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Worst reshipper screwup ever?
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TerraHertz:
Like every far-gone test equipment addict, I collect Hewlett Packard & Tektronix catalogs. Aka CRACKalogs.
Here's my HP current set. (4 digits = have. * = in post)


--- Code: ---HP  60    1     2     1963  4     5     6     7     8     1969
    1970  x     1972  3*    x     1975  1976  1977  1978  1979
    1980  1981  1982  1983  1984  1985  1986  1987  1988  9
    1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999
Ag  2000  2001  2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

--- End code ---



HP catalogs from the 1960s are very rare. I've been hunting them on and off for perhaps 20 years, with not much luck. None available, or very expensive. Recently I had the good fortune to find a 1960 catalog, for just US$16. Grabbed it!



It arrived at my reshipper in a protective stiff brown cardboard mailer. Good! I didn't have the reshipper open and photograph it, as it's so precious to me that I didn't want their unbeliever fingers to ever touch this holy relic.

Once enough other items accumulated in my mailbox there, I initiated a consolidation and mailout.
Here's the reshipper's photo of all 9 packages, at the beginning of the packing. The 1960 catalog is item QF, with the red arrow I added. (They give packages two-letter codes on arrival, and label them with that code.)



And that's the last time it was ever seen.

After the consolidation, when I logged back in parcel QF was still listed in my inbox. The sole item. WTF? There should be nothing there. I thought maybe somehow it hadn't fitted in the consolidation. But why, it's small and thin!
I immediately selected and paid for it to be mailed out separately.
Next time I logged in, I got a notification saying "Mailout Cancelled ... QF has been cancelled by our admin for the following reason: consolidated into QJ"

Hmm... Doubting this, I checked all their photos associated with this mailout. As they process items they take a photo of the package code label. All the other items have photos of the label, but no QF.
Of course _they_ didn't bother to check the photos.
I still hoped that was just some data entry goof.

The package arrived. There is no QF. The 1960 catalog is not there.



Notice the big package QJ is brown cardboard, and (as usual) has been cut down to be a good fit of contents.
You see what probably happened?
The packer is so used to having bits of cut-off brown cardboard on the bench, that during the repacking of other items he started seeing the 1960 catalog mailer as a bit of scrap cardboard. Then threw it out with the rubbish.

Now, after I raised a complaint, they are trying to decide whether to compensate me for the loss. I'm sure they will at most offer to pay the $16.The seller was a general 'old books' shop, and knew it was 'vintage' but possibly didn't know how rare.  I see on ebay now a 1969 for $150, and a 1963 for $37. Nothing else from the 1960s.

They threw it out with the garbage.

Bah. Where are the giant space laser targetting codes when you need them?

That thing was 61 years old. I wonder if I'll ever find another one?

TerraHertz:
I should have asked a more specific question. Or is everyone just too shocked and sad to comment?

Has anyone else ever seen a HP 1960 catalog? If a few do exist, at least I can hope to find another eventually.
(Nope, not interested in a PDF copy.)

Also, in what other years during the 1960s (and earlier) did HP produce catalogs (or not)?
I've read somewhere that they skipped producing a 1971 and 1974.
amyk:
You did open QJ and check that it wasn't actually put inside, right?
TerraHertz:
Of course! Everything else expected was there. Mostly books and other manuals. I only took one more photo of the box opened, instead of my usual habit of lots of photos. Was excited, expecting to find the 1960 cat down the bottom. Nope.
WattsThat:
I’m of multiple minds here.

#1 says that’s really sucks. Why is it the really special stuff that gets screwed up?
#2 try not to obsess over it, it was only paper and ink.
#3 I think you need professional help.

Which leads me back around full circle where I ask myself, is this what I have to look forward to early next year when I retire? Really?

Pardon me while I go check my box of vintage HP instrument knobs that I harvested at age 15 at the local dump (tip) where all the gear from the long ago closed HP Avondale facility went to be scrapped. It was heaven on earth for a kid interested in electronics, to harvest whatever you wanted and pay by the pound.

There was something hypnotic about gold plated circuit boards and transistors. If I had only known then what I know now... sigh. Good luck on finding that which interests you.
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