You'd be surprised indeed. My company deals with selling names to marketers, and about 50% of our business is to catalog companies. When they were interviewing me, I too expressed surprise, but they explained that catalogs drive interest. You can't really browse too well online, but having the catalog lets people see things that they might otherwise not get. So even though they will then buy from the website, it was the catalog that drove the interest. You can also pass catalogs to your friends and family, giving it even more value.