Great Catalogs

In My Humble Opinion
1

Ironic, isn’t it? I hate junk mail, but I love getting cool catalogs in the mail. There’s nothing like settling in after work with a sandwich and a catalog full of things I never knew existed and now desperately want.

What are your favorite catalogs? I want to add my name to their mailing list and get more cool reading.

My current favorites:

Signals and Wireless, from public television and NPR, which I don’t seem to be able to find links for. Odd.

Levengers, with everything the reading and writing person needs to spend every dollar he or she will ever have a prayer of earning.

Femail Creations, neat arts/ jewelry/ decor of the feminist/new age/ empowerment flavor

The museum store of the Washington National Cathedral. They don’t specifically offer the catalog on this site, but there’s a guestbook, and I’m sure, unless I’m hallucinating, that I was enthralled by the one I got unexpectedly last year.

2

Design Toscano is my absolute favorite catalog ever. They’ve got cool reproductions of medieval, Egyptian, art deco, and other types of home decor items. I can’t praise it highly enough.

3

Bud Plant’s Catalog of Comic Art has a lot of fun stuff you can’t buy anyplace else.

Hardcover books that reprint comic strips from decades ago, the collected works of modern illustrators, pulp magazine memorabilia, comic book graphic novels, & pin-up girlie stuff. Fine art, too. It was there that I learned about Alphonse Maria Mucha. Now, I’ve got framed reproductions of his works all over my walls.

4

Oh no. Look what you did. I have now ordered a catalog and I’ll be living in a box under a bridge (with lots of lovely new writing equipment) within a month.

I’ve always liked the Sharper Image catalog. An intelligent self-propelled robot vacuum? I’ll take 3, please.

5

I used to LOOOOOVE Sharper Image until I actually bought stuff from them. Everything was either inferior or it broke immediately. We’re sending everything back. Your mileage may vary.

That said, RedEnvelope has a great catalog filled with gifty stuff. I purchased a necklace for my friend for Christmas. They have a real and an on-line catalog.

6

Oxford University Press.

Daedalus. aka www.salebooks.com

7

The Baker’s Catalogue from King Arthur Flour, and Penzeys Spices. I read these two recreationally. Of course, I do the same with cookbooks.

8

The catalog from Despair is the funniest catalog I’ve ever seen.

Being a puzzle fan, I used to like Bits and Pieces, but the puzzle market seems to have crashed, and there is hardly anything interesting in it anymore.

9

The Garrett Wade woodworking catalog. Cool stuff and beautifully photographed.

The Lee Valley - Veritas woodworking catalog

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Unfortunately, we’ve had some negative experiences with Garrett Wade. We also visited their store in Manhattan and found them to be rather jerkish.

Lee Valley/Veritas is fabulous, though! We order from them all the time. We actually did most of our Christmas shopping from there. Their service is great, their prices are very fair, and their packaging is environmentally friendly. They have 3 catalogs: Hardware, tools, and garden stuff.

Another nice tool catalog is Hartville Tool. We regularly order from them as well. They have some unusual things in there, and it’s nice to look at.

Some other favorites:

Tilley Endurables: The best hats in the whole wide world! (I’m partial to the T3) I’ve never purchased their clothing, but I hope to do so soon. Their customer service is fabulous. But most of all, their catalog is a great read.

Travelsmith: Travel clothing and accessories. Practically everything is machine washable and wrinkle resistant.

ULine: I love browsing this catalog. Who knew cardboard boxes and baggies came in so many sizes?

Conney Safety Products: This is a fun one to browse, but we actually order from them fairly often. They are a great source for things to go into first-aid kits–like individually wrapped doses of medication.
This is a great thread idea! Thanks. I love to read specialty catalogs of all types, and I’m always asking people if I can see catalogs specific to their profession. (My optician just gave me a really cool one. Wow, there are a lot of pliers out there for opticians.) I can always look online, of course, but it’s hard to know which are the good catalogs and which ones are overpriced, etc.

So if folks want to post what some of their profession-specific catalots are, I’d appreciate it.

One I need in particular: Does anyone know of any catalogs that sell medical/surgical/hospital equipment to non-medical people. I specifically need a couple of the glass jars that docs use in their offices. I also find that surgical instruments (scissors, tweezers) are way better for craft work than the tools sold to crafters, and I’d like to see what’s available. And I’d like a really big laundry hamper. I see those around hospitals…

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I rather like the Aldrich catalog. Then again, I am weird like that.

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If anyone can tell me how to get on Wireless’ catalog list, please let me know! We used to get it at home and now that I’ve moved they apparently can’t find me. :frowning:

Since it’s so freakin’ cold, I’ve been shopping for a down comforter in The Company Store catalog. I also like to get my cold-weather clothes from Eddie Bauer, and I’m loving my new fleece-on-the-inside, corduroy-on-the-outside shirt from Woolrich. :slight_smile:

13

Wow. Nobody has mentioned What On Earth yet. They have some of the best t-shirts available anywhere.

Another one that I’ve been getting a lot at home is Acorn. It’s especially for Anglophiles, with a huge selection of Britcom and Mystery! DVDs.

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www.budplant.com

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my favourite is Hammacher Schlemmer- sometimes they have the most amazing useless fun things…we bought a remote control blimp from them

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I’ve slipped out of catalog appreciation mode, but if you’ll allow me to reminisce - as a kid, I reveled in the F.A.O. Schwarz catalog, and as a later (still) kid, I absorbed the J.C. Whitney catalogs.

Heh, toy stores.

17

Allow me to add Design Within Reach which contains some great furniture.

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[QUOTE=Green Bean]

Some other favorites:

Tilley Endurables: The best hats in the whole wide world! (I’m partial to the T3) I’ve never purchased their clothing, but I hope to do so soon. Their customer service is fabulous. But most of all, their catalog is a great read.

Greenbean, thank you very much for the Tilley recommendation! I’ve been looking for a good sun/rain hat, but didn’t like the selection in the stores in my area. I just went to the website and ordered a hat. Again, many thanks!

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Can’t remember the exact name, but it was a catalogue of catalogues. Coupla’ hundred you could order, some free, most in the one to three dollar range. 'Course, how many NASCAR and free stuff catalogues CAN one use? :smiley:

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American Science & Surplus: lotsa cool weird stuff.