30 Jan
2011
30 Jan
'11
7:08 a.m.
Despite there being prices printed on the covers
of some databooks,
customers didn't buy them. =A0The sales reps and distributors all but for=
ced
them onto customers.
The prices were what other people such as hobbyists paid.
I doubt there were many hobbyists that actually purchased those
databooks. Everyone I knew back in the databook era would make up a
phony company name, and then get flooded with databooks, industrial
periodicals, and best of all, samples! Yes, all those tech reps knew
that they were phony companies, and most of what they were handing out
for free would yield nothing, but they also knew that a few of those
freebies might pay back in a big way.
I still get junkmail with the company name I came up with 28 years ago!
Basically, only fools paid the cover price for databooks or the industrial =
rags.