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Collecting vintage magazines
Magazines are collected by people all over the world. Most of them
do not command high prices - on Ebay, 86% of magazines fetch less
than £10.
So when someone asks
me what a copy of Gardeners'
World is worth, I'm afraid the answer is likely
to be 'not much'. They were sold in their hundreds of thousands and
have little 'cult' status. They were also heavy, so postage
is expensive. The first issue might sell for up to £5,
but the rest? Unless you have a lot of time to and patience for selling on eBay, try the charity shop - or offer them to Magforum.
However, there are magazines in lofts around the country that
will fetch a few bob. In December 2007, Bloomsbury Books held an auction
in London of underground
magazines, including a
complete run of Oz, which made £3,600 and an almost
complete run of
International Times, for £3,000. So if you've
got those in a suitcase under the bed, it may be worth talking
to an auction house. And there is always a demand for vintage fashion magazines, such as Tatler and Vogue, which are still around, and Town and Nova, which are not.
Also, celebrity fans can drive up the price of any title - someone paid £31 in 2009 for a copy of Tit-Bits featuring Raquel Welch, Honor Blackman and Robert Powell from 1979 – it originally cost 12p!
And certainly there are far more magazines being sold on eBay - the number rose by a third between 2007 and 2010.
This page analyses magazine sales on Ebay through a snapshot
in 2007 and discusses collecting magazines:
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A feel
for the magazine market
One way to get a feel for the magazine market is
through Ebay.co.uk - and it demonstrates big growth in magazine sales online. A search in December 2010 revealed 98,095 live listings and 40,415 completed
listings using the words 'magazine -book'
in the section Books, Comics & Magazines. The completed search in March 2007 revealed 29,425 items. Analysis of the 2007 data suggests the price breakdown in Table
1. So,
86% of all the magazines would fetch less than £10, and
99.66% less than £65.
Table
1.
About
86% of magazines on Ebay sell for less than £10 |
| Price |
Lots
completed |
% |
| £65
or more |
100 |
0.34% |
| 30
to 65 |
1,350 |
4.59% |
| 10
to 30 |
2,600 |
8.84% |
| £1
to £10 |
18,875 |
64.15% |
| £1
or less |
6,500 |
22.09% |
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29,425 |
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Magazine prices
on Ebay Back to top
On the first two pages of 100 lots, prices
ranged from £839.99 down to £65, but about half
of these did not sell, including the two most expensive items
(nine volumes of 1861 - 1863 Temple Bar magazine
and a set of Buses 1971-2005 for £650). Also,
someone tried selling a copy of Nova from 1967 for
the ridiculous price of £150. A complete set of Q to
issue 117 didn't sell at £199.
Among those that did sell, were the following:
- 180 copies of Vogue (1968-93) for £499
(£2.77 each).
- a Christmas 1908 copy of Strand Magazine for £433.
This issue carried the first outing for the Arthur Conan Doyle
story 'The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans'. The seller
described it as 'extremely rare in this condition'.
- bound volume of Gentleman's Magazine from 1752
with 32 colour plates for £415.50. A 1769 volume cost £78.10.
- a collection of the first 10 years of Face (121
copies) sold for £185 + £40 postage with 20 bids
(£1.53 each).
- Three issues of Oz for between £160
and £169.69, headed by an October 1967 issue in excellent
condition which attracted 14 bids.
- 365 copies of Car (1970-2005) for £167.59
(46p each).
- Launch issue of Wallpaper (Sept/Oct
1996) for £155.99 (14 bids); a copy of the July/August
1997 issue sold for £142; a March/April 1997 issue sold
for £73.10. However, two 1998 issues sold for 1p (plus
£3 postage) and several failed to sell at £1.50 plus £1.50
postage.
- Bound volume of 27 copies of Radio Times for £137.67 with 5 bids;
- Lost Magazine issues 1 to 9
with the 'rare variant covers ... never issued in the UK' for £124.99
plus £9.99 on a buy-it-now listing. A copy of issue 2
went for £12.50 .
- A collection of 1,000 car magazines dated between 1980 and
1990 went for £110 on a buy-it-now listing.
- First 100 issues of Classic Rock with cover CDs for £92.
- Christmas 1916 issue of The Bystander with cartoons
by Bruce Bairnsfather (Old Bill) and Wilmot Lunt for £71.
- A lot of about 70 issues of Evo car monthly for £69.90
(the seller wisely withdrew the first issue during the sale
to sell separately - for £21.87).
- 8 copies of 1950s pin-up title Spick for £21.
