Tom_in_CA
Gold Member
- Mar 23, 2007
- 13,837
- 10,360
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- Detector(s) used
- Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
Hey Florida gang: KellyCo's headquarters is near Orlando. I was speaking recently to their P.R. customer rep "Ray Walker" recently. Was inquiring as to whether or not KellyCo had kept records and archives of their earlier days in business. Because they are said to have been in the mail-order metal detector business "since 1955". So .... as an enthusiast of vintage metal detector nostalgia, I began to wonder if perhaps this company had catalogs going back to their earlier days.
Ray checked with the company owners, and was led to a back room where .....yes in fact ..... something like 20 file cabinets do indeed exist!! However, he said that it is much too voluminous to digitize (unless there were some monetary incentive to them). However, he said that if a written proposal were given to him, he could pass it up the chain for approval. To allow for a walk-in visitor to perhaps browse the file cabinets. And to photograph whatever interested them.
Unfortunately I'm in California. And I realize the hobby/niche of "vintage detectors" is admittedly small, doh! But is there anyone near Orlanda that would be interested in visiting their location for this purpose ? I am willing to put together the written proposal to get their permission to start this ball rolling. All you'd need is a good digital camera, and an ability to quickly browse many file cabinets looking for select interesting items.
Specifically I was asking Ray about their company's earlier catalogs. But what he had come up with instead, was file after file after file of individual machine's brochures, schematics, instruction manuals, etc.... But those, as you can see, are from the manufacturer's of the products they were selling. And not necessarily the compendium kellyco itself's catalogs. Ray did find a single example of what he described as a "1960s" kellyco catalog, that was "40 pages". When I asked if they had those from the earlier days (1950s?), he said he suspected they did. But .... that he didn't have time to start digging through the entire collection. He had merely pulled out various select folders at random, to look at.
Is there anyone in Florida that cares to partner up, to introduce some select vintage stuff to the hobbyist's forums ?
thanx !
Ray checked with the company owners, and was led to a back room where .....yes in fact ..... something like 20 file cabinets do indeed exist!! However, he said that it is much too voluminous to digitize (unless there were some monetary incentive to them). However, he said that if a written proposal were given to him, he could pass it up the chain for approval. To allow for a walk-in visitor to perhaps browse the file cabinets. And to photograph whatever interested them.
Unfortunately I'm in California. And I realize the hobby/niche of "vintage detectors" is admittedly small, doh! But is there anyone near Orlanda that would be interested in visiting their location for this purpose ? I am willing to put together the written proposal to get their permission to start this ball rolling. All you'd need is a good digital camera, and an ability to quickly browse many file cabinets looking for select interesting items.
Specifically I was asking Ray about their company's earlier catalogs. But what he had come up with instead, was file after file after file of individual machine's brochures, schematics, instruction manuals, etc.... But those, as you can see, are from the manufacturer's of the products they were selling. And not necessarily the compendium kellyco itself's catalogs. Ray did find a single example of what he described as a "1960s" kellyco catalog, that was "40 pages". When I asked if they had those from the earlier days (1950s?), he said he suspected they did. But .... that he didn't have time to start digging through the entire collection. He had merely pulled out various select folders at random, to look at.
Is there anyone in Florida that cares to partner up, to introduce some select vintage stuff to the hobbyist's forums ?
thanx !
