Collecting Hot rod magazines old new then what

Ok I know I'm not the only one with this problem. So what do you do after years and years of collecting magazines rod & custom, street rodder,hot rod,rodders digest, rod action, rod and restlyling, custom rodder, carcraft etc... For over the past 30 years you collected bought older ones from the 1950's 1960 and into the 70's. So year after year you toss them into bins and then stack them into piles. Thousands of magazines just sitting now -what to do?? I have thumbed thru some of them but not enought to save them anymore.. Downsizing the space I have so keeping all of them is not a option.. So what have you guys done with them , toss them out after a good reading, or perhaps in to the bathroom for a last reading before the toss. Give them to a buddy or neighbor or a local kid hopeing to keep hot rodding alive.. I also thought sell them newer ones 1980 -2000 for .25 each and a buck for the older ones and 3 bucks for the little guys.. This way I could buy some hotrod parts I read about in the magazines.. Then again I always could give them to the scrap guy that collects paper from the guy next door at work, this way it could be recycled and be used to make toilet paper..
I have been going thru my Little pages 1950's car magazines and I must say they trach you a bunch and tons of ideas.. Heck I love all my magazines but what to do with them and what do you do with them???

 

DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY!!!

I cannot even throw out new magazines and pick them out of the trash at work when I see them. It's a sickness! It's a hassel selling them, but they will find a home. My wife HATES them, but that smell of rotting newsprint just screams rodding to me.

 

I have every car magazine I've bought since my first Hot Rod in July 1961. Throwing one away is unthinkable. Give then to some kid, or fellow rodder if you can't take them to your new place.

 

I collect them.

I bought my first magazine in '72 ( Hot Rod Magazine...), and I still own it.
I've bought other guys collections, and a while ago a buddy brought all his old mags over.
He said " for the Metalshapes library", with the understanding he could come over and thumb through them if he wants too.
His Wife wanted them gone...( My Girlfriend was thrilled...)

I like books too...

 

put them in the HAMB classified section,

go through them and pile up the ones to go and the shipping cost is very cheap

media rate from the post office they even have boxes ready to go


, i cannot think they will stay in the classifieds
for more than 2 days before they are gone,,, what ever else you do donot throw them out!!!

 

I collect them too. It is a sickness

 

I started buying magazines in 1951, and I have thousands. I know full well that I will never look at 98% of them again, but they're part of me. I figure I'll instruct my family what to do with them when I croak.

 

I'm trying to find the right younger person with the same interests in the hobby as we had at that age, then trade them into them. Rod books are how many of us discovered this stuff, and I remember the rush I got when an older car guy (or gal) gave me or sold me their old magazines, no matter what they were. Duplicate issue storage isn't a problem for the little ones, but 30 years' accumulation of the big ones takes a lot of space.
302

 

I take my Hot Rods, Car Crafts and R&Cs, and cut out the features and articles I want to keep and recycle the rest. I then put them in a binder, and it makes one hell of a book, cause it's all stuff that I dig. Unfortunately I have about a 2" stack of ripped pages cause I am behind....

 

i moved 4 years ago, and i know how many i have ,copy paper boxes full, filled a 16 foot car trailer 3 boxes high and 5 wide, twice, very heavy! anyone that was asked to help said i was nuts, i have them because i like to have them

 

they're treasures that i'll never be able to get ahold of. i never see them for less than 5 bucks a pop at the swaps.

i think ya oughta keep em all except for a june or january 1969 rod n custom with a 59 impala and 65 impala in it. that one ya need to sell to me!

 

Django, that is like chopping a garage find Deuce coupe into a roadster! Seriously, I too suffer this sickness of old magazines. Love the smell of the paper as I tear into an Egad purchase! Then, I subscribe to the "trinity" of Primedia as well! I know I could have saved a car from the crusher with what I have spent on Egad for Hot Rod and Rod & Custom mags.

 

If you're going to keep them, definately invest in some plastic bags. They're cheap, you can get them at comic book stores in packs of 100 for less than it costs for a magazine. Made out of mylar, or polymer. Bag them, seal it with a little piece of scotch tape, and stuff them away.

If you're not going to keep them, par it down to only those you really like. Either pass on the rest, or sell them to further your magazine/car parts addiction. My .02$.

 

im like you and have way to many. now i have a small list of guys from the hamb that are looking for certain copies for whatever reasons. next time i go through some of my boxes i keep a look out for the ones people have asked me about. as long as they tell me they are keeping them for themselfs and not reselling them i give them away. but there are also ones i wont give away cause man i gotta keep some of em.

 

I use them to start the campfire when we hit Morrow Mountain in the tent! Man, those babies burn like HELL!

