Sears Memorabilia & Catalog Collector Guide

From a watch business to the Big Book

In 1886 Richard W. Sears, a railroad station agent in North Redwood, Minnesota, started the R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis. The next year he moved to Chicago and hired a watchmaker, Alvah C. Roebuck. In 1893 the firm took the name Sears, Roebuck and Co., which the company’s archive described as its official name, with the plain “Sears” on storefronts and ads serving as a logo.

The earliest catalog, issued in 1888, offered only watches and jewelry. The 1894 edition called itself the “Book of Bargains: A Money Saver for Everyone” and added sewing machines, bicycles, firearms, buggies and clothing. Spring and fall editions began in 1896. The general catalog, nicknamed the Big Book, ran until 1993.

Sears opened its first store on February 2, 1925, inside its Chicago mail-order plant. Its best-known landmark, the 110-story Sears Tower, was the world’s tallest building at 1,454 feet when it opened in 1973. It was renamed Willis Tower in 2009, a useful dating clue for items that carry the Sears Tower name.

On October 15, 2018, Sears Holdings Corporation, created when Kmart Holdings bought Sears, filed for Chapter 11 in federal bankruptcy court in New York and sought going-out-of-business sales at 142 unprofitable stores. A court-approved sale to Transform Holdco LLC, an affiliate of ESL Investments, closed on February 11, 2019.

The Christmas Wish Book

Sears issued its first Christmas catalog, the Sears Christmas Book, in 1933. Its 87 pages held 25 pages of toys and 62 of gifts for adults, from a Mickey Mouse watch and Lionel trains to fruitcakes and live singing canaries. From 1934 the covers carried Christmas scenes, regularly featuring children, Santa Claus and Christmas trees.

Before 1933, customers often called the big general catalogs the Wish Book. Sears made the name official in 1968, when it renamed the Christmas Book catalog The Wish Book; that edition ran 605 pages. Because the name was informal before 1968, trust the cover title and year over a listing’s wording. Sears brought the Wish Book back as a catalog in 2007.

Why collectors want Sears paper

The Sears Archives described the catalogs as an accurate record of the styles and furnishings of their years, noting that Broadway and Hollywood producers consulted them and that sporting goods pages help date when items first appeared. Catalog models included Lauren Bacall, Gloria Swanson and Cheryl Tiegs, and Norman Rockwell paintings ran on a 1927 spring cover and a 1932 cover made for the Washington Bicentennial.

The company’s archive did not try to collect every product Sears sold. Its stated interests were rare or very old specialty catalogs, rare promotional material and early advertising, and this guide keeps the same focus.

What collectors find

These categories are documented by the company’s former archive, libraries and museums:

• General catalogs: the semiannual Big Book, in spring and fall editions from 1896 until 1993
• Christmas catalogs: the Christmas Book from 1933, officially The Wish Book from 1968
• Specialty catalogs: separate books from 1896 for goods such as bicycles, groceries and pianos, later including house catalogs after catalog homes arrived in 1908
• Inserts and samples: catalog order forms, the wallpaper samples and suit-fabric swatch in the 1905 catalog, and the paint and wallpaper sample books offered in 1908
• Customer paperwork: refund postcards, which the archive called relatively common family mementos, and small refund checks
• Promotional publications: pieces such as A Visit to Sears, Roebuck and Co., a 1916 pamphlet touring the Chicago headquarters
• Store signs and fixtures: the Museum of Neon Art holds a 1950s neon Sears script sign from Temple City, California, and a closing store in Citrus Heights, California sold its racks, display shelves and other fixtures in 2018

Where Sears history is preserved

The Sears Archives website, preserved by the Internet Archive, said the archive held a complete run of Big Book catalogs, Wish Books and seasonal catalogs but was still seeking early specialty catalogs, especially from before 1945.

The Library of Congress holds Sears catalogs in print and on microfilm, and the archive reported Big Book and Wish Book microfilm at libraries across the country. Digitized catalogs are available through Ancestry by subscription, some are listed in HathiTrust, and another online collection covers 1939 to 2017. The Chicago Public Library’s trade catalog collection includes Sears, Winterthur holds a 1912 catalog and the 1916 pamphlet, and the Getty holds the papers of Karl Schneider, who led Sears’ corporate design department.

Original or reprint: what to check

Early Sears catalogs have been reprinted. Chelsea House published the 1897 catalog in 1968 with an introduction by Richard Rovere, and the 1926 house catalog was reissued in 1991 as Small Houses of the Twenties, with its own ISBN. A later publisher, a reprint date, an added introduction or an ISBN marks a reprint.

Then compare physical details. The 1912 catalog examined at Winterthur has a soft adhesive binding and thin, newsprint-like paper, chosen to keep mailing costs down, and is numbered Catalog No. 124. Check the cover, catalog number and page count against a library or digitized copy.

• Title page, spine and back cover: no later publisher, reprint date or ISBN
• Paper and binding: lightweight paper and a soft binding on early catalogs
• Completeness: page count matches a reference copy, with covers, order forms and sample pages noted
• Condition: tears, brittle or browned pages, loose sections, water damage, mold and odor
• Name and era: catalogs before 1893 used earlier names such as The R.W. Sears Watch Co., and a Christmas catalog titled The Wish Book dates from 1968 or later
• Names on paperwork: the archive dated a refund check signed by treasurer Crowdus Baker to the late 1920s or 1930s, when he held that post

Checking signs and fixtures

Ask which store a sign or fixture came from and how it left the building, and request photos of the back, mounting hardware and labels. A finish may not be original: the Museum of Neon Art found its 1950s Sears sign had been painted red over green enamel, with its tubes changed from green to red. A good listing says what was redone.

Pricing a Sears catalog

There is no fixed price. Value depends on the year, catalog type, completeness, condition and demand. Asking prices are not completed sales, so compare sold examples of the same year and type, and be wary of a listing that calls an item rare without showing the cover and title page.

Where to find Sears memorabilia now

The Sears Archives pointed buyers to collectors, antiques dealers, used bookstores and online sellers such as AbeBooks and eBay. The Sears company page on I ♥ Capitalism collects live, relevance-checked resale listings for Sears catalogs, Wish Books, advertising and company items, and links each one to the marketplace selling it. Inventory changes as sellers add or remove items.