Love it "The Greatest Name in Tools"
It meant a lot more back then than it does now (I was there and remember).
I want that Craftsman Commercial chest and cab on page 99--anyone have one or seen one?
$327.95 was a LOT of money for a chest and cabinet back then. You could get a Proto Toolmobile or their regular cabinet and chest combinations for considerably less money (I've got a price list to prove it). You could even get Snap-On for around that price or less.
My first Craftsman cabinet and chest combination--the 6-drawer top and 5-drawer roller shown on that same page was $154 in late 1971 (up from $139 in the '69 catalog). With a wife and kid to support, I couldn't afford to buy both pieces at the same time. Bought the cabinet first (about $90) and several months later, had enough saved to buy the chest (about $60). I would have bought the 10-drawer top chest instead, but I couldn't justify the extra $15/20 for that for a home tool box (and I would have had to wait a couple of months more to buy it).
At work, I had a Snap-On Rolla-Bench, bought used in excellent condition, and a small Proto top box.
As others have said, minimum wage in '69 was $1.30 (up from $1.15 in '68). The average wage was less than $3.00/hr. I was making better than average, around $4.00/hr. at that time, and I still couldn't afford a lot of the tools in that '69 catalog.
But, it really was nice to walk through Sears and Monkey Wards at the time and see all that stuff.
Seem like it was a big deal to own good tools in the 60's.
It's still a big deal.
Some of you can laugh if you want to, but "Craftsman" really did mean quality back then. Certainly not for every single thing listed in that catalog, but for many items, including some of the hand tools and the higher-priced power tools. The '60s and '70s were my prime tool buying years, and as I recall, comparable commercial and industrial name-brands at the time weren't really that much different in price, so for certain types of tools, Craftsman was a name we considered along with other brands.
I've still got most of those hand tools, and even some of the portable power tools and machine tools, and they're still in good condition 40/50 years later, and they didn't need a "lifetime" warranty to do it. Good tools were built to last, and to be able to be repaired for a reasonable price if they broke, and I'm willing to bet any of you that your Harbor Freight or other Asian import tools and machinery aren't going to last that long, if not just for basic quality, but for the lack of being able to get repair parts in the future. The "lifetime" warranty doesn't apply to everything, and it doesn't really do you much good if something breaks when you need it most, or when you're 50 or more miles away from the nearest place to return it.
IMO, the general American public has become conditioned now to expect and accept tools to break or wear out in short order, and thus they need a lifetime warranty. It used to be that a lifetime warranty implied that something was expected to last a lifetime, as well as being used for the rare times when something might break.
What was so bad about rental service? The warranty statement in 1969 said tools used in rental service were not warrantied.
Rental service is, and always has been, hard on tools. When people don't own something, they generally don't worry about taking care of it or abusing it. If you've never rented something that had to be returned because something was wrong with it when you got it home or to work to use, or it broke while you were using it, you're lucky. Same goes for loaning tools to friends (or former friends). If you've never gotten something back that didn't work the next time you needed it yourself, you're either lucky, or very selective about who you loan things to.