 

Sold all my 60s and 70s ones on Ebay...............ended up with $1300....Took it to Vegas and came home broke. Still have a bunch of 80s..........hmmmmmmmmmm

 

I use them as reference material quite often. I like to see if the car is still around or if I know the owner, so I do use what I have. If you'll note an earlier thread of mine last week, I still buy more. I find the ones from the 80's and late 70's pretty funny now, but maybe some day those horrible graphics will be back in style..? hope not. But anyway, I can't throw them away either..

Spike

 

They are worthless termite fodder. Send them to me and I will store them with my collection from somewhere in the 60's up.

Honestly though, I do keep all I get my hands on and try to catalog tec. and pics. for future reference. I first did this with personal interest, then interest change and I had articals that I knew not where to find them. I am now going through them to catalog ALL tec. stuff. I can't even through away harbor freight catalogs.

The wife would say I need help.

 

Noname that's so cool! I know I tried to give a few to the neighbor a few years back.. I knew he was a gearhead when he was a kid, so I would see if I could spark up the old flame.. I did and I didn't, his wife put out the flame and threw out the mags and my neighbor still dreams.. I'll slip him on now and them just to keep him interasted and maybe to piss her off HA HA sorry .. I think I'll do a HAMB auction on some give away a few and sell a few too. I won't burn them like Fatassbuick suggested, I have super stock, hotboat and 4X4 mags to do that .. I have been looking thru some of them tonight. It's just amazing how styles change and the info does as well.. I have to say the early ones would teach you how to build a car ( like the HAMB) were the later 1998 + had you buying the parts from vendors.. Now the times have changed as well.. Like the new issue of Rod & Custom, just kicks ass! Thanks guys!!!! So I'm picking out a few with cool covers and great articles (Tech) . Just like most of you guy I too am a junki for info and just can't to seem to get enough.. I thought a few more hoarders were out there with the same sickness damm you hit it on the head Roadstar sickness.. I was wondring if you do go thru them and look for articles , pictures or just killer ads like the Hemi Cuda .. So what are you doing with yours??

 

I'm still in recovery. Like an alcoholic you never are cured. It's one day at a time.

I started in the early sixtys. Back then we had used book stores that somehow got the unsold magazines with the top of the cover cut off. 10 cents a copy. I'd drive up to Baltimore in unsatiable quest to collect everything.

I still have many of the little pages. I couldn't bring myself to dispose of them. When I sold my first house, something had to give. I filled the bed of a 53 Willys P/U up to the top with magazines. Mostly 60s, 70s and 80s off to the land fill. It was a sad day.

 

Ive got the same problem but last year I took a pile of them to a auto flea market and sold some cheap (NOT TO DEALERS) and gave a pile away to the younger guys. You can tell by the look in there eyes they appreciated the justure. p.s. Im still lookin for 48,49,and some of 50 Hot Rod.

 

Take them to a VA hospital. They need reading material and the feeling it gives you is better than any money you could get for them.

 

I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid!(thats debatable) I still have an office full of annuals,manuals, complete set rodders journal, 40-50's stuff
What i'm offering free is 1200-1500 60's to present. I gave a complete set of Rod Action to a young gun that helped me so much with my truck project

 

I refer to my magazines all of the time, it is a reference library.

All of my magazines are in 13"x9"x16" deep boxes that I picked up at a surplus box store, they were wine boxes. I cut them in half so that they are only 8" deep. Then I bought the next larger box 13.5"x10" and made two lids for the smaller boxes that I cut in half.

This is what all my magazines are stored in. They are stored by title and year.

There is a website (which I posted before) that has most of a index for a lot of the magazine issues, it is:

http://www.hotrodindex.150m.com/

 

I use a boxcutter to mercilessly slice out any articles or features that I want to keep and then file the them by category, then I take the remainder to my local barber shop.....but I think I'll be out of hair before I'm out of magazines!

 

IVE been known to take a few to the Doctors office and the dentist and leave them behind mainly Street Rodder and Rod & Custom. All my mags are in 5 filing cabnets and 35 plastic milk crates.

 

Despite our mutual sickness, I've seen people collect and store some odd shit. Kid I knew in High School, old man had a shitload of vintage Playboy mags.
Inherited all my Unc's mags from the 50's (thread search 1952 Florida Roadster Club) They don't take up that much room and they are pricelss resources for a look into the Hot-Rod rearview mirror. Gave all my Street Rodder, from the 70's, to my buddy building a 32 Hi-Boy. Kept the Jeff Beck issue!!
It's a sickness I'm willing to live with. Although, like the cash in the attic idea, need money for Viva Las Vegas
JT

 

Since mid fifties I bought every rod magazine I could. For years I bought newstand mags to avoid ugly address labels. I have not disposed of many
however with todays quality copy machines I have begun to copy important
stuff and file by topic, takes a lot less space, saves thumbing thru old mags
that are getting fragile, also been able to help some of the younger guys by
recopying stuff for them. I agree collecting them has been addictive, I guess
I will dispose of them or dig the hole bigger when I'm gone? How deep can
I go, enough to bury my old 29' HiBoy?