The quality of these images will vary considerably. Some have many watermarks, some are small, some were not scanned well, and some are not scans, but pictures of a page. I am not withholding any particularly poor images in the name of preservation.
I currently have images from 1975 to 2023 including more than 35 different stores. The ads are organized by alphabetically by store on each year page and by page number when applicable. When there are multiple catalogs or weeks of circular ads featured within a store section I have ordered them chronologically when possible. Sometimes I have had to guess what year the ad was published based on the games featured, please let me know if I have made a mistake.
You can click the images in the galleries to make them full size, either press the left or right arrow keys or click near the left or right edge to go to the previous or next image, and press escape or click outside of the lightbox to close it.
I typically update every year with the new Black Friday ads during December. For a few years in the late 2010s I was looking through every weekly circular ad but that became too much, especially for GameStop.
If you can find or scan any ads that aren’t on these pages, please send me an e-mail at thespritecell@gmail.com, or message me on twitter at SpriteCell.
Current total images: 3,252
1970s
1975 – 2 images – Montgomery Ward, Sears
1976 – 12 images – Child World, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, Rich’s, Sears
1977 – 23 images – JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears, Spiegel, True Value
1978 – 12 images – JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears, Unknown
1979 – 19 images – JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1980s
1980 – 18 images – JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1981 – 30 images – Child World, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears, Skaggs Drug Centers/Alpha Beta Food & Drugs, Toys “R” Us
1982 – 42 images – JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1983 – 77 images – JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears
1984 – 29 images – JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears
1985 – 10 images – Child World, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, RadioShack, Sears
1986 – 10 images – Hills, JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears
1987 – 25 images – Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, RadioShack, Toys “R” Us
1988 – 51 images – Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1989 – 32 images – Child World, JCPenney, KB Toys, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1990s
1990 – 79 images – Electronics Boutique, Hills, JCPenney, Lechmere, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1991 – 176 images – Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, KB Toys, RadioShack, Sears, Target, Toys “R” Us
1992 – 260 images – Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, KB Toys, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1993 – 176 images – Captron, Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, RadioShack, Software Etc, Toys “R” Us
1994 – 107 images – Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, KB Toys, RadioShack, Sears, Software Etc, Toys “R” Us, Unknown
1995 – 117 images – Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us, Unknown
1996 – 73 images – Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, KB Toys, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1997 – 159 images – Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, KB Toys, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1998 – 38 images – Ames, Electronics Boutique, Hills, JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears, Toys “R” Us
1999 – 48 images – CompUSA, Electronics Boutique, FuncoLand, JCPenney, KB Toys, KMart, RadioShack, Sears, Target, Toys “R” Us
2000s
2000 – 20 images – JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears
2001 – 94 images – Circuit City, Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears
2002 – 19 images – Electronics Boutique, JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears
2003 – 15 images – JCPenney, RadioShack, Sears
2004 – 21 images – Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Fry’s Electronics, JCPenney, KMart, Kohl’s, Sears, Target, Walmart
2005 – 22 images – Best Buy, Circuit City, JCPenney, KMart, Kohl’s, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2006 – 57 images – Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2007 – 40 images – Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, FYE, JCPenney, KMart, Kohl’s, Microcenter, RadioShack, Sears, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2008 – 61 images – Best Buy, Circuit City, FYE, GameStop, KMart, Kohl’s, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Sears, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2009 – 102 images – AJWright, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, JCPenney, KMart, Kohl’s, OfficeMax, RadioShack, Sears, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2010s
