You haven't shown us any evidence that your preferred interpretation is correct, so neither I nor anyone else owes you anything in return. So far, all you've done is make a baseless unsupported claim, then turn around and claim that you never said it.
Again, if the department code was used to designate a specific order item, it would show up in the ordered item in the order form with the order code, serial number, control number, etc. and not squeezed between two lines of unrelated text in a different section of the form.
It's only futile for you because you have no argument to make.
You haven't shown us any evidence that your preferred interpretation is correct, so neither I nor anyone else owes you anything in return.Hang on, it was you who said "Back in the day, this was done by mail order houses to differentiate between different ads".
It was your claim, not mine!You also said; "this ground has been trod over many, many times before over the decades". If that were true, it would be easy for you to prove me wrong, but instead you play the weak "I don't owe you anything in return" card.
The obvious truth is clearly different;
First you claimed falsely that the department number did not appear on the Waldman exhibit 7 order form, which was somehow to prove that Klein's didn't use the department number on the ad to identify a particular item.
Then, after John Mytton obviously told you in a PM that you were wrong, you shifted to "it's faint" (on Waldman 7) and "set off by itself, and not associated with the C20-T750 order code the way the other identifiers like the control number, item description, and serial number are."
You are clearly making stuff up as you go along. I've seen you do this several times before, in other threads. That's why it's such a waste of time to talk to you.
Again, if the department code was used to designate a specific order item, it would show up in the ordered item in the order form with the order code, serial number, control number, etc. and not squeezed between two lines of unrelated text in a different section of the form. Says who? Regardless of whatever you make up, by way of excuses, the Department number does show up on the Order blank. If Klein's only used it for analysis it would have sufficed to keep the actual order coupons.