Items sold thru Sears Catalogs

[Anonymous-0]

There was a program on the History Channel the other night that showed some of the items Sears sold thru their catalog. One was a house that could be bought which came in a kit with everything necessary including the nails. I vaguely remember motorcycles as being offered. Do any of you remember some of the other unusual items offered?

 

[gregger]

i remmber on the last page a dog , a pony , a saddle

 

[Ken Combs]

Cars. They sold a version of the HenryJ, called it an Allstate I think.

 

[Tim(nj)]

There's a bank barn down the road from me that was ordered as a kit from Sears & Roebuck in the 30s. There are matching numbers stenciled on the trusses and their corresponding places on the beams, like a big model kit. It also has (had?) four Sears steel draft horse stalls, and a Sears line shaft to power several machines by belt from one engine (which probably was also a Sears, but that is long gone). I wish I could go back there and take pictures of what I saw when we used to stack hay in there, but the new owners won't let anybody in the place.

 

[Pale Rider]

I vaguely remember a time when Sears actually honored the lifetime guarantee on their Craftsman tools,but that was a very long time ago.

 

[504]

There are six or seven Sears Houses in Quincy IL. They had an article in the paper a few years ago,they were shipped in on a rail car, kit form. I have a Sears flair side wagon.

 

[NCWayne]

Got a house several miles from me that was bought from Sears. It must have been made pretty well since the old thing has been picked up and moved twice in the past 8 or so years.

Check out the link to the Sears Archives where they give you a chronological history of the catalog telling some of the things they used to carry from firearms to buggies, to a Sears Auto-cycle motorcycle. Really interesting stuff.
The Sears Archives

 

[thurlow]

Wouldn't call it unusual........for the times; we usta order baby chicks from Sears, which the mailman would deliver. I've got a 1897 (reprinted) catalog around here somewhere.

 

[RockRon]

I lived in Sears kit house for awhile. The former owners said it came as a kit by train in the 20"s. It was a very nice old farmhouse.

 

[RayP(MI)]

Just about a mile from me, a barn kit sold by Sears.

 

[RLB88]

worked in receiving at a sears store and received boxes of honey bees

 

[johnbobin]

I own a Sears house in Tavares Florida.It is a three bedroom and is build very strong.

 

[DiggerDick]

They also sold tractors and/or kits to build your own. Here is my 1938 with Ford model A engine and trans.

 

[PJH]

The Alstate

 

[ShadetreeRet]

Yep, I remember the Allstate, a re-badged Henry J mfg. by the Kaiser-Frazer company. It was introduced a little too soon. People just weren't ready for a compact yet. There is some interesting info. on the Allstate. Just Google "The Allstate automobile". I know that they were popular for some time with drag racers. A lot of the were turned into "gassers"

 

[ShadetreeRet]

Over the years Sears sold just about everything that was made.In the early years they sold hit and miss engines, just about any type farm equipment made, (wagons, plows, manure spreaders, etc) even the full size Graham Bradley farm tractor. But as they say, that's all history now.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Have did remodeling work on several Sear's house's. Very well built. In fact will probably still be standing when some of today's new houses fall in a heap.

 

[old]

Sears sold lots of stuff back in the day. The motorcycle was either the Bridge stone or Allstate but do not remember which is was. They also sold guns I even own one that I got way back when I was around 10 or so. They also sold the David Bradley garden tractors.

 

[Pat-CT]

My neighbors house is a sears house. Not to bad actually its built pretty good.

 

[Slowpoke]

There are several hundred Sears catalogs on ebay, most are original, some are small sized reprints. And they're not giving them away, either.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Got our first batch of pee-pee,s for the new chicken house when I was 4 yrs. old.

Our outhouse always had a Sears and Roebuck catalog as the main reference library book. Best place to do future purchase planning.
John,PA

 

[Two Dogs]

Seems as though I have heard Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter both grew up in Sears and Roebuck houses. TDF

 

[BANDITFARMER]

As a kid I remember going to the Sears Farm&Ranch store in Reading Ohio. They had anything you could think of in that store. My Granddad bought a new Sears&Roebuck wagon running gear and gravity bed kit(I still have it). I think they had a full line of farm equipment there to look at. I wish I had a picture to post because it was something to see. Bandit

 

[dhermesc]

Windmills, wagon running gears (have a wagon with them), firearms, seed cleaning equipment, and milking machines could all be puchased from Sears.

 

[JOHNNYfromMI]

I can remember they sold sawmills to make lumber to build your house or barn.

 

[Dean]

Most or all Sears motorcycles and MoPeds were made by Puch in (I believe) Austria.

For a time they sold a 250 cc two stroke "Twingle" with both pistons connected to the same "Y" shaped connecting rod.

Dean

 

[Dean]

When small, I went to that store many times with my Father. It was quite a place in the 1950s/early 1960s.

Dean

 

[old]

I do know for a fact they sold either the Allstate or Bridge Stone motorcycle because I had one at one time just do not remember which one it was and when I got it, it was junk so it layed in my junk pile for years till my son took it to school as part of his motor sports class and last I knew it was still there and that was something like 6 years ago boy how times fly's

 

[MSD]

My dad bought a steel bin from Montgomery Wards catalogue one time. Show on PBS about barns mentioned some of those being from Sears.

 

[JMS/.MN]

I remember most of what is mentioned here, but wanted to add a note about their marketing idea. Remember how it was common to have a Montgomery Wards catalog, along with one from Sears? Sears was smaller but thicker than Wards, so it was always on top of the pile, and reached for first.

 

[Dean]

The Allstate was a brandname made by Puch.

Sears never sold Bridgestones.

Dean

 

[Billy ky]

my house is a Sears house made in the 30's.. I bought it in 1971 and it's well built with real lumber, not the glued sawdust used in today's houses...

 

[Dick2]

My uncle worked at a Sears Farm Store in Illinois, then transfered to Boise, Idaho, in the mid-50's and retired from Sears in the mid-60's.

We had Sear/David Bradley side delivery rake, wagons, manure spreader, pump jack and plows and maybe some things I don't remember anymore. It was good equipment back then.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have the concrete mixer my Dad bought from Sears back in the 40"s. I think it is a 1/3 yard capacity. It has a pulley with a hole for a hand crank, and a groove for a belt. My sister said he belted it to the AC WC. He also mounted an electric motor on it, later on. I have the motor, too. One of my Uncles used it to mix mortar when he built the basements for 3 of his houses he built.

 

[Jim in rush co]

I have a like new 1920s catalog on all kinds of farm buildings (Modern Farm Buildings & Already cut and fitted Barn Equipment) Sears, Roebuck and Co. (the worlds largest store) Chicago-Philadelphia

 

[old]

As I said I knew it was one to the 2 but been to many years since I had seen it

 

[farmerjohn]

I have several reprints of Sears catalogues from 1900, 1903, and 1907. They sold literally everything, including their own brand of machinery musical instruments pianos and organs, medicines (many sounding sort of quacky) and even tomnbstones. I understand that their house kits were of very high quality lumber and well crafted.

 

[Green Porsche]

There's a few Sears homes in my hometown of Urbana, Ohio !!

 

[WWS]

My dad and grandad were in the lumber business from about 1915 to 1974 and they had the contract with Sears to furnish the houses, there are quite a few of them scattered around Greene County Mo.

 

[Larry B 1486]

Baby Chicks.

 

[1936]

Downers Grove, IL is full of Sears homes. Big rail siding.

 

[Sid]

"Do any of you remember some of the other unusual items.."

Yes I do. You could hardly get copy of the catalogue. The Spokane washington store had a few copies of the page on the counter under plexiglass
The year was 1975