Byline: Sherry Chiger

August was another solid month for publicly traded catalogers. Fourteen of the 19 companies tracked for Catalog Age by Waukee, IA-based Financial Advisory Partners, or 74% ended the month with gains in value.

Not all of the gains were as dramatic as July's 76% leap on the part of PC Mall, for instance, or Coldwater Creek's 30% increase. The biggest gainer was Tessco Technologies, a provider of wireless-communications products and services; its stock price climbed 28%, to $10.59. The industrial supplies company hit a new 52-week high of $8.75 a share on Aug. 26 before dipping slightly to close at $8.29 a share on Sept. 5 - up nearly 20% for the fiscal month.

Among the consumer catalogers, multititle apparel and home goods mailer Hanover Direct showed the greatest gain, nearly 17%. But Hanover was hardly rising from a great height; it closed the month at $0.27 a share, and its 52-week high was only $0.34 a share. The only other consumer stock to post a double-digit gain was women's apparel cataloger/retailer Coldwater Creek, which rose 10%, to $19.29 a share. Most of its significant gains for the month followed the Aug. 27 release of its strong second-quarter results.

Just as the month's increases weren't seismic, neither were the decreases. The biggest loser was, once again, multititle mailer Spiegel, which fell 27% - or a bit more than a penny, to $0.04 a share.

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