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JW, I appreciate what you're saying, I tried my best to convey in earlier messages that just entering the data for a single year would be an extremely time-consuming and annoying job, but until you try it, as you did, I guess my comment wasn't appreciated.

Has anyone contacted PAC's Dealer Roster-keeper to see what format his information is in and under what conditions he might share it? See the post on the PAC Forum on this topic.

O_D, you did try to warn me, but I had to try it for myself. I am used to working with spreadsheets with 2,500 rows and 20-30 columns, but these data had been entered through file transfer programs. It would be great to have a data base with the dealer info but we have to find a better way to get it into a useable form. Back to basics.

John -

Your efforts were not in vain. We wouldn't have know for sure unless you tried.

I don't expect anyone to hand type all that data from even one, let alone how every may more lists we find. In preparing the content for the Service Index, I had no choice but to do some typing, especially when it came to the topics, but I used as many cut-n-paste shortcuts as I could for the rest.

Time to fall back, regroup, and evalute other options before we get too far ahead of ourselves.

O_D: Probably won't solve anything for the database import you guys are trying to set up so if Kev says it won't help & a waste, then no need but otherwise was thinking if you can post one page as a PDF at good quality might be interesting to see what OCR can do & at least make the original format searchable.

I converted that jpeg to pdf and ran it. Was able to find some names but not others. Since the original was a bit fuzzy & skewed, the conversion was probably not optimal for character recognition and a better start might give better results.

Tried to upload a PDF but apparently the file size is too large to be accepted.

If you guys want to email scans to me, I will either OCR them, or hand key them on my side. Also anyone that want to fill out the Excel sheet and send those to me, that would be appreciated also.

Then I can merge them all together. I am willing to do the leg work, just need all the reference points.

Kev, I'll email you a PDF to fool around with and see what you might manage other than hand-entering all the information. Again though, I think the format as suggested will loose an important piece of information, which dealers were supported by which factory branches or distributorships, and I suggest a rethink on the spreadsheet format.

And apparently no one is interested in what might already have been done on this by PAC's dealer roster-keeper?

PS - I've made the inquiry to PAC's dealer roster-keeper to see what already exists.

Dave -

OK, I'll second your motion to distinguish whether a dealer was supported by a factory branch or distributorship - provided we have enough of that info. Do you want the distributor (or branch) IDed by name as well?

Perhaps part of the problem, in recognizing the need for that particular info, is that not everyone understands how Packard distributed vehicle product through its dealer network. I have only a rudimentary awareness, but you must agree that it is quite different than way the industry handles thiings in the decades since the sun set on PMCC. Perhaps you would like to elaborate and enlighten - even in another thread, if need be.

Meanwhile, I only had a couple of exchanges with PAC's dealer rosterkeeper, Ken Chapman, but that was over a decade ago. Based on a printout he provided, I do believe that he had some info entered into a computer, but the printout was nowhere near as comprehensive as what we've been kicking around here. Thank you for taking the lead on contacting him now to see what may be available.

Here is the updated XLS file from the page that Dave sent to me. Dave if you can send me the rest of the pages from that 1939 source, I will plug them all in also.

Attach file:

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Size: 14.00 KB; Hits: 71

Looks good. I'm assuming you didn't have to type in each entry? Did you mean for me to scan each page here into .pdf and forward them to you, or just forward the paper file?

The only thing I note again is that the spreadsheet doesn't reflect that all those dealers were under the Mack distributorship, but perhaps that's too much complexity to undertake. Responding to Brians's question, just as the dealerships themselves were dynamic and constantly changing over time, there were regular changes in the factory branch/dealership arrangement and organization and I don't know if anyone really has a real handle on this over the span of years, I certainly don't. But for my part, I'd rather just see the individual pages as Packard published them, rather than see it loose that element of context. Yes, folks might have to view several pages before finding the city of interest, but the relationships are kept intact. Put the list up as it's printed, for 1939, with an index perhaps to the controlling city branches or distributorships; if you get another list from another year, put that one up similarly as a folder with an index.

Those are my thoughts anyway, pending what I hear from Ken Chapman.