1973 Argos Catalogue

Yes and only 252 pages back then.....sadly I actually remember buying the foot pump on P178 £2.70 and a barbecue P195 for £9.60....................:)
 
Slide rulers on page 63, god I'm showing my age.
 
My first Nikon - Nikkormat £125.
Asahi Pentax Spotmatic £120.
 
I love looking through the old online Argos Catalogues.

So many items from that particular issue which were part of our house growing up.
 
I bet items were built to last much longer back then. Mother was given a plastic brown coloured laundry basket as a wedding gift in 1965 - it's still in regular use to this day and in perfect condition.
 
Great link, pages 12 to 17 really take me back......but Wallace Heaton and their Blue Book was my go to supplier back then :)

Also the office furniture pages are pre historic.....no computers on the desks but typewriters ;)
 
Ian D J said:
I bet items were built to last much longer back then. Mother was given a plastic brown coloured laundry basket as a wedding gift in 1965 - it's still in regular use to this day and in perfect condition.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure we had the same one. Served as an imaginary boat, car, and many other things, was melted with an iron, but still going strong last time I was home.
 
Keith W said:
Anyone remember there rival Index?
Click to expand...

Vaguely - I would have never remembered the name had you not mentioned it. I seem to recall that they opened an outlet in Cambridge St., Glasgow that was only a few doors away from Argos.
 
I wonder if old Lego catologues are available online. I used to spend hours flicking through them and the arrival of a new one was moment of joy.

[/recovering Legoholic]
 
Llamaman said:
I wonder if old Lego catologues are available online. I used to spend hours flicking through them and the arrival of a new one was moment of joy.

[/recovering Legoholic]
Click to expand...

I was the same with Action Man. Those were the days
 
Box Brownie said:
Great link, pages 12 to 17 really take me back......but Wallace Heaton and their Blue Book was my go to supplier back then :)

Also the office furniture pages are pre historic.....no computers on the desks but typewriters ;)
Click to expand...
Yeah, I used to work for Wallace Heaton and still have their blue book from about 1961:)

What amazes me, looking back at these old catalogues, is that we used to actually buy that junk! And I'm probably more guilty than most, as I did a lot of the photography for Argos back then, until I wised up to the fact that turnover is vanity and profit is sanity...
 
Garry Edwards said:
Yeah, I used to work for Wallace Heaton and still have their blue book from about 1961:)

What amazes me, looking back at these old catalogues, is that we used to actually buy that junk! And I'm probably more guilty than most, as I did a lot of the photography for Argos back then, until I wised up to the fact that turnover is vanity and profit is sanity...
Click to expand...

Is was the Earls Court branch we shopped at and the one SLR I have fond memories was my Exa 1a with waist level finder...as I could not afford the pentaprism!

Oh, at a tangent the branch manager was an interesting character, he was a WWII tank commander who shared some stories of his wartime experience. Some of it proper "Boys Own" sort of stuff :)
 
Box Brownie said:
Is was the Earls Court branch we shopped at and the one SLR I have fond memories was my Exa 1a with waist level finder...as I could not afford the pentaprism!

Oh, at a tangent the branch manager was an interesting character, he was a WWII tank commander who shared some stories of his wartime experience. Some of it proper "Boys Own" sort of stuff :)
Click to expand...
I was at 127 New Bond Street, started in the stores, worked my way through a few departments (6 months in each) and ended up in the commercial studio. I bought myself the Edixa Flex, that too had a waist level finder and the lens didn't even have a pre-set aperture... For some reason I remember that it cost me £44. 6/11, which at the time was 9 weeks wages... I had it for years, eventually the cloth focal plane shutter packed up, which they always seemed to do on the Edixa.

Back then, a lot of the staff had served during the war, I still remember one of the salesmen there, a real character, he had lost a leg in the first WW.
 
NickTB said:
I was the same with Action Man. Those were the days
Click to expand...