- BBC Sky at Night (issue 14 with CD-ROM)
for £21.01.
By the end of page 30, the prices were down to £30 (and
again, typically, at least half the lots were unsold). By page
83, the price was under £10, but only about a quarter of
the lots on offer sold; there was page after
page of bulk-selling, pay-it-now items at £15 and £10
not selling.
The same period saw more than 130 pages listing titles for £1
or less - most of which did not sell.
Guardian article on collecting magazines |
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What sells a
magazine? Back to top
The Ebay list gives some excellent clues to what sells. Attractive
elements include:
- the quality of the title - this is where the vintage fashion magazines win out because of their production quality and longevity, plus fashions keep coming back, or being re-interpreted;
- rarity and condition;
- cult status, eg, Oz and Lost;
- first issues (and last);
- historic content, such as the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand by Conan Doyle, or famous illustrations;
- cover subject: people such as Princess Diana, Madonna,
Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe sell old, as well as new,
magazines (see Dick Stolley's mantra for what sells People);
- link to a sport or hobby, be it football or knitting patterns;
- age does not make a magazine valuable, but
it will multiply the value if it already meets some of the
above criteria;
- the seller's reputation.
A sale can be down to luck. For example,
there were 70 completed listings of Oz in the period
covered. The cheapest was £1.95
(issue 40 in good condition, 'although there is a
felt pen marking on cover which has come loose'. Also, Ebay is not a perfect market. A copy of issue 26
didn't sell; another sold a week later for £4.20. Both
in 'reasonable' condition. Two copies of Oz 7 sold - for £169
and £156.
The highest paid for a set of Lost issues 1
to 9 was £124.99
plus £9.99 postage, but four other sets
went for £51-£90. A first issue sold for £19.99
and other copies for £1.60 to £19.99. |
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How do people
collect magazines? Back to top
There are probably as many reasons for people to collect
magazines as there are magazines. However, there are some
common factors that attract collectors:
- first and last issues;
- specific title;
- titles devoted to cars or films;
- writers may collect magazines from an era to help capture
the 'feel' of a period;
- covers with a theme, for example Beatles or Twiggy covers;
- genres, such as pin-up titles;
- historical advertising in magazines;
- specific writers, photographers or illustrators;
- magazines linked to work or academic study, for example
vintage fashion magazines or design titles;
- link to a sport or hobby, be it motoring or cookery;
- illustrators and designers will collect magazines for inspiration;
- magazines featuring a particular celebrity or signed by celebrities;
- TV or film makers looking to reconstruct the look and feel of a period;
- historic events, such as the sinking of the Titanic.
Some people like to collect a complete run of a magazine, which can be an easy way to start! For example:
- Popworld Pulp closed after 2 issues in 2007 and So London had just 3 in the same year;
- women's glossy weekly Riva had just 7 issues in 1988;
- men's monthly Club ran to 21 issues;
- pin-up monthly Span published 266 issues (1954-76).
Then people might buy a one-off title, for example to commemorate
a birthday or rekindle a teen/childhood event - or seek inspiration for a 70s theme party.
One Ebay seller was auctioning a complete set of pop monthly
Rave (February 1964 to September 1971): 'This
collection was purchased monthly for my wife and lovingly stored,
for her to look back on her teenage years.' He added: 'Individual
copies can sell anywhere
between £8-£30+
so the price I am asking is an average cost per issue of £9.50
(copies that have sold recently, are averaging out
at £18 per copy).' |
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Places to buy
and sell magazines Back to top
Please mention Magforum if contact any of these sites - it helps when I'm after a favour such as a cover scan. Websites include:
- 26
Pigs to buy and sell comics, annuals, books and magazines
- ABE
Books sells vintage mags - use 'magazine'
in keyword
- Advertising
Archives Founder Larry Viner
not only runs an image archive but also trades in magazine
collections and provides a free valuation service
- Aviation
magazine dealers : four listed in UK
- The Book
Palace specialises in British
comics and books
- Book
and Magazine Collector :
monthly magazine from Diamond Publishing in London. Many
collectors do not have websites and sell through catalogues,
lists of titles and email
- Black
Cat Bookshop in Leicester for comics/memorabilia
- Car magazines - Old
Classic Car covers motoring titles
- Celebrity magazines from MagazinesCelebrity.com
- Charles Buchan's Football Monthly run by Martin Westby and inspired by 1950s magazine. Has magazine grading guide
- Collecting House has magazine pages
- Collectors
Gazette - one of 3 titles from Warners
Group
- Collecting
Books and Magazines in Australia
- Comic
collectors' fairs
- Crazy
About Magazines run by Jackie Holmes who specialises
in celebrity titles such as Hello! and OK!.
