I have my Grandfathers 99 30-30 that he bought from Sears in Chicago in 1927(I Think). He got his Sisters "employee discount". I think I have the original Bill of sale.....
I'll have to get a letter on it. It's a takedown, no checkering, and what seems to me to be a fairly heavy and short barrel. I don't think he hunted more than 3-4 times with that little Rifle......I do have a mounted 6 point Whitetail he killed in Wisconsin with it! I have a Lightfoot mount for it, just haven't made time to put it on , scope it, and take her hunting.
As far as the Sears houses go, Sears almost went broke from those. They were sent out as complete kits and buyers could pay the kit off in installments. As you can guess, many houses never got completely built and it really wasn't feasible to "Repossess" the unfinished kits. Sears also didn't have an attachment to the land the house was being built on!
The little town 0 or so miles NW of Chicago I grew up in had 6-8 Sears houses and a friend of mine grew up in one. His Father knew a lot of the Sears House history.
