Compromise on Old Magazine Issues

[Anonymous]

I've decided to compromise on the cut/save issue with old RR modeling magazines. Mags from 1976 on will be harvested for useful stuff and the husks discarded. Any pre-1975 magazines will have the useful data copied and the intact mags will be placed on ebay. Given how so many respondents have expressed their astonishment that I would even consider cutting up so priceless a resource as a model RR magazine, I expect that the bidding for these will be intense and the final price astronomical, eh wot? [;)]

KL

[Morpar]

Good luck on selling them! With any luck, you can get that new brass loco you were wanting!

My only question now is, are you planning on scanning all of the parts you keep, or preserving the actual printed articles in a binder or some other form? If you are keeping the actual articles on paper, I would be interested in hearing about the manner you are going to use to preserve and organize your collection. This has some relevancy to my future plans, so I'm going to try and pick everyone else's brains on this subject before I start in.

[Anonymous]

Lots of luck: list them for sale at only the cover price and see what kind of response you get- then contact me about a bridge I have for sale very cheap here in the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west. I'll be willing to bet you get at least one respondant willing to take them off your hands for a slight fee - I know all about that; about fifteen years ago I took twenty years worth of MR and RMC to a swap meet and tried to unload them at face price. Wanna know how much interest I garnished - except for those who thought I should donate them to him - NONE I won't try that again - I'll throw fifty+ years in the trash first.

[doctorwayne]

I photocopied the various articles that I was interested in from my collections of both Model Rairoader and Trains magazines. I organized the material by subject in a number of binders: two for the MRs and four for the Trains. The Trains magazines, from about 1975 to 2004 were given to a good friend. I attempted to sell the Model Railroader magazines, but so far, to no avail. I have 5 issues from the 1950s (1953 is the earliest), about two dozen from the '60s, most from 1970 to 1973, then all from January 1974 to May 2004. Obviously, shipping would be a bit of a problem.[:D][:D]

Wayne

[Anonymous]

The LHS has at least 1000 magazines from the early 50 to 3 months ago at 50 cents each, or 5 for 2 dollars. Another has them for 75 cents each, he has about 2000 LOL. A friend recently was trying to give me some for what it cost to ship them. It was cheaper to just go buy them at the LHS than pay postage. Fred

[TomDiehl]

What old magazines will sell for is dependant on the title. Mags like Railroad Model Craftsman, Railfan, Trains, and Model Railroader (sorry Bergie) won't bring you much, if anything, if you try to sell them.

However, other titles like Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette, that's a whole 'nother story. Look them up on Ebay sometime, especially from the 80's or older. [:O]

[dinwitty]

The magazines are worth the reference material, I have issues back to the 40's here.
I bought a whole year of MR `1943 just to get a plan in one mag, but the rest of the mags are priceless for the material in them.
But all the back issues I have take lots of room, thats why I like the idea of
putting everything on CD's DVD's.

[Anonymous]

You're on the right path, cut them up, put the pages you want in those cheap plastic portfolios with flaps on the inside. Keep one for each section (trains , buildings, etc), then send the rest to recycler. Many older issues have outdated information,reviews and the like, plus there's all that advertising.

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by flee307

The LHS has at least 1000 magazines from the early 50 to 3 months ago at 50 cents each, or 5 for 2 dollars. Another has them for 75 cents each, he has about 2000 LOL. A friend recently was trying to give me some for what it cost to ship them. It was cheaper to just go buy them at the LHS than pay postage. Fred

I just gave my LHS about 25 years worth of MR. They sell it for 50c and give it to the Local Childrens Hospital Train Set operations fund.

Fergie

[ereimer]

i bought 5 issues from 1948 for $4 plus shipping (which was more than $4 LOL) , so i don't think you're going to be rich anytime soon , but good luck to you !

[Anonymous]

Copying and then selling the magazines might be treading a bit close to piracy...

[Anonymous]

I am also in the process of getting rid of my older mags. I remove the articles i'm interested & recycling the others. i gave many away but my friends don't even want any more. I've had some experience in cleaning out a friend's house after he died & I don't want my kids to have to go thru that with my "treasures". I get 40 RR mags a year so it doesnt take much time to get a large collection. yes, I would like to keep them all,but you have to consider the space they are or will be taking up. My wife has the perfect solution,she also collects magazines & stores the old ones in the eves of her father's house. Wish I thought of it first.

[Anonymous]

Like Jerry, when we moved my Dad out of his place, I was quickly "cured" of the need to keep stuff. He had so much stuff, it was frightening. And yes, every piece of junk meant what MR mags mean to many of us, I'm sure.