Also stocks Vogue and music titles
- E-Bay auction
site
- Elegantly Papered for vintage fashion magazines
- Everything Collectible sells magazines that have been signed by celebrities, actors, actresses, models and music artists
- I
luv magazines trading website in US
- JR Comics and Collectables for boxes and plastic bags
- Magazine Back Issues is a US site that sells US and international titles
- Magazine
Collector Club US message board and trading post.
Guidance on terms such as 'mint' and 'fair'
- Magazine
indexes by Phil Stephensen-Payne of UK and US titles. The amount of work in this is awesome!
- Soccerbilia for vintage British soccer / football magazines
- The
Magazine Man specialises in motorcycle, tattoo and airbrush titles
- Tilleys vintage
magazines. Easy-to-use site. Shop in Chesterfield near J29
of M1 (phone first)
- Vinmag
Archive dates back to 195 and holds 250,000 copies of magazines, along
with newspapers, films and posters. Warehouse in east
London
- Vintage
Carriage Trust 10,000 railway magazines for sale
- Vintage
Magazine Co Vintage Magazine Shop in Soho and Brighton, London
stocks 250,000 magazines and comics
- Vintage
Motorshop in Batley for car books and magazines
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The condition
of magazines Back to top
A seller who is not familiar with 'official' collectors' terms such as
'mint' and 'fair' should stick to everyday language
and be careful to state, for example, whether:
- pages are missing (very easy to overlook);
- items cut out, such as articles or vouchers;
- any pages are ripped;
- cover becoming/is detached;
- any writing on covers (such as a delivery name or address)
or inside, or marks - rings from cups are common!;
- forms or crosswords filled in;
- creases to cover or inside;
- 'foxing' - brown marks that appear as spots;
- discolouration and yellowing of pages (common on newsprint or poor quality paper, particularly if magazine has been left in sunlight);
- rusting staples
(common in magazines before 1970).
A good, square-on picture really does help. Martin Westby publishes a magazine grading guide on his football website.
Be sure to get your facts right. If you can't prove a statement yourself, give a source for the quote so people can check it out for themselves. Magforum is regularly quoted on the history or background of a magazine on eBay, which is fine as long as you credit the source. |
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Looking after and storing magazines Back to top
There are many factors to consider when storing magazines:
- magazines are heavy, particularly glossy monthlies;
- they vary in size, mostly from A5-ish to tabloid (A3-ish) newspaper supplements;
- vintages magazines of the likes of Nova, Queen, Town and Vogue are bigger than today's glossy monthlies. They don't fit in standard boxes or bags;
- you may be able to get A4 photocopier paper boxes from work, but they are too small for most magazines;
- magazines need to be kept dry - varnished pages that get wet or damp will stick together when they are dried out.
I use:
- book publishers' boxes, which tend to be slightly larger than A4, as are wine boxes and boxes of 12 500m beers. The magazines are stacked flat;
- self-assembly magazine boxes that store magazines vertically - but beware the cheap ones, they can't take the weight;
- storage boxes from JR Comics - but be careful, these are too heavy to lift if full of glossies. I haven't tested the claim that they can stacked 5-high;
- plastic bags with a sealing strip (but don't let the strip catch on the cover wheen you take them in and out);
- a pile of about 25 monthly glossy magazines will fill a box of the size used for a dozen bottles of wine;
- magazines are heavy, particularly glossy monthlies;
- boxes will sag over time and collapse if stacked.
Some tips:
- think about how you're going to organise your collection. I arrange the boxes by date for most titles, but by title for a big run of a particular title;
- I have a list of magazine file that gives details of the 1000s of magazines I hold (publisher, printer, date, price, pagination, what I paid for it, editor, designer, notes on articles, writers, illustrators, etc). It's a Word table of about 4MB. It's in 8pt text and prints out at 142 pages;
- when you stack magazines on top of each other, don't align the spines for more than about 6 copies because the spine is thicker than the opening edge;
- stacking magazines too high can cause the spines to flatten and lose their squareness;
- seal the boxes, otherwise spiders and insects get in;
- beware of mice in garages and lofts - they will eat into boxes and magazines;
- store boxes on a patform off the floor - just in case there's a spillage. Also, damp can seep in from a garage floor;
- Beware if you're moving house; a box of Dazed & Confused will be heavier than anything but LP records.
