This is an interview that ephemera expert Marty Weil recently published about me in his blog: ephemera (http://ephemera.typepad.com)

ephemera: Forrest Flanders publishes a  blog about buying, selling, and collecting old catalogs. In the following interview, he talks about his life-long interest in old catalogs and the cool stuff he's found inside them.

ephemera: Old catalogs are one of the more fun realms of ephemera, I think. How'd you come to be so heavily involved with them?

Forrest: I've been interested in old catalogs probably since the age of 13, when I got my first issue of the Johnson Smith & Co. novelty catalog. As a youngster, I really liked the unusual novelties, the layouts of the pages, and the cartoon style artwork. There's really nothing like an old Johnson Smith catalog...it can be garish, brassy, hype and yet "cool" at the same time.

I decided to pursue this as a hobby, recently, when I became disabled, and I can tell that there's room for everyone in this hobby.

Whatever your interests may be, there are certainly old catalogs that were printed related to those categories. You can be a generalist, and collect whatever appeals to you, or you can collect a niche category. Some of the more popular niche collecting categories include: old department stores, Xmas ,cars, tools, fishing tackle, fashion, novelties, magic and literally 100's of other categories!

ephemera: What challenges do you face in finding catalogs to add to your collection?

Forrest: The hardest part about this as a hobby is that you've got to find the catalogs. The best place for me has been on eBay. Run a search, generally, under the keyword "catalogs," and you will come up with thousands of listings. The trading is active, and I think you'll find that catalog collecting a very popular little niche that has been overlooked by many people!

Also, it's a good idea to check out booksellers. The best one to use, without a doubt, is abe.com. They have the best inventory of old books and catalogs in the world. I don't find that the other well-known book dealers like alibris.com can come even close to matching abe.com for inventory and results. You can also get out the word through the social networking sites like Facebook, etc. It should be easy to attract some new friends because, between you and me, who doesn't like old catalogs?

ephemera: Yeah, old Catalogs are like Sara Lee snack cakes, nobody doesn't love 'em. Speaking of love, what are your favorite catalogs?

Forrest: My personal favorite categories of catalog collecting are magic and novelty catalogs. One of my favorite old magic catalogs is the Kanter's Magic Shop Catalog #10, printed in 1958 in Philly. The cover on this issue features a large collage of photos of famous magicians such as Houdini and Howard Thurston.

I don't have to tell you that my favorite old novelty catalog is the Johnson Smith & Co. catalog. Any issue of this catalog, before 1980, is a prized collectible in my book. I particularly like the WWII issues because they contained novelties related to WWII like the Hitler Pin Cushion! Probably the most desirable issue of this era is the 1944 John Smith & Co. catalog. The cover has model airplanes of the wartime Grumman Torpedo Bomber Plane and the Spitfire Fighter Pursuit Plane which sold for $1.29 and $1.69 each, respectively. This 1944 catalog can bring $125 or more on the collector market.

ephemera: Those are great examples. I once came across a 1914 Charles Williams Stores catalog that I really found fascinating. I can see why these catalogs are so collectible. For someone interested in collecting them, what advice can you give them?

Forrest: If you should decide to get into this as a hobby, my best advice to you is to collect catalogs in areas of your own personal interest. For me, it's magic and novelties. There are so many catalogs covering so many different categories that you'll get lost and frustrated if you don't specialize to some extent.

Also, I would, on a regular basis, check out catalogs for sale in your personal interest categories on eBay. You can learn a lot from the information in the eBay listings!

Make as many permanent contacts with other catalog collectors as possible.

Some of the resources that will help to grow you in this hobby include:

eBay. Search under "catalogs" and then, subcategories. Don't forget to check completed items, too. You will learn from the info in the listings and also get a relative idea of a catalog's popularity and market value.

Flickr.com. This is a photo site. Run a search here, too! You have the added advantage of developing new, live contacts this way since contributors list names and emails.

Abe.com. Definitely run searches here, it's the best book/catalog resource on the net.

Photobucket.com. Free image hosting--to store your photos. Best I've ever used!

Google. Search under “old catalogs” on a regular basis.

Seek out catalog blogs on an ongoing basis. Check blog directories.

A superb source for Old Department Store catalog scans between 1940-1986 is Wishbookweb.com  The site features complete scans of inside catalog pages--some are over 600 pages long!. This is an open source project. So, they’re free to download!

ephemera: Thanks for providing such a comprehensive list of sites and resources, Forrest. I appreciate the time you've taken to share your collection and expertise with my readers

NOTE: You can visit my blog: OLD CATALOGS at this URL:

http://forrestflanderscentral.typepad.com/old_catalogs