I found this picture online – the lampshade is different, but the lamp itself is pretty close to the design of the one I had.
I was born in 1981 so I never really knew what green stamps were. I’ve heard of them, of course, but this thread is the first I’ve learned much about them. I never saw my parents use them or talk about them. Having said that…
The amber drinking glasses featured in that catalog are identical to the set we had growing up. Knowing my mom she probably got them at a garage sale or flea market in college and then kept them forever – waste not, want not and all that. She got rid of them well after I was grown and out of the house. I may actually have one in a box somewhere.
Hey @kenobi_65 I get an error 403 when I click on that link.
I do remember S&H green stamps! I was quite young and then we moved in 1973 and after that I don’t recall ever seeing them again. But before the 1973 move, my mom collected them and I used to help lick those nasty tasting suckers and put them into those books.
I don’t recall if we ever got anything with them. If I remember, I’ll ask her.
If my dad and I had anything to do with it, we would’ve gotten this. But my mom would’ve killed us.
One of the gas stations in my neighborhood when I got my DL in 1981 gave them out, but that’s the only time I remember seeing them when I was old enough to get some for myself. I don’t remember my parents using them either, although maybe they did, and didn’t tell me.
I never accumulated enough stamps of my own to “buy” anything.
Here in Canada, we had Lucky Green stamps, which you got through Loblaws’ supermarkets. They were the same basic idea as anywhere else, though: shop at Loblaws, get your stamps, fill the books, and redeem the filled books for merchandise.
Mom shopped at Loblaws, and collected the stamps. I think we got a table lamp out of them. Then, a new supermarket opened closer to home, which is where Mom went then. They didn’t give stamps, so that was the end of that.
As a child, it was my chore to paste all the accumulated stamps in the books. In St. Louis, we had a regional stamp brand called Eagle stamps, later bought out by a more national brand. For a while, consumers had to handle both S&H and Eagle, and of course they needed separate books.
For a long time, there was only one denomination of stamps, and there were machines that spit out the correct number in long, sticky sheets. Later, they introduced 10X and other denominations, where a single stamp could be pasted in on a page instead of a large block. Reduced my chores a bit.
I can’t ever remember what we redeemed them for, as everything in the catalog seemed to require more stamp books than we ever had, and I always wanted the fanciest item in the catalog. But my mom was extra-thrifty – having lived thru the Depression and WW2 – so I’m sure we traded them in for something.
Stamps seemed like a stupid idea, and I was glad when the fad went away.
Back in the 1980s, I travelled to the US a lot, and being a smoker back then, I found that Raleigh cigarettes had coupons that could be redeemed. So, when I was in the US, I smoked Raleighs, and often got a duty-free carton when I returned home. More coupons, yay!
Not really. When I got hold of a Raleigh catalogue, I was amazed at how expensive (in coupon terms) things were. You’d be on your deathbed, suffering from lung cancer, before you had enough Raleigh coupons to redeem for that nice colour TV.
I followed the link in that article, and “Green Points” are no longer a thing as of 2 years ago.
But now there are… Fresh Points!
I convinced my sweet mother to get me the page 131, item #11 Regent Fielder’s Glove from a similar mid-1960s catalog.
I was about to join a PAL (Police Athletic League) kid’s baseball team (the Birchwood Bombers) and needed a baseball glove.
I had to use subtle means of persuasion to convince Mom to order it for me: Hey Ma! That avocado-colored thingamajig you want from dat catalog? Fuggedaboutit! Order me a baseball glove instead! And while you’re at it, slap a cheese sandwich on the grill. I’m famished.
I got the glove, but the stiff leather never softened no matter how much I worked it. Dropped a lot of balls as a result. Destroyed my aspirations of becoming a pro baseball player (…well that and poor hitting and fielding).
After ~55 years, I still have that glove. Don’t have Mom anymore. Miss her.
I have vague memories of seeing such stamps before the age of 6 (1975 or before), but I don’t recall anyone treating them as important or saving them carefully.
The only real memory I have of those stamp books is an episode of The Brady Bunch – "The Brady Bunch" 54-40 and Fight (TV Episode 1970) - IMDb. Even while watching that episode, I wasn’t really sure that it was a real-life thing.
Remember from first hand experience, no. But my brother and I watched a lot of Nick at Night during summers growing up so we both learned about them that way.
We got the same set from the same source! The croquet set is still in the family, with one of my nieces.
S & H Green Stamps is also where we got the Tripoley playing mat. I have never seen that for sale other than through gteen stamps.
Warren Buffet (via Bershire Hathaway) was a huge investor in the 70s, at one point he owned 60% of the company.
Some neighbors across the street from my partens’ place have one they put up every Christmas season. Whimsical!
My grandmother gave me several books of plaid stamps to get a 4 piece set (for 4 people) of Oneida flatware.
One book wasn’t complete. Other relatives gave me stamps to fill the book.
Who sponsored the box top coupons? That rectangle was on all the cereal boxes, cake mixes,flour bags,sugar bags, etc. I cut out 2 shoeboxes full of those things. Found out they were basically worthless and threw them out.
Turns out you needed thousands of them just to redeem for a really cheap item.
I don’t know how regional they were. We had Eagle stamps in Cleveland Ohio as well. And I recall when they started issuing 10s and 50s. The latter would “fill” a page.
I can just remember helping my Mom do “something” with the green s&h stamps, but thats so far back the only real distinct thing aside from getting to put a few stickers in books is they are happy memories.
My brother has a fairly nice(to me anyway) Marlboro dart board set he bought with Marlboro Miles. It’s not the plastic tipped sort, real cork, real wood cabinet, real steel tipped darts like we all remember (if you’re old enough) from childhood.
We collected them and I vaguely recall being in the redemption store with my parents.
Wikipedia implies that the Internet may have had a role in their demise, but the stamps were effectively gone long before that.
So why did they die?
Are there any countries that still have them, or had them until recently?
Thanks for posting this link. I remember digging through the glove compartment to find Green Stamps, but like others here, I don’t recall my parents redeeming the books.
There’s a link on that website to Strange and Terrible Fitness Products from the 1970s. The “Air Jeans” are a hoot.