Most Expensive Holiday Gifts: Hammacher Schlemmer Three-Wheeled Scooter Coupe

Hammacher Schlemmer put this engine-powered, two-person buggy on the cover of its November 22 “Last Chance” catalog — one of eight holiday books the retailer mails in all — and sold one the first week of December. The scooter gets about 100 miles to a 1.5-gallon tank, has seatbelts, turn signals and independent all-wheel suspension, and comes in a choice of blue, green, red and yellow. Not surprisingly, an appearance on a catalog cover can be a sales booster: Last year Hammacher Schlemmer sold four $15,000 rocking horses after one appeared on a November catalog. “You see it and you fall in love with it,” says director of merchandising Robert Bohlin.

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