Mail order

Peter John Rampton was born in 1934.

He was heir to the successful Freeman's Mail Order business.

He became something of a legend amongst rail enthusiasts for rescuing and restoring rare, narrow-gauge steam locomotives from across the globe.

For decades, his extraordinary collection, nicknamed Collection X, was shrouded in secrecy, stored in a warren of agricultural barns on his Surrey farm, protected, it is said, by a web of rumours, myths and distractions.

It's actually expanded way beyond that because there's so much content there and I've tried to preserve so much of the actual writing of the individuals who took part.

who I should say it's the four Games Workshop employees who were chosen, was Paul Sawyer, the editor himself, Roy Barber, who worked in the trade sales department, Richard Gunson, who was a store manager, or I think an area manager, and Richard Hobson, who worked in the mail order department.

And yeah, so I was hoping that it was going to be quite a quick project because I started it, I think, straight away after my own Call of the Crown challenge video.

And they've taken ages because not only am I spending so much time painting then to then create videos around that as well.

That was never, ever, ever gonna happen.

So, you know, we all started in the hobby somewhere.

I'd gone from various roles in trade sales and was head of mail order, sort of telesales, sales division at the time.

So that's where I was.

Today we're digging into the underground logistics that let punk spread before the internet, from handcrafted catalogs and money orders to a worldwide network of independent labels, stores, and fans.

Now let's trace how these early mail order networks built punk's global community.

The whole idea of Punk Mail Order is a straight-up, handcrafted logistics chain that existed way before the click-and-go era.

Imagine an ad in a zine saying, Got your copy of Stiff Records on vinyl? Just send a money order and a stack of stamps.

Those catalogs were literally handwritten, tacked on the back of a folded poster, or slipped inside the sleeves of a record that you just bought from an alley car vendor.

This diversity became a cornerstone of the emerging alternative scene in the late 80s.

SST's influence wasn't only musical, it was logistical, showing how DIY labels could distribute music and build fanbases without major label machinery.

They kept distribution under tight control, using mail orders, independent distributors, and direct shipping to record stores.

And that's what started to gain traction.

And, you know, and really what, you know, and I think one of the exciting things, and we'll probably talk about this later, but, you know, with the business is that, you know, this was a mail order business.

Like this was a classic, classic mail order business.

It was, you know, you would mail in, a check, you know, or a credit card number eventually, or you'd call in a credit card number and you'd be shipped back a product.

And really, I think one of the things that we've done in the last 15, 16 years is absolutely transitioned from a mail order business to an internet media tech business, you know, which is really what it is today.

Explain what you mean by internet media tech business.

So, I mean, you know, Obviously, with the invention of the World Wide Web, small businesses and medium-sized businesses and large businesses