I'm pretty young, but when my time comes, I don't want to be remembered for the hassle of going through all my stuff!

So at a young age, I'm trying to establish myself as an anti-stuff guy.

(however, I admit, I'm a digital packrat). I have so many pictures, files, etc. on my computer, it's frightening.

[dgwinup]

Quote: "(however, I admit, I'm a digital packrat). I have so many pictures, files, etc. on my computer, it's frightening." CARRfan

But a few mouse clicks will clean them out for you! LOL A lot easier than carrying magazines out to the trash or recycling bin!

I, too, have several magazine collections that occupy about 30 feet of shelf space. If I had the patience, I would scan the articles that I want, burn them onto a CD and recycle the rest.

There doesn't seem to be much of a market for older mags like MR and RMC, with a few exceptions on certain issues. N Scale magazine and N Scale Railroading often sell for cover price or more. Mainline Modeler, Railmodel Journal, Classic Toy Trains and others are hit or miss. Sometimes sell for cover+, other times you can't GIVE them away!

Maybe the magazine publishers could do the work for us. N Scale magazine has made the first 10 years available on CD. I haven't seen it, but it sounds like a good idea. 10 years of publishing on one CD. A whole collection of every railroad-related magazine ever published would fit on a small shelf!

Publishers: are you listening?????

Darrell, quiet...for now

[SilverSpike]

I would bet that Klambake has already paid someone to scan in every page of every magazine they have into digital format. Heck, most of their books are created from past original articles.

I wonder how much sales response they are getting with the online articles, most likely these are just past MR printed articles that have been digitized.

[Anonymous]

Not to throw a monkey wrench into even my own solution,but....I keep the articles I have interest in.NOW. For exampte, i discard all traction & modern motive power articles. Who knows, next year I may get bitten by the traction bug & be kicking myself for disposing if all that good information. I'ts not an easy solution, especially when we add up how much money we have tied up in them. I'm not going to let that deter me, I'm off to the attic with razor knife & plastic sheet protectors in hand. jerry

[Anonymous]

Well, At times in the past I advocated having Kalmbach scan all magazines in the MR collection into digital form where we can have access to them. But in spite of controversory (Spelling) that fell thru. I think the Information Station was a result of that discussion.

I depend on one LHS in Arkansas for used MR's that have been given away by local modelers. The information contained in the old issues are still revelant today.

I dont think magazines fetch a good price per issue unless you had 10 hobbyists trying to get the same magazine. I dont mind paying 50 cents each give or take a little at the show once a year to take old issues off someone in bundles.

Eventually I hope to have them scanned into hard disk to preserve them for the future and the bulky paper disposed of.

[Morpar]

Just to throw this out, a couple of years ago I picked up a collection of National Geographic magazine. This collection has all of the magazines from the first (1888) up to December 2000. This is over 1,200 issues, all organized to be searched, printed, exported, or whatever else the buyer desires, just like a paper magazine. It was a grand total of 32 CDs to cover all of that. Oh, and the cost of the whole set was just under $50 at the local Best Buy store. Sure seems to me as though the hobby magazine publishers are missing the boat here. I know I would pay a fair price (up to $50) to have all of the issues of MR and /or RMC in a set of CDs that I could use just like this National Geographic set. The only down side to the CDs would be that having reading material in the "library" mould be more difficult!

[Anonymous]

A drum magazine that I used to subscribe to, Modern Drummer, made all back issues available on DVD (or CD's) for $200.

If MR had a similar thing, I bet it would sell like hotcakes.

[DrummingTrainfan]

I wonder if Kamblak (sorry Bergie..I know I butchered that) would make more money if they offered a digital subscription to MR and all of the other magazines. Instead of getting a magazine in the mail you'd get a CD or DVD of the magazine.

If the price wasn't to much higher I would consider it as an option (although by the time I have my own house it may be the only option).

[kenkal]

Well, Morpar, I've been scanning articles into my PC that I want to keep for many years now. I use the PaperPort software, which allows me to scan right into its data base & then cut & paste & trim & file to my heart's content. I organize by relevant topics (DCC, locos, freight cars, scenery, etc). & sub-dividing as necessary. Then when I want to review a topic, say DCC-decoders-steam, I just go to the folder and everything is there for all the documents I scanned into the folder, & in color! I usually do this soon after reading the entire magazine, like in MR. Takes very little space on my hard drive as I also cut out all the ads after scanning. E-mail me separately if you should have any questions. Ken

QUOTE: Originally posted by Morpar
This has some relevancy to my future plans, so I'm going to try and pick everyone else's brains on this subject before I start in.