It truly is the end of an era.

Picture the scene, if you will.

It's 1996 and you're 11 years old. The Argos catalogue has arrived, and you're rifling through to the homeware section, the toys section, until you - at long last - arrive at the games section.

Carefully, slowly, you pick up a black marker and circle the Nintendo 64 with 'Lylat Wars' and RumblePak. You blow softly on the paper to make sure the marker ink doesn't smush and, with a quiet prayer, you close the catalogue and hope it arrives by Christmas.

Sadly, this memory can only be preserved, but never repeated - and so it goes that the Argos catalogue is passing into memory, too. At its height in the '90s, the Argos catalogue was the most widely-printed publication in Europe and over 1 billion - that's B, billion - catalogues have been printed since 1973.

However, Argos have confirmed that the catalogue is no more and will be replaced by - you guessed it - online shopping via Argos.com. "Over the decades the Argos catalogue has charted the nation’s changing tastes and trends in everything from must-have toys to the latest gadgets and devices," said Mark Given, chief marketing officer for Sainsbury's, which owns Argos.

"Closing the book on the catalogue will help us focus on delivering exciting and inspiring digital shopping experiences to meet the changing needs of our customers."

The last run of the catalogue went for 3.9 million copies, but in its heyday, it could expect a printing run of at least 10 million. How times change, how life moves on, and how the things we thought so important become so fleeting.

Here's to you, Argos catalogue. Thanks for the memories.