"I remember so many little feelings."

November 6, 2023 3:13 PM

"It’s true. I’ve been working on this blog post for ten years.

You see, I’ve been slowly buying up nearly seventy super rare issues of a 80s/90s gadget catalog that meant the world to me growing up. And in the process, I’ve uncovered the secret history of this lost copywriting art.

PLUS, as a bonus, I’ve scanned every single issue — so you can read them all." Cabel Sasser has written a blog post that showcases many many fine nerdy gadgets, the things that dreams were made of for people of a certain age: The DAK Catalog.
posted by jessamyn (38 comments total)

Holy crap, that is amazing! I am mesmerized.
posted by tristeza at 3:19 PM on November 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

People don't know...? My dad got these and we had many DAK branded blank cassettes from 1981 on. Great quality cassettes. Haven't looked at the blog post yet, but yeah, their product descriptions were all that, as I recall. That guy could sell.
posted by Catblack at 3:23 PM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Shoutout to Kay Savetz also who did the scanning.
posted by jessamyn at 3:23 PM on November 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

DAK and Sharper Image catalogs made up my late teens and early 20's. This is a great share of a gigantic effort!
posted by bacalao_y_betun at 3:25 PM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is pretty awesome. What a crazy world it was before most of these things were inside your phone. Also, Casio SK-1!
posted by snofoam at 3:28 PM on November 6, 2023

The information about the DAK catalog at the start of the post caught my attention. And then the pivot to tracing the genealogy of the catalog's style really drew me in.
posted by audi alteram partem at 3:30 PM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hell Yes! Early 80s Tech Aesthetic heaven.
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:10 PM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I sure do remember flicking through a lot of these, wow.

Multiply all the prices by about 30 for a rough idea of what they would cost in 2023 dollars.
posted by egypturnash at 4:15 PM on November 6, 2023

in related: https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com
posted by ovvl at 4:28 PM on November 6, 2023 [6 favorites]

I have no idea how I got on the DAK mailing list as a teenager but wow I spent a lot of time poring over these things and wondering whether I should develop Big Opinions on...like...cables and speakers and stuff. (Fortunately I was saved from that by spending all my money on books.) But this is a pure dopamine-hit of nostalgia!
posted by mittens at 4:36 PM on November 6, 2023 [6 favorites]

Oh my god the Radio Shack catalogs! I wanted so many things from them when I was a young teen with no money.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:55 PM on November 6, 2023

These are the primordial waters from whence I was birthed.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:03 PM on November 6, 2023 [17 favorites]

I also grew up with the Drew Alan Kaplan Industries Incorporated catalogue...and my memory is that it seemed kind of scammy, at least by the standards of the time? Maybe the audio gear was okay--that wasn't my bag--but the computers and peripherals were intensely overhyped (ENTIRE ENCYCLOPEDIAS...THE LIBRARY OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION...ON ONE CD-ROM) with weirdly exhaustive and irrelevant feature lists that I imagined were intended to impress the non-computer-savvy. I assumed the other offerings were the same bog-standard sow's ear offerings described as silk purses. I guess "lost copywriting art" is one way to put it.

And I guess I should read the article now that I've gummed up the thread with my hazy memories of preteen cynicism.
posted by pullayup at 5:56 PM on November 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Woof - my gadget nerd dad died over 25 years ago but looking at these again just gave me such a strong memory of him that I'm really emotional right now.
posted by queensissy at 5:59 PM on November 6, 2023 [10 favorites]

Metafilter: (I know this says a lot about me. We don’t need to discuss it any further.)

That is amazing! I don't remember owning a digital watch that had games on them but I definitely remember playing games on a digital watch.

What a time capsule of interesting and slightly fringey stuff. I would have pored over these catalogs for hours and now I want to read each and every scan but it would take weeks (months!) I don't have that kind of time. Sad face!

I'm full of exclamation points! What a super great find, jessamyn!
posted by ashbury at 6:15 PM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wow. I remember the BoneFone ads, I think from OMNI magazine in the 80s. This post brings back a lot.
posted by jimfl at 7:08 PM on November 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm recognizing too many items from my circle of acquaintances at the time in this catalog.
posted by meinvt at 7:11 PM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

What about HeathKit catalogues?
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:23 PM on November 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

I subscribed to these for years! The Sears Wish Book of electronic toys!
posted by pthomas745 at 8:13 PM on November 6, 2023

For me it was Edmund Scientific.

