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Has anyone seen one of these “Edison Retail Salesman’s Manual”? Pretty interesting piece.

Rich Gordon

Interesting! Thanks for sharing it.

Wow, that's got to be an unusual piece of literature.

Thanks, Jerry

How many pages is it? Maybe you could scan them and submit it to APS for their archives? (Don't you just love it when somebody volunteers your efforts?).

Raphael

Don’t know if I want to scan it, it’s pretty thick. The last page is #505. In places it skips from page 250 to 300. I don’t know if this was designed that way or if sections could be added or deleted. I’ve had this for years but just took it out again a few days ago.

Rich Gordon

Maybe APS could borrow it and do the scan themselves? I’m sure the brass will be in touch with you if they want it.

Raphael

Ok so I went back and took a better look and here is what I found. All together there’s about 140 pages. After the introduction it skips to page 100 and after each group it skips to the next 100 range. Added a few pictures.

Rich Gordon

Pages 100-143 Edison Re-Creations 50001-50343 - $1.00 apiece
Pages 201-251 Edison Records 80010-80305 - $1.50 apiece
Pages 301-313 Edison Records 82031-82103 - $2.00 apiece
Pages 401-406 Edison Records 82510-82544 - $2.50 apiece
Pages 501-505 Edison Records 83002-83042 - $3.00 apiece

So most of it is an explained catalogue of the records...? I'd be much more interested in that first part learning the dealers about how to promote the Edison products...

That is what the first bunch of pages are about, teaching them how to conduct business and themselves. Here are the pages.

Rich Gordon

Wonderful and fascinating. Thanks for posting this. One could do a fascinating psychological study based on this document - how they want to sell, how they don't, who the targets are and why, etc.