News From the Wide World of Collectibles

When I worked at the antique store we had several Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogues, the Christmas editions primarily, from the late '50s and early '60s. We put a few of them on eBay and they fetched quite a lot of money. There's a collector for practically everything. I can understand the collectibility of old department store catalogues. Not only is there a nostalgia factor involved ... all those toys you had or wanted when you were a kid ... as well as a cultural history ... by today's standard everything looks so quaint, so lo-fi, lo-tech, non digital.

I was looking around eBay earlier this week and, one thing having lead to another ... and then another ... I stumbled upon a completely unknown collectible catalogue: the Victoria's Secret catalogues. Seriously! Some of these catalogues go for as much as $35.00 and the average price for the mid-90s editions is $20.00. I'm really amazed and I've already picked up some very useful and thoroughly pointless VS trivia. For example: did you know that the very early catalgoues were sealed with gold foil seals with the VS logo on it? No, neither did I. The early catalogues featuring Stephanie Seymour, Frederique Van Der Wal and ... oh, I forget her name ... are the most desirable. Laeticia Catista comes in a close second. Adrianna Lima is, perhaps, too contemporary to be desirable, though sharp collectors will want to pick catalogues with her in them while they are still inexpensive.