When I was a kid, I was fascinated by S&H Green Stamps. These were little official-looking black and green stamps that were given out at grocery stores and other retailers, gas stations, even inside packs of cigarettes.
You would store your stamps in Saver Books and then you'd shop in the S&H Green Stamps Idea Book to redeem your painstakingly-collected stamps. There were even physical outlets where you could exchange your stamp books for products.
There was always cool stuff in the Idea Book, like chemistry sets, telescopes, home movie equipment, camping gear, bikes, and other objects of a young nerd-boy's desire. Hmmm… 26 books of stamps to get this Super 8 movie camera and 10 books to get this rad 750x microscope? Maybe I need to take up smoking!
Green Stamps launched in the 1930s, peeked in the 60s and 70s, and were gone by the 1980s.
