a hand-drawn picture and a short descriptive paragraph that someone sat down and wrote, rather than copy/paste from the manufacturer. Each entry is written in a casual, humorous style, and a lot of the merchandise itself is the kind of stuff you used to see in full-page comic ads, so there’s a lot of fodder for comedy (example).
I may well do all of my Christmas shopping out of this thing.
I’ve gotten some nice things from them, most recently my eclipse glasses came from them (actual sunglasses style with plastic frames). I also have a “map holder” from their militaria section that’s a perfect size for my Player’s Handbook, character sheets, dice and other bric a brac when I hit a gaming night at the local game store. I like that a lot and other people have commented on it. A few things from them were less than awe inspiring in person but that’s not really their fault.
Biggest killer for me is shipping. It’s hard to justify some of the stuff when you know you’re going to get slapped with $8 or $10 in shipping unless you’re buying $50 worth of things. And it’s hard to take a chance on a $50 purchase based on a sketch and blurb.
It should go without saying that they have a website (which has photos although you can turn the ketches on instead for that bathroom reader feel)
I love Science & Surplus, Most of my kids Chanukah presents came from them over the years and many other oddball items. My wife liked the idea of keeping the Chanukah gifts educational as the Xmas gift were typically more generic toys.
When I was a kid, the store was on Northwest Highway. My brother and I would scrape together a few bucks of allowance savings and beg mom to take us there. At the time, they has scores of bin with all sorts of little bits and pieces for 10 or 20 cents each. Those few bucks could really stretch at AS&S. Mom was never terribly interested in visiting, though.
Nowadays, it is still a neat place. I swear some of the stuff remains just as it was from 25 years ago. It’s a really easy place to kill an hour and I usually wind up buying at least one or two things. Some of the best stuff costs more than I think it should, though. For example, there was a bin of the guts from CPAP machines. Neat and well made but I can’t see them flying out the door at $75 (or whatever, don’t recall).
Up near the front are telescopes, microscopes, science kits, glassware, laboratory gear. The main aisles are still full of bits and pieces, tools, parts, wires, magnets, prisms, surplus stuff. The items in the showcases are cool to look at, too. Scientific instruments new & old, military stuff, medical and animal specimens, optics, demonstration and display whirlygigs…all sorts of crazy things. It’s a really cool store and out-of-towners should pay it a visit on their way to Superdawg.
My order for Touchable Bubbles has been shipped and will arrive in plenty of time to make it into the grandson’s stocking! I could spend the family fortune on that site. In fact, I may have. Those bubble cost $12 for two plus shipping.
