[Milsurplus] the Tucker Empire

[Hubert Miller]

Packing up my paper things, I found I have 7 Tucker catalogs.
Tucker I find kind of interesting. They started out as a test equipment reseller, then around 1991 ? they expanded
to try to get the wider "hobbyist" market. So their 1991 catalog is labeled "Hobbyist Catalog". After "Hobbyist
Catalog #5" or later, their catalogs became slick paper instead of the earlier newsprint, with better grade photos.
These catalogs had some new test equipment along with the pre-owned, included some computers, and also
some ham and SWL radios, even some Sony portables. As I moved around a lot following those years, I don't know
when they quit putting out catalogs, but in the last few years I bought a number of manuals from them. These were
not copies, and in many instances the manuals were stamped with something like "FILES - NOT FOR SALE".  Last
year Tucker sent out emails saying they were relocating and invited offers on every manual in their stock. I think I
bought a few. It looks to me like Tucker tried to build a retail power and it just didn't work out. Maybe the market
changed under them; maybe they weren't swift enough on their feet to adapt to changing conditions. I'll keep the
catalogs as a test equipment reference, altho most of that gear is now just to heavy and bulky and a lot can be
replaced by tiny and not so expensive microprocessorized gear, altho - unfortunately, I think - it's mostly imported.
-Hue
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