McMaster-Carr catalogs

You're kidding! You mean those books that I throw away every year have value?

Yes they do. You can easily sell them on eBay for $5-$10 + shipping.

Since M-C does not send them to just anyone, I've seen people pay lots for current and vintage ones (on ebay). I figure I'd offer these old ones to cover postage and the trips to the PO if anyone wants them. But since nobody is giving me an offer, maybe I'll toss 'em too.

When I first started my company, I couldn't get them to send me one either. Every time I requested one (with an order) they told me they were out, but I'd get one soon. After nearly a year of this, I told them that Grainger probably had a catalog I could use. Within a week, I had 2. Now I get 2 more every year.

BTW, I wasn't trying to be a jerk, I really was surprised. I figured with the internet so handy, I was the only one left that liked to use the paper version.

I use an old paper version to keep track of current orders. Since many people are requesting orders, we have to be careful not to order the same thing twice. When someone orders something, the print it out or cut it out of the book and post it on a bulletin board. When you want to order something, you look on the board to see if someone has already ordered it. The nice thing about cutting it out of the catalog is that you can tell if the product has already been ordered by seeing it's absence from the page.

what happens when you need to order the same thing 9 months from now, and you haven't received a new catalog? you save all the little slips of paper back in the catalog?

Seems crazy to me too. Especially since a couple clicks on the old 'puter gets me there for basically free! Greg

Seems kind of crazy to me too - but I did a quick search on ebay and here's what I found:

At the time of this posting - there are 7 bids and it's up to $57.56 with 1 day 1 hour left!

Tillman

Dang...that is crazy. I have one of those sitting on my catalog shelf that I can see from where I'm sitting. Hmmmmm.... Mike

The MCM website is getting better all the time. You can display previous orders up to one year old, look at the line items, and re-order stuff without entering the P/N again. That said, I still think the printed tome is useful too. MCM is one fanntastic company -- i just wish everything were run as efficiently.

I use them quite frequently. It's kinda funny, I live 30 minutes from a Grainger warehouse. If I order from them, I get it in about 3 days. I live 8 hours from MCM, and I get orders from them the next day. Go figure.

Yep, and they routinely go for $70 and up. I finally gave up on #11 and bought a #110 instead. =20

I keep sending auction results to MMC, suggesting they try selling the things for about $30 each, but they just don't get it. (Unless the people in their catalog department are the ones selling them on Ebay..)

-- Email reply: please remove one letter from each side of "@" Spammers are Scammers. Exterminate them.

About a year ago, there was a lot of discussion about these catalogs and it seemed lots of people wanted them. I don't think they're good for ordering (older ones), but I find them useful to look through because I don't have years of experience to know what's there. So, if I want to learn about the thousands of different kinds of screws, for example, I just look through the book. It's very easy to read and learn. For ordering, that's an online thing.

I thought if anyone was interested in old ones for this purpose, they can have mine. But I'm income-free these days, and it costs just to get to the PO and ship 'em. Anyway, apparently all those people who wanted catalogs whenever that thread was active (last year?) have gone elsewhere, or maybe just upgraded to DSL.

That is nuts! I mean, think of all the cool stuff you could buy with that money.

Chris

The real lesson here is that McMaster-Carr (thanks for the reminder about them!) is missing the boat: they should _sell_ the blasted catalogs and credit the cost after a certain number of orders and/or account total, for repeat customers, etc.

Bill