I remember when computer shopper would arrive at Coles in Toronto. It was like a farm hay bail for like 8-10 of them. It was comparable to a telephone directory. Now that’s a term that clearly dates me. They should have been able to just give it away with all the adds in the publication. Even at nominal classified add rates.
When I first encountered Computer Shopper sometime in the late 80's, Stan Veit, original editor of Computer Shopper, had retired but was writing a column on his experiences in the early PC industry. He owned one of the earliest computer stores in New York and interacted with a number of the early entrepreneurs.
i bought computer shopper at a corner shop newsagent near where i worked. a staff member stopped me one day and asked about as she couldn't believe how big and heavy it was.
so i had to explain that it was a gathering of every computer advert from every company with a tiny magazine scattered throughout it's pages. i showed her that that month it went index, 50 or so pages of adverts, news section, 50 pages of adverts, reviews, 50 pages of adverts. articles on minor platforms between blocks of adverts and then columns followed by some more adverts.
it was dead handy for finding obscure hardware and software in a time before the internet. and as the internet is filling with a.i. slop i hope someone finds a way to make a profitable curated list which is as useful as computer shopper was in it's heyday.
Those columns are neatly collected in a book:
https://archive.org/details/stan-veits-history-of-the-person...
so i had to explain that it was a gathering of every computer advert from every company with a tiny magazine scattered throughout it's pages. i showed her that that month it went index, 50 or so pages of adverts, news section, 50 pages of adverts, reviews, 50 pages of adverts. articles on minor platforms between blocks of adverts and then columns followed by some more adverts.
it was dead handy for finding obscure hardware and software in a time before the internet. and as the internet is filling with a.i. slop i hope someone finds a way to make a profitable curated list which is as useful as computer shopper was in it's heyday.