HP Forum Archive 20

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Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #1 Posted by gene wright on 29 Mar 2011, 11:17 p.m. I remember these catalogs from around 1975-1977 that had wonderful line drawings of calculators. In particular, I remember line drawings of the big M55 and S61 Commodore calculators. Does **anyone** still have a copy of this catalog who could scan it to PDF? I've been looking for some time for this piece of my past. :-)

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #2 Posted by Mark Harman on 30 Mar 2011, 1:38 a.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright Gene, Wow, this brings back some interesting memories from my childhood in the 1980s! I remember getting Boy's Life magazine and seeing the Olympic Sales Club ads that often flanked the back cover. I remember the ads vividly with "Captain O" and telling kids to call the toll free number and "ask for Ruth." Several times, my older brothers and I requested the catalogs and information only to never sell the stuff... :^D We didn't think it was worth the effort for the prizes or cash. It was more profitable and easier for us to deliver newspapers, where we had steady customers, cash flow, and better opportunities to win prizes. Heck, we all won wads of savings bonds. :) My oldest brother was involved in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in the late 1970's. He likely had some of those catalogs, but I am sure they are long gone as he never sold any of their merchandise. I think actually selling the stuff would be required to form enough of an emotional connection to it to hold on to those catalogs. In other words, I wish you luck. Anyhow, no copies - but plenty of thanks for bringing back some good (and retrospectively humorous) memories. Thanks, Mark

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #3 Posted by Thomas Chrapkiewicz on 30 Mar 2011, 10:25 a.m., in response to message #2 by Mark Harman Hi Gene: Got one here! 1976-1977 Olympic Sales Company Catalog. Page 51 has the line drawings you referenced; drop me an email. I had purchased my HP65 from Olympic Sales in 1975ish; their price was discounted by $100.00. TomC ps: Found much other 'ancient' (MITS, NSC IC data sheets) lit in my archives which I'll report back on later. Edited: 30 Mar 2011, 10:26 a.m.

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #4 Posted by Mark Harman on 30 Mar 2011, 11:16 p.m., in response to message #3 by Thomas Chrapkiewicz Uhm... Okay, I'm feeling silly now. Are we not talking about the Olympic Sales Club here? Or are we talking about an electronics distributor in the 70's that has nothing to do with what I am thinking of? In any case, the one I was thinking about did offer calculators as prizes that could be earned for selling boxes of Christmas cards and other things. Mark

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #5 Posted by Gene Wright on 31 Mar 2011, 7:45 a.m., in response to message #4 by Mark Harman I think it is the Company not the club, but someone had told me they were one and the same, which apparently they are not. Electronics yes, prizes no. :-)

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #6 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 30 Mar 2011, 10:42 a.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright I have at least a 16-page Commodore brochure covering the S61, N60 and M55 calculators. Joerg

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #7 Posted by Gene Wright on 30 Mar 2011, 10:55 a.m., in response to message #6 by Joerg Woerner Great! Can you scan that to PDF?

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #8 Posted by Thomas Chrapkiewicz on 30 Mar 2011, 11:24 a.m., in response to message #7 by Gene Wright Gene: You've got mail! Regards, TomC

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #9 Posted by Gene Wright on 30 Mar 2011, 4:42 p.m., in response to message #8 by Thomas Chrapkiewicz Thanks Thomas. I'd love to see most of the catalog... primarily of course the pages dealing with calculators. I forget what other stuff might have been in there. Been a long time.

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #10 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 30 Mar 2011, 2:19 p.m., in response to message #7 by Gene Wright Commander Wright: 16 pages equals about 1 hour to scan, photoshop and PDF it. Consider it done by 10:0p PM Eastern Time. Regards, Joerg PS: Gene, this will be an exciting evening! I requested a few days ago from Texas Instruments a Casio Prizm to compare it with my TI-Nspire CX's prototypes. Fedex tracking shows the box delivered since a few minutes and according to TI does it include a "surprise with the Hewlett Packard logo"!!! Can't wait to leave the Office today ;-))

Re: Olympic Sales Club - catalog with calculators? Anyone have a copy to scan? Message #11 Posted by Gene Wright on 30 Mar 2011, 2:40 p.m., in response to message #10 by Joerg Woerner Hilarious. TI is buying Casio's to send to you? I need to get on that list. :-) And, wonder what HP sku TI would be sending you? A 50g perhaps? A good night, indeed! and thanks for the scans. I have all three of those Commodores and they are among my favorite. I distinctly remember having that Olympic Sales catalog with me nearly every day in the 8th grade and would often look at the line drawings of the M55 wondering what each of those wild functions meant.

Re: Commodore Specialized Calculators Leaflet online Message #12 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 30 Mar 2011, 7:06 p.m., in response to message #7 by Gene Wright Gene, The '76 catalogue is online! Just visit Datamath Calculator Museum and click on the left navigation frame "DOWNLOADS" and "SALES LEAFLETS". You now have to follow the QUICK-LINK to non-TI calculators. You'll find a full-color PDF copy with about 4.3 MByte - original scan was provided by fellow collector Bob Patton! Regards, Joerg

Re: Commodore Specialized Calculators Leaflet online Message #13 Posted by Gene Wright on 30 Mar 2011, 10:00 p.m., in response to message #12 by Joerg Woerner Thanks! That looks great!

Oddity ... Re: Commodore Specialized Calculators Leaflet online Message #14 Posted by Gene Wright on 31 Mar 2011, 9:20 a.m., in response to message #13 by Gene Wright Interesting tidbit. Look at the first page. Shows the calculators covered in the brochure from a side angle. however, one of them on the front cover is different than the detailed pictures in the brochure itself. Spot which one? and I wonder why?

Re: Oddity ... Re: Commodore Specialized Calculators Leaflet online Message #15 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 31 Mar 2011, 11:50 a.m., in response to message #14 by Gene Wright The M-55 looks darker in the single shot than on the first page. I guess it's a matter of illumination, not a real difference.

Re: Oddity ... Re: Commodore Specialized Calculators Leaflet online Message #16 Posted by Gene Wright on 31 Mar 2011, 1:23 p.m., in response to message #15 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Nope, there is a difference... big difference... between one model on the front page and the detailed pic of the same model later in the brochure.

Re: Oddity ... Re: Commodore Specialized Calculators Leaflet online Message #17 Posted by Gene Wright on 31 Mar 2011, 1:56 p.m., in response to message #16 by Gene Wright I'll go ahead and tell what I think the difference is... The front cover shows the calculator with color keys that is probably the 4190, but the internal detail is the non-color key 9190. If you look, the non-M55, S61, N60, PR100 calculator has color on the keys, but inside the brochure, the calculator with color on the keys is all non-color. Just a quirk. Eh.

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