Computer Direct (May 1985)
It seems like in the 1980s there were more mail order places for computers and computer parts then there are internet sites for such things today. That’s probably not really true but it just seems like today it's best to get everything from Amazon or maybe Amazon. Or possibly Amazon. Ok, once in a while Newegg...or eBay of you are brave. This ad is from a popular mail order business called Computer Direct that sold various computers and accessories.
Computer Direct was where most of my Commodore stuff came from. While my Commodore 64c itself probably did not come from here, my 1541-II disk drive, monitor, printer, printer interface, my first modem and even a replacement power supply for my Commodore 64 all came from Computer Direct. Their prices were good and the support was great as well. They even provided technical support if you gave them a call. Try getting that from Amazon.
Computer Direct's later ads were a very hard to miss bright yellow. However, earlier ads were a little more subdued. This particular ad happens to be from the May 1985 issue of Computer Entertainment, the short-lived successor to Electronic Games. It features Atari 8-bit related items though they sold stuff for most computers available, including the Commodore 64 of course.
I’m not sure whatever happened to Computer Direct. This 1985 ad is one of the earliest I have run across so far. There seem to be a bunch of businesses out there today with the name “Computer Direct” but none of them appear to be related to the original. I think the Internet ultimately put a lot of these companies out of business…at least the ones that could not adapt fast enough. Anybody remember the massive phone book sized Computer Shopper?
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I suspect that you are right. Unless, of course, one counts smart phones as computers.
Amazon's domination of eCommerce is a problem. However, one also has to look at the declining price and margins for computers. Add to that the fact the people don't have to upgrade as often. The last time I bought a computer was four years ago, and I don't see a reason to buy another computer in the foreseeable future.
To be honest, most people probably don't need more than a first gen core i5 with 8 GB of RAM and an SSD which would be in the neighborhood of 10 years old or so. Computers have always been a hobby for me so I enjoy building new ones and upgrading old ones. I'm sure I buy much more than what the average person needs.
I've developed the habit of renting server space when I need computing capacity. So, my home computer is little more than a client that connects to servers.
Computer Shopper was huge in the UK too. It had the most comprehensive list of outlets in the UK, some of the ads ran to a dozen pages.
AS you posted this US ad, I would note that it always pissed us Brit geeks off that you guys were paying the same in dollars as we were in GBP usually, especially annoying when I had both the US Radio Shack catalogue which I compared with its UK Tandy equivalent although the fact my brother was a manager of a Tandy did get me some decent discounts!
Have a great weekend full of happy memories of those halcyon days!
I guess that's one of the reasons disk drives quickly became dominant in the U.S. while in the UK, cassette's were popular until the end. Disk drives were as expensive as if not a little more expensive than the computer itself. I glanced at the exchange rate for a random year in the 1980s (1988 in this case). The exchange rate was 1 british pound for $1.80. Paying 80% more would suck.
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