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It's astounding what people think they
can sell a magazine for. One Ebay seller put up
a first issue of Cosmopolitan that had an undisclosed
reserve on it (bad idea) that turned
out to be something ridiculous like £100. I asked about
this and they said they'd spoken to someone 'high up' at
NatMags who said they were very rare and the office copy
was kept in a glass display case(!). Do I detect the pitter-patter
of someone being led off up the garden path?
This demonstrates the first rule - do an
advanced search on Ebay for sold copies. If this woman above
had done hers, she would have seen a copy of that issue sell the month before
for £8.50. Even a copy in mint condition
would be unlikely to go for 12 times that.
Of course, people have different strategies. If you have
a collection of Honey magazines and you put them
all up at £125, perhaps some of them will sell. But
most will not. And none of them will go very
quickly. But it's your choice. So my advice:
- search on sold copies in advanced search to get an idea
of price; it will also tell you how many bids there were,
hence the level of demand;
- if you can't find one, use a comparable title - Glamour for Cosmo;
Vogue for Elle; FHM for Maxim;
- you may see from the search that the title simply doesn't
sell; if so, offer it to Magforum!, or take it down the charity shop or up into the
loft for a decade;
- if it's not worth much, is there an interview in there
that might sell to a Madonna fan, rather than a magazine
collector? So list in both places;
- remember that some people collect the advertising or just the cover - is there something worthwhile putting up?;
- don't list a collection all in one go; do a few a day
to try and build up interest - with the best ones being
sold last;
- postage costs are a bugbear - often more than the magazine
will go for - so consider selling 2 or 3 copies at a time.
Maximise value by keeping within
postal weight boundaries;
- protecting mags in the post is vital - use old card and
put them in a plastic bag. A padded bag is sometimes not
enough - an ordinary envelope definitely not enough;
- don't be tempted to jack up the postage - the buyer will
get feedback revenge when they see the stamps cost 81p and you charged
£2.50!;
- finally, make sure you have checked all the pages and there's nothing cut out or written anywhere. It
is very easy to miss a page torn out - and you'll end up
having to give the fee back because the postage return
will be more than the mag!
Finally, make sure you do a summary of the content - an article
by a famous writer, images by a popular photographer or a
profile of a star can expand your customer base. |
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Quoting Magforum and eBay Back to top
I'm very happy for eBay sellers to quote from Magforum pages - but you should acknowledge this by giving the Magforum page address and ideally adding a link to the page. All the material on Magforum is copyright - the site has taken the best part of a decade to build up and it's a one-man band, so you can imagine how how much time and effort has gone into it. Income from advertising pays for the site's fees, research costs and buying magazines.
A link to Magforum will benefit your eBay marketing because:
- it shows the buyer there is a collecting base for your magazine;
- there will often be extra pictures and information that help describe your magazine in more detail;
- Magforum is heavily used by magazine collectors - this page is the top Google result for the search 'collecting magazines' - so by using it you show you have done your research and are a serious seller.
Note that you can often jump straight to the magazine in question. For example, if you are selling a copy of Queen:
- Search on 'Queen' at Magforum.com using the Google search box at the bottom of most pages;
- This will return a link to http://www.magforum.com/glossies/queen.htm
- When you click on this, it takes you to the top of one of the women's glossy monthly pages, which includes Queen;
- On the right you see a list of the titles covered by the page;
- Click on Queen in blue text and it will jump you to the entry;
- Copy the address in your web browser address bar to use to create a link: http://www.magforum.com/glossies/queen.htm#que
- It is the #que part that finds Queen within the page;
- If you do not know how to make a live link in eBay just paste in the address to your text and your potential buyers can copy and paste this into their web browser.
One final thing though, don't copy the images because they are not of your actual copy of the magazine and will usually have been cleaned up to show the cover in better detail. Good luck |
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•A copy of
underground
magazine Oz issue 5 from July 1967 - the issue
folded out into a giant poster - sold for £561.30 on Ebay
in May 2007. A February 1967 first issue sold for £560 in September
2007 and another for £360
in 2006.
•In February
2006 - just after Emap had announced the title's closure - a first
issue of Smash Hits sold on Ebay for £30.
The seller, Ruth, said: 'I bought it. Smash Hits was
the best pop magazine of its time. I'm 35 now and I used to buy it
regularly from about the age of 8 to 13. I remember tearing out the
posters to cover my walls and singing along really girlie to the songs.'
Another copy sold just before Christmas for £14.
•A first
issue of Playboy sold
in 2006 on Ebay in the US for $2,050.
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