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Parts & Stuff — Parallax Forums

Parts & Stuff

ajwardajward Posts: 1,130
edited 2011-09-05 17:43 in General Discussion
Don't know if this place has been posted before, but they have a bit of neat stuff. They even have vinyl pocket protectors!!!! ;-)

http://www.sciplus.com/index.cfm

Comments

  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2011-09-02 16:59
    I have been doing business with those guys since about 1975, back when they were still Jerryco. While they've kept up his style to some extent Jerry's idea of how to lay out a catalog was ... refreshing, and I miss the original flair.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2011-09-02 18:33
    Jerry Luebbers started the mail order site ("Jerryco") in about '77 or '78, after having taken over a bricks-and-mortar surplus store from his father. He died in '88, in his mid 40s.

    Jerry paid me the honor of carrying the first edition of Robot Builder's Bonanza, one of the only books they used to stock. When the book came out I wrote him a letter, with a copy of the book, and pointed out all the Jerryco parts it used. They carried the book for several years after that.

    I never met him in person, but he struck me as a guy who enjoyed life. His sense of humor permeated everything. You may remember he used to price his printed catalog at "Half a Buck," and had a picture of half a reindeer. (Of course he gave away the catalogs, but by putting a price on them he could write off the stated price, rather than the actual printing costs -- clever!)

    Though they weren't connected, Jerryco and Archie McPhee shared mailing lists for a time. They both carried rubber chickens and nuns bobbleheads -- I imagine Archie McPhee still does; don't know about AS&S.

    -- Gordon
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2011-09-03 17:53
    Wow Gordon, I had no idea Jerryco had been started so recently when I got into them -- I had the impression as a teenager that they had been around for a long time. But if you're right I must have had one of their very first catalogs in my hands when I was 12 or 13. I guess there was a lot happening in the electronics biz in the mid to late 70's. I still have some unmarked capacitors I got from a place called Poly Paks. I bet you remember them LOL.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2011-09-05 17:43
    As I remember it, Jerry got them into the mail order business. Before that it was a local store (or two).

    Yes, I remember Poly Paks. It was easy to spend $50 when buying all those cheap assortments!

    My favorite mail order haunts back in the early and mid 70s were James Electronics (I believe the forerunner of Jameco), Fair Radio, Allied, and Lafayette. Until '75 or so we even had several Lafayette stores in SoCal. They had more surplus than Radio Shack did, and I bought tons of junk I never got around to using in a project. A friend bought a "Quad" stereo there, complete with 8-track. Man, what a groovy sound!

    -- Gordon
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