You can probably contact them and get taken off their mailing list.

I used to love getting seed and plant catalogs, it was one of the joys of the planning season -- soaking it a hot tub with a good catalog while the snow is flying, plotting and planning for the upcoming season. But now that everything has moved on-line, catalogs are a shadow of their former selves, more advertisements to entice one to go on-line and browse, rather than a true "catalog" of offerings. A couple of them are still decent -- Select Seeds and Johnny's (for commercial growers, not the cr*ppy home grower version) come to mind.

My favorite seed catalog was always Stokes Seeds. It arrived like clockwork around Thanksgiving every year, that was the official kickoff of the planning season for me. They had such a great selection, and I liked that you could buy most flower seeds in a line in individual colors. Stokes is no more, though -- not for flower seeds or home growing, they changed their business focus to strictly commercial a few years ago. That made me sad -- Stokes was my favorite seed house.

What else I really miss? MAGAZINES!

Yes, but I don't want to have to chase this down after the fact. Just makes work for me. It would be simpler for everyone if seed companies JUST ASKED if one wanted a printed catalog. You know, just check a box on the order form. But that's true. Hard to soak in a hot tub while perusing websites.

HAHA I should have said hot bath not hot tub. I have a giant soaking tub but not a hot tub.

I wonder if checking the box when you order on-line to opt out of emails/offers would accomplish what you want. I always check the box because otherwise companies blow up the inbox (or uncheck it if you have to do that to opt-out).

The order forms sometimes have an e-mail "opt-in" box, but not a printed catalog one. If they're going to pay attention to that, you'd think they'd be able to pay attention to a catalog opt-out box. If you go online and look at prices for printed catalogs, with a hundred pages with glossy color sheets, they're talking at least several bucks each. But no question that the value of catalogs I've gotten from some seed companies is more than the amount I've ever spent on them. But that's a good point that some catalogs are not much more than incentives to go online.

It is not just seed companies. I order from Land's End and they send a catalog with every order.

Thinking about how businesses can have loads of printed items that they're eager to unload. The printing's already paid for - it's a sunk cost, and they might as well give the stuff away as have it molder in storage. Catalogs aren't printed on demand, I think...?

And many of our catalogs go into the bathroom reading rack 😄

Um, what? The seed companies have to pay to get their catalogs printed. They don't do it themselves. It gets contracted out. But yes, they have to order a fixed number of them, and once they have them, it costs less to send them out than to print them. Might as well do that. I'm suggesting that they might not need to order as many. Seed prices are sometimes surprisingly high, and at least part of the reason is that you're paying for printed catalogs. To the extent your bathroom needs reading material, by all means agree to receive catalogs.

Now, I have to assume that seed companies have worked out the economics of free seed catalogs. I'm just a little surprised it pays off for them.

" I used to love getting seed and plant catalogs, it was one of the joys of the planning season -- soaking it a hot tub with a good catalog while the snow is flying,"

You shouldn't be taking your tablet near water (esp while plugged in) so go ahead, take a good catalog in and enjoy yourself.

"And many of our catalogs go into the bathroom reading rack 😄 "

Granddad did the same with Sears And Roebuck catalogs before he had indoor plumbing. LOL

True. You can accidentally flush a catalog, but it would be hard to do that with a tablet or laptop.

The seed catalog veggie pics are so pristine and perfect, esp for the root crops. Here's a comparison of White turnip pics, mine and theirs, can you guess who's who?

Their turnips ^^^ were either power washed or grown hydroponically.