Just pure, utter nostalgia fuel. I spent so many hours flipping through some of those catalogs, I still remember what's on the next page on some year's editions

Just pure, utter nostalgia fuel. I spent so many hours flipping through some of those catalogs, I still remember what's on the next page on some year's editions. Sad to no longer have them, but now we have 10x as much in Digikey and friends (and probably more!). Like some other commenters, things like this were formative in helping me get interested and get really good at electronic-y things. Visits to the store, browsing parts, seeing how things were made and put together were just jet fuel for project ideas.