does any one have phone numbers of people who buy large lots of car magazines? a friend died last week leaving thousands of car mags from the 50's to now & his kids want to get rid of them. they are good ones,hot rod, r&c ,street rodder, rodders journal, e.t.c. thanks!
Good luck with that one, unless I’m wrong I don’t think there’s anyone left who deals in them anymore. For a long time there was a really neat shop in Vancouver that bought and sold magazines and other car memorabilia. The place was great and jammed full. It was a fun shop to visit. They’re closed and gone for a while now. I’d be interested to know if there’s anyplace similar out there.
Donate to library? They probably won't end up on the library shelves but libraries some have groups that handle donations. Maybe a "for sale" ad here and on fordbarn? EBAY? Charlie Stephens
I tried for quite a while to get rid of boxes and boxes of old Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Car Craft etc. Local library couldn't take them, local hospital couldn't take them. local old age homes, (5) couldn't take them. All gave me the same excuse, LIABILITY ISSUES. What, is somebody going to get a paper cut, for God's sake they are magazines not guns!!! I donated them to the Speedway Museum Library in Lincoln Nebraska.
20 or 30 years ago you used to see complete first year of Hot Rod ,1948, advertised for a couple hundred dollars and complete set to current for $900-1,000. Now guys say they can't even give them away at swap meets and chuck them in the garbage. There are still some literature dealers out there, but doubt if they would cover the cost of shipping. It seems when an artist dies the price of his work goes up. When a magazine dies........?
I’m coming to the conclusion that old magazines are almost worthless. I wonder if someone would scream bloody blue murder if someone started scanning them into digital files and created a website with all of the content You’d probably have all kinds of scumbag lawyers after you
Talk to your local antique dealers. There are dealers who specialize in print and may be interested. Local shops may have contact info for them.
I'd say it will have to be someone who has a business going either full time or sideline dealing in them. Those guys who sell either single issues or a year's worth of issues on Ebay or even list them on Amazon. While guys may not in the future have huge magazine collections like a lot of us have now there is and will be a market for specific issues that people want either because it has a feature of a rod or custom that they now have or because it has the new car article of a car they own. Finding a guy that will buy the whole stack is a bit of a challenge though.
Magazines, by design, are different than books, and were always considered as throwaways. Sure there were and are some collectors, but I figure there are many more book collectors and collections. Most were printed on as cheap a paper as they could get away with, they knew they would be read a few times then tossed. I’ve got a wall bookshelf full of 70’s and 80’s car magazines that I never look at, I figure one of these days I’ll end up torching them. Nobody wants them anymore with everything that is within a keystroke on the internet.
The Model Car Museum in Salt Lake City did scan all the vintage car model magazines including Rod & Custom in the 60s when they were a power modeling mag.
About a year ago I started putting them on ebay in groups of 10-15. Sold em all-not for much but something at least==maybe 75cents each after shipping-got rid of maybe 500 that way.
Me me me . Wife would kill me but I used to buy the little mags . Just found a box of them today. I buy them for my Dad and myself.
I think that was called Wilkinson Automotive or something similar. Cool little shop. I seem to recall seeing them at the Van Dusen All British Field Meet from time to time. Donate to a care home or young offenders facility?
3 years ago when I downsized the local car club took them. Had a guy who maintained a library. No where near your quantity, and donated
I used to buy the odd old magazine at swap meets but the old memory don't work that good and end up with multiple copies of the same issue. At this point, I just keep the ones I already have. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I used to collect mags yrs ago. But like a lot of things magazine collecting is a past fad. Like stated above unless some one is looking for a certain yr or month or article there isn't much desire for them. They were at one time the library of how-to articles, informational resources, other than the pictorials of the vehicles there isn't much to collect today. Now if you want to know what intake people are using just go online and look it up, complete with reviews for actual users. Want to know how to spread bondo? Again go online. We here are a perfect example, how many tech questions are asked and answered each month on here? Instead of needing a vast library of how to articles in magazines we just come here and get real first hand knowledge and I believe more honest info as none of us are getting adds payed for using someone's products.
I’m still into the 50s-60s and older car magazines, so don’t you guys throw them away! At least give someone else a crack at ‘em and give them away.
Mostly HotRod from about 1977, a few years of Street Rodder and Rod and Custom, maybe some other issues from other mags. There are missing issues that my boys destroyed over the years. Most are in good shape, some have loose or no covers. Right now I can’t even get to most of them as the wife has piled a bunch of junk in front of the bookcase. That just shows how much they’ve been looked at in the last 10-15 years.....
If it gets to the point that the kids are about to throw them away, go grab them!!! Most of the early-mid 50's stuff is still sought after-especially if it's in great condition. Same goes for the small size mags and Hot Rod and Custom annuals of the 50's.
I bought 2 pallets of car magazines (60s to 80s) for 90.00$ at a estate sale a couple of years ago. They are definitely cheaper when sold in bigger lots. As previously said broken down in smaller groups you could get more money for them. Lots of people my age or older grew up reading EVERY page of these magazines . Everything about these magazines speaks to a different time now and there is a lot of nostalgic information in them. When I get bored I put a box on the coffee table and read every page again! I wouldn’t sell mine you just need to find the right guy.
I started buying them almost 50 years ago....and now when I go back to them, it's like they're new. One of the advantages of losing your memory when you get old!
I have a trunk full of Hot Rod from the early 60s and I had a closet stacked with 70s 80s 90s and newer magazines from Hot Rod to Street Rodder, Car Craft, Super Chevy, etc. Someone ran an ad in Craigslist wanting old magazines for school projects. They cut them up to make collages with the kids. So I gave away all those 70s and later mags to the teachers.Maybe the kids will see the hot rods and customs and it will stir some interest in them. Still keep my older Hot Rod mags but need to get rid of them some day too.