Of us sent in that penny???
Hey, Gen Xers, another hallmark of our younger days is going away. Then again, most of us would be surprised to know that it was even still around at all.
We all remember the ads in magazines and Sunday papers: GET 7 RECORDS OR TAPES FOR A PENNY! There was a list of options for the records or tapes (later CDs) that you wanted, and all you had to do was attach a penny and send it in. If you were young enough, you probably missed the fact that you were signing up for a subscription service, and I bet most of us abandoned that subscription.
Truth be told, teenage Chris probably owed hundreds of dollars to Columbia House. There’s no telling how much money Columbia House thought it would rake in but didn’t.
Full article, HERE from PJ Media.
I remember my aunt and uncle getting records from them in the late 50s, as they lived out in the oil field and there was ONE small town a half hour away. Anything else was at least an hour’s drive, if not longer. And my aunt sang in the church choir, and played the piano for years, both at home and church.
I honestly don’t remember ever sending in a penny or anything else, but that was a LONG time ago! I honestly hadn’t thought of them in probably 40 years. The one thing I do remember is that the choices weren’t that great, at least for a penny…
And I think a lot of folks didn’t realize it was a subscription either! I know ‘we’ had a subscription to the Encyclopedia Britannica for their yearly update books, but that’s really the only subscription I remember…
Did ‘you’ send a penny in???
Cassette days: Yup. Did that, satisfied my contract (and then some) and then cancelled. If you knew how to pick, it wasn’t a bad deal.
Did another sign-up for CDs years later (I lived at a different address at that point.) Once again, satisfied my contract and then some. After a while, I cancelled because I had better ways of getting CDs.
Columbia House wasn’t the best or the worst option, and I used them for some experimental bands that looked like they might be fun to listen to. Most of those purchases worked out. Sure, I got a couple of turkeys mixed in with the good, but that could happen when purchasing in any store, too.
It’s a shame to see them shut down at this moment in time though as there was an opportunity to make a big comeback by stoking the “I’m tired of renting everything and having stuff disappear into the wind” feelings consumers have having been been burned, or seen enough people be burned by the “You will own nothing” rentseeking business model that’s been abused as of late.
“You know those useless pennies you have hanging around? Use one of them to get back into buying physical music media that you actually own! (Yada yada, terms and conditions apply.)”
But sometimes the money runs out and you have to close up shop. Ah well.
I remember the ads clearly, but don’t remember sending the penny.
I did buy into a book club from either Field & Stream or Outdoor Life. I think it started with 5 books for a dollar.
Stayed with it for several years.
I’m actually surprised the company lasted as long as it did…
No, because my parents wouldn’t let Sib and I buy music through the mail, especially pop music. By the time I was getting my own tunes, Columbia House wasn’t advertising on the shows I watched any longer.
No, but I did Book of the Month awhile. The first book I got was The Stand.
Ag- You’re one of the few I know that actually used them.
All- Thanks, and I went in the Navy so had access to a LOT of music in the base library and NEX. And we made a lot of reel to reel and cassette tapes for ourselves!
I never did that, but my parents did have a full set of the Encyclopedia Britannica . Similar, if different.
LSP- Good point! And I’m sure you were still in Britain at the time, so probably a different set of encyclopedias too!
That’s like 30 years before I was born. What’s an encyclopedia?
My grandchildren will ask, “What’s a penny?”
Actually, yes, I did, and was good with the music they offered. On a related note, one of the dictionaries in my library was printed in 1908, some of the words might – heh – confuse people today.
chuckling
Yeah, I bit. Didn’t take long to realize I was a sucker. Cancelling the subscription was a chore.
Along that line, the permanent party mail clerk in our basic training company gave us a rousing lecture on giving everbody our new mailing address so he didn’t need to forward mail. An advertisment in a tattered magazine promised to put you on 10,000 mailiong lists for a dollar. Several of us spent the dollar. Two years later and three new units later I was still receiving advertisments.