2010 – 42 images – AJWright, Best Buy, Fred’s, GameStop, Hastings, KMart, Kohl’s, OfficeMax, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Sears, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2011 – 44 images – Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Hastings, KMart, Kohl’s, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Sears, Shopko, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2012 – 35 images – Best Buy, GameStop, Hastings, KMart, Kohl’s, Microcenter, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Shopko, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2013 – 49 images – Best Buy, eBay, Fred Meyer, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Hastings, KMart, Kohl’s, Sam’s Club, Sears, Shopko, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2014 – 46 images – Best Buy, eBay, Fred Meyer, Fry’s Electronics, Gordman’s, Hastings, KMart, Microcenter, Newegg, Sam’s Club, Sears, Shopko, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2015 – 37 images – Best Buy, Five Below, Fred Meyer, GameStop, Hastings, HHGregg, Kohl’s, Micro Center, Rakuten, Sam’s Club, Shopko, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2016 – 40 images – Best Buy, BJ’s, Circuit City, Fred Meyer, Gordman’s, HHGregg, Kohl’s, Rakuten, Sam’s Club, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
2017 – 79 images – Best Buy, BJ’s, Fred Meyer, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Kohl’s, Newegg, Sam’s Club, Shopko, Target, Walmart
2018 – 230 images – Best Buy, BJ’s, eBay, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Kohl’s, Newegg, Shopko, Target, Walmart
2019 Part 1 – 215 images – Army & Air Force Exchange Service, Best Buy, BJ’s, Fred Meyer, GameStop
2019 Part 2 – 213 images – Gamestop, Kohl’s, Newegg, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart
2020s
2020 – 63 images – Best Buy, BJ’s, Dell, Five Below, GameStop, Kohl’s, Newegg, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart
2021 – 22 images – Best Buy, Newegg, Staples, Target, Walmart
2022 – 61 images – Best Buy, BJ’s, BrandsMart, Costco, Fred Meyer, GameStop, Kohl’s, Microsoft Store, Navy Exchange, Newegg, QVC, Sam’s Club, Staples, Target, Walmart
Sources
Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks has hundreds of text searchable catalogs.
Hughes Johnson has personally scanned a number of catalogs for his site and blog. His scans are available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license . No changes were made to his scans.
WishBookWeb has a number of Christmas catalogs.
Video Game Art & Tidbits has personally scanned a number of catalogs, as well as other art & tidbits. The individual tweets are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Black Friday Archive has many ads from many stores from late November.
Weekly Ads has many weekly circular ads from many stores.
RadioShackCatalogs specializes in RadioShack catalogs. Some of their scans credit AlliedCatalogs.com.
Totally Target has many Target weekly ads.
Archive.org has all sorts of miscellaneous items. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9
GottaDEAL has a lot of ads, especially for Black Friday.
BFAds has a lot of ads, especially for Black Friday.
Plaid Stallions has scans of catalogs from the 70s and 80s.
Kotaku by way of reddit user Sketchbreaker.
BassGuitari from AtariAge contributed the Spiegel 1977 scans.
Bored Panda
Retro Junk
AusRetroGamer
imgur user trolling4soup
imgur user ProfessorPancakes
imgur user kylakurai365
imgur user zadoc
Reddit user m08inthem08 (same as previous, this particular catalog is easily the most commonly posted)
Reddit user isaynonowords
Reddit user Dedennecheese
Reddit user ThomDenick
Reddit user StuffyUnicorn
Reddit user JaredLJohnson
ResetEra user Deleted member 3321
Nintendo Times
Mental Floss
Tumblr user lenimph
BuzzFeed News
Twisted Sifter
Brad’s Deals
Consumerist
Warosu’s archive of a 4chan thread.
TecheBlog
Mother to Earth on Twitter thinks that this image is from Earthbound Central, but I couldn’t find it there.
Earthbound Central via “a fellow by the name of Mother_fan”
Vintage Computing took credit for scanning a Toys “R” Us ad which I got from somewhere else.
Reddit user cyber_electronics
Vintage Ads from Target’s Holiday History
https://www.instagram.com/p/CjiEAHjsOZ8/ Instagram user 90s_the_best_decade
https://www.instagram.com/p/CASiKuHnjyt/ Instagram user dadcangame
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-KUVTeHtLA/ Instagram user audio_video_retro_geek
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChUaswruC0t/ Instagram user justinmsalvato
https://www.instagram.com/remembering_hills_dept._stores/ Instagram user remembering_hills_dept_stores
https://www.instagram.com/ecto_core/ Instagram user ecto_core
https://www.instagram.com/vintage_80s_icon/ Instagram user vintage_80s_icon
https://www.instagram.com/frys_electronics_ads/ Instagram user frys_electronics_ads
https://twitter.com/thehauntedvcr/status/1591564825049825280 Twitter user thehauntedvcr