In my case, it was the Hornby Railways catalogues between 1979 through to 1983. That was when I spent ages leafing through the pages wishing I could buy that Black 5 loco or the BR Class 37, but I was only aged 12 at that time and never even got pocket money so I had to rely on Christmas and even then I never got what I wanted.
Now there's nothing to stop me from marching into the nearest toy shop and buy three lots of Hornby train sets if it needs be!

Incidentally, I still have that well thumbed catalogue in the attic, I had a massive loft clear out last year but I didn't have the heart to throw away that particular catalogue as it is very much a part of my childhood so that escaped the recyclers.
 
Would love to go back in time with a few hundred quid in my back pocket :) . Although the Cameras and TVs were pretty expensive, or were they ? :thinking:
 
Last edited:
2 pages of cigarette lighters!

Used this to calculate modern day equivalents - dishwasher £1100!!
 
Garry Edwards said:
Yeah, I used to work for Wallace Heaton and still have their blue book from about 1961:)

What amazes me, looking back at these old catalogues, is that we used to actually buy that junk! And I'm probably more guilty than most, as I did a lot of the photography for Argos back then, until I wised up to the fact that turnover is vanity and profit is sanity...
Click to expand...

I once had an interview with them for a holiday job when I was a student. I was shown into the poky managers office and thought I had come to the end of the world, I made my excuses and left, that was in about 55-56. Got a job as a brown coat "walkie op" at Butlins instead. Far, far, far, better pay. earned more in a morning than two weeks at WH were offering.
 
jonbeeza said:
Would love to go back in time with a few hundred quid in my back pocket :) . Although the Cameras and TVs were pretty expensive, or were they ? :thinking:
Click to expand...

I wonder how much a 5 year accumulator on Red Rum each way from '73-'77 would have earned on a £1 stake (ignoring the taxes applicable at the time - or pre-paying on the stake!) Or drop back another year or ten and buy a few old cars...
 
Nod said:
I wonder how much a 5 year accumulator on Red Rum each way from '73-'77 would have earned on a £1 stake (ignoring the taxes applicable at the time - or pre-paying on the stake!) Or drop back another year or ten and buy a few old cars...
Click to expand...
I know if only o_O .. We were going to buy a house in 1989, it was going for £30000 but thought it too expensive at the time. We rented ever since, and now have any money left. We saw that same house going for sale recently, it is going for £200000 :sulk:
 
beyond the blue said:
Still got the Pifco vibrator ;)
Click to expand...

Heck I still have one of those! (It's actually not the same colour as the one in the catalogue though, I think it's a white/cream colour if I remember)

It was actually my parents' but I used to borrow it occasionally when I was a teen :cool: (purely for aches & growing-pains you understand ;) )
 
This thread has taken an unexpected, and disturbing, change of direction....
 
Llamaman said:
I wonder if old Lego catologues are available online. I used to spend hours flicking through them and the arrival of a new one was moment of joy.

[/recovering Legoholic]
Click to expand...


You need to visit http://brickset.com/ the largest online database of lego sets anywhere on the web. Pick a year and flick through the sets at your leisure. If you still have lego sets, if you go to Rebrickable, you can enter in which sets/pieces you own, press a button and it will not only tell you, but also provide the instructions for other sets you can build without buying any parts, or let you know which parts you need to build a set. Have fun.
 
lawrie29 said:
You need to visit http://brickset.com/ the largest online database of lego sets anywhere on the web. Pick a year and flick through the sets at your leisure. If you still have lego sets, if you go to Rebrickable, you can enter in which sets/pieces you own, press a button and it will not only tell you, but also provide the instructions for other sets you can build without buying any parts, or let you know which parts you need to build a set. Have fun.
Click to expand...
I hate you. :p
 
I've got one from 1996

About 3 years ago my daughter wanted a TV for her birthday so I told her she could pick whichever one she wanted from the catalogue

You should have seen her face , dad the TVs in Argos are rubbish
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top