Auto Literature Sales Brochure Checklist 1946 - 2000

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The Complete U.S. Automobile Sales Literature Checklist, 1946 - 2000. By Kenneth Eisenbrener. This is the follow-on book to Robert Tuthill's popular "American Automobile Sales Literature Checklist, 1928 - 1942". That book became the bible of the pre-war car brochure collector hobby, and it has been out of print for decades. Now comes this book, which will prove invaluable to any auto literature collector. If you're a car brochure collector, you NEED this book!

This book lists every known piece of American car and truck literature known to exist between 1946 and 2000. It's the product of nine years of research by the author, and includes size, number of pages, and title of the brochure, along with a code to indicate whether it is a catalog or folder, color or black and white, whether it came with envelope or not, and more. Includes Police, Taxi, station wagon, truck, accessories brochures, and much more. A Goldmine of information!

8 X 11", softcover, 160 pages; includes 42 different American makes, and some 'captive' imports including Aerocar Allstate AM General AMC American Motors Amphicar Bricklin Buick Cadillac Checker Chevrolet Chrysler Corbin-Pacific Crosley Cunningham Davis Del Mar Delorean DeSoto Dodge Edsel Ford Gaylord General Motors Geo Global Electric GMC Hoppenstand Hudson Jeep Eagle Kaiser Frazer Keller King Midget Kurtis Lincoln Mercury Nash Oldsmobile Packard Panoz Playboy Plymouth Pontiac Saturn Studebaker Tucker Vector and Willys Jeep., including Aerocar, AMC, Amphicar, Buick, Cadillac, Checker, Chevrolet, Corvette, Chrysler, Crosley, Cunningham, DeLorean, DeSoto, Dodge, Edsel, Ford, General Motors, Geo, GMC, Hudson, Jeep/Eagle, Kaiser-Frazer, Keller, Lincoln, Mercury, Nash, Oldsmobile, Packard, Panoz, Playboy, Plymouth, Pontiac, Saturn, Studebaker, Tucker, Twohymobile, Willys/Jeep and more! No pics.

Covers years 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000.

Here are exerpts from the forward to this book, written by noted collector Byron Olsen:

"The contents of the book that follows will be incomprehensible to some readers, and perhaps no more understandable once explained. Why would anyone be interested in a listing of every single piece of sales literature printed by U.S. car builders for the past half century? To understand the answer, a strong interest in American automobiles is a prerequisite."

"The pervasiveness of the automobile in every aspect of our society and culture, and the profound effect it has had on the lives of all of us, is a phenomenon that will be analyzed for a long time to come. This checklist is one measure of how it all came about, how the automakers convinced us all to buy more and more new cars every year until it seems we had as many cars as people. It documents the huge variety of sales materials handed out by car dealers to sales prospects over the years. Car brochures have long been one of the principal sales tools used to sell cars, along with magazine and newspaper ads, and in the years since World War II, television."

"Every year, car makers have produced colorful catalogs and folders showing all of their latest models together with glowing descriptions of features, options and specifications. As part of this presentation, the car prospect got a fascinating view of our world as the car maker saw it at that point in time. Looking back at these brochures today, we see what we wore, what we did at work and play, where we lived, and the lifestyle to which we aspired. The message, of course, was that owning the automobiles being displayed would greatly enhance that lifestyle."

"Other methods of advertising cars are more difficult for historians and collectors to document, especially television. However, the sales literature created by the car manufacturers is both more feasible to document, preserve and review, and is at the same time more thorough and complete than other methods of auto advertising. Unlike other types of advertising, car makers' sales literature shows the appearance of every model offered, inside and out, and sets down a record of size and power. And it presents the car creators' message undiluted by the distractions found in other media. It is here we find the strongest statement of the strata of society in which the manufacturer sought to place its cars. To be sure, this was usually a few rungs higher than the level to which the public eventually consigned the product."

"Who cares about a listing of car literature? Today, there is a great deal of auto sales material available in antique stores, flea markets, and on eBay. Literature is sought and bought by car enthusiasts, car collectors, automotive historians, sociologists, and by a large segment of our populace nostalgic for vivid presentations of bygone eras. But until Ken Eisbrener's checklist offered here, there was no way of telling whether, say, the 1962 Ford catalog you might be looking at in a flea market was the only display of the 1962 Ford line, or just one of several, of which others might offer a more complete presentation. With Ken's list, there is at last a definitive answer to help a literature buyer or historian decide."

"Many car enthusiasts aspire to owning an old car or cars of their dreams. For most of us, it soon becomes evident that we will never have a big enough garage or bank account to follow that path very far. But a car enthusiast collecting manufacturers' literature can save thousands of well remembered cars in his or her "literature garage." A collector/historian can follow the evolution of car design and see quickly how a particular make has developed and changed over the years. Today, there are many collectors of auto sales literature. Some look for brochures on favorite makes or models, some concentrate on particular time periods or particular types of cars, while others work diligently to obtain every piece of literature put out by every car builder, every year. All of these collectors are preserving fascinating information on twentieth century American history."

"I confess to having been bitten by the car literature collecting bug. I picked up my first sales piece in 1946. I was riding around to car dealers on my bike with a buddy. It was difficult for a twelve year old arriving by bicycle to be a credible prospect for a new Chrysler, but I still have that first folder. It depicts a wondrous array of five different wood bodied Chryslers, only two of which made it into production. In the years since, I have been collecting continuously, and continuously lamenting the lack of a checklist against which to measure my accumulations of automobile paper. Many hours have been spent looking for literature that turned out to be nonexistent. Imagine my delight to discover that Ken Eisbrener had done the massive work necessary to compile this checklist. Ken has been working on this project for years, and documenting the accuracy with fellow collectors, as well as cross checking with other listings that were available. Ken is an avid and thorough collector himself. He travels regularly with friends from his home base of Grand Forks, North Dakota, to auto shows and car dealers around the country. When I learned of his efforts, I immediately concluded that the list deserved to be published in book form. Iconografix agreed, and you hold the result in your hand."

"So here for the first time is a complete master list of all of the customer sales promotion literature produced by United States automobile manufacturers to sell their cars for the years 1946 through 2000. It provides a comprehensive bibliography of an important and often overlooked segment of American automobile history."

Buyer to pay $6 s/h to US or Canada.

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The fine print: U.S. and Canada buyers pay $5.00 s/h for single or several brochures (catalogs and folders), standard magazines, Parts Locate Manuals, and videos. Heavy Books, Motor Annuals and Dealer's Albums are $8.50 for shipping in US, due to weight. Dealer lot shipping is as specified in item description; multiple dealer lots will be actual postage (Media Mail) + $3.00 for packaging. International shipping is actual airmail cost + $3.00 for packaging. Payment by check or Money Order (US funds), or use Visa/MasterCard with PayPal, and your item will ship within 2 business days! Winners of multiple auctions pay only one shipping charge!

US shipments under 13 oz. are shipped via First Class mail. Magazine lots, Motor Show Issues, Manuals, dealer lots and heavy brochures (over 13 oz. packaged) ship via Media Mail in the US. CA residents pay 8.25% sales tax.

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Magazine_guy is a member of the Society of Automotive Historians, and the Antique Automobile Club of America.