Just one entry from Roberto Baldwin’s fun Wired piece about tech items that were available thirty years ago in the Fall/Winter Sears catalog:

“Timex Sinclair 1000 Computer: $49

Catalog Description:

2K memory expands to a powerful 16K. Most of the 40 keys are programmed for up to five commands. ‘One Touch’ keyword entry system eliminates a great deal of typing keywords (RUN, LIST, PRINT, etc) all have their own single key entry. Pressure Sensitive, plastic membrane keyboard.

The Timex Sinclair 1000 Computer was the entry-level computer for anyone interested in computing. While it didn’t measure up to more sophisticated offerings from Atari and Texas Instruments, it could still connect to any TV and read and write to a compatible cassette recorder. If you splurged on the $40 16K RAM expansion, you could even play some of the hottest black and white games on the market.

The real power of the Sinclair 1000 was teaching you how to program in BASIC — something that would be helpful years later when you wanted to understand ’20 GOTO 10′ jokes. All of this and it was $48 cheaper in the Fall/Winter 1983 catalog than the one prior. Now that’s a value!”