And wow, I really expected to be able to add a Previously link here.
posted by MrVisible at 8:27 PM on November 6, 2023 [10 favorites]

TIL about the Epson Geneva.
posted by mhoye at 8:31 PM on November 6, 2023

Oh god damn, young me would read the shit out of a DAK catalog. I reckon I was formed at the intersection of DAK, Whole Earth, and Man at His Best (The Esquire Guide to Style).
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 8:34 PM on November 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

I always loved the headline in the bread machine recipes: FIVE MINUTES TO AUTOMATED FREEDOM.
posted by xil at 8:36 PM on November 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

The blog post is wonderful, thanks for sharing!
posted by fridgebuzz at 2:10 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I vaguely remember those DAK catalogs. The ads that I especially remember from that era were the computer hardware ads from Protecto Enterprizes.
posted by JHarris at 3:37 AM on November 7, 2023

What about HeathKit catalogues?

For me at least, they represented two distinct but complementary views of the future:
DAK: One day I'll be rich enough to afford all this stuff!
HeathKit: One day I'll be smart enough to build all this stuff!

(Neither came true!)
posted by mittens at 4:25 AM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I was a connoisseur of catalogs in the 80s (or I thought I was), and I'm very saddened to learn about DAK. I never once experienced it as a child, but will have to start digging in.
posted by hydra77 at 7:11 AM on November 7, 2023

I really wanted to try out a Bone Fone (bone conduction headphones) but couldn't afford them. They have such things now, so it's clear at least the concept was sound. Does anyone know if the Bone Fone actually worked?
posted by tommasz at 7:52 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

My preteen years, pre BBS-era, were a collection of Popular Science and OMNI magazines, Heathkit, Radio Shack, JS&A, and DAK catalogs. Lots of memories looking at these pages.

Also, Casio SK-1!

I had an SK-1 and it...wasn't that great. The sampler trick was novel and lot of fun to goof around with your friends but as a musical instrument it was kind of blah. I also talked myself into a CZ-101 and that wasn't much better.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:32 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Heathkit! Dad built a Heathkit stereo receiver. Actually, growing up in olden time Silicon Valley, most of my friends' dads also built Heathkit stereo receivers.
posted by queensissy at 10:48 AM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Casio SK5 was a lot better as it had four sample pads and you could do some pretty great ad hoc percussion with it. I may still have mine but two keys are busted and I’d need to 3D print replacements.
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:50 PM on November 7, 2023

You know what? It's 2023. They don't even broadcast television in analog anymore, but I still kind of want a JVC 3060.
posted by ob1quixote at 2:26 PM on November 7, 2023

You and me both!
posted by jessamyn at 3:49 PM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Jessamyn, thank you so much for sharing this here!! And tommasz please visit our office to try the BoneFone® for yourself but… spoiler alert… it’s GREAT!?
posted by cabel at 5:02 PM on November 7, 2023 [6 favorites]

What was the catalog that was a step even more expensive?

Crutchfield? I think it was more audio and less gadgety.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 7:09 PM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Going in the opposite direction, I remember the Fingerhut catalog, full of trifles directed at old ladies and SAH wives, with bad printing, bad photos, but loving descriptions. Who didn't want a manual gear driven thread winder made out of colourful plastic, brightens any sewing room.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:08 AM on November 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Lillian Vernon for that stuff, too.
posted by jessamyn at 10:46 AM on November 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

What a crazy world it was before most of these things were inside your phone

It really wasn't that long ago that smartphones entered our world (and changed everything); barely twenty years or so. I still remember gawking at the first iPad I saw in the wild, at a university campus Starbucks, which was being used by a guy with a rather set expression on his face (he'd been fending off questions about it for a while, I guessed). Anyway: I appreciate the geeking out in this thread, though I share not an iota of it. Go nuts, you excellent nerds.
posted by jokeefe at 5:24 PM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]