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Collecting 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 'very little'. They were sold in their hundreds of thousands and have little 'cult' status. They were also heavy, so postage is likely to be expensive. The first issue might sell for up to £5, but the rest? Compost, or the loft - and hope 50 years might make a difference - or donate it to Magforum.

However, there are undoubtedly magazines in lofts around the country that can 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.

This page analyses the sale of magazines on Ebay through a snapshot in March 2007 and discusses collecting magazines:



 

A feel for the magazine market

One way to get a feel for the magazine market is through Ebay.co.uk. A search in March 2007 revealed completed listings for 29,425 items using the words 'magazine -book' in the section Books, Comics & Magazines. An analysis 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%
  29,425  

   

Magazine prices on Ebay

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 from 1968 to 1993 sold 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 the Gentleman's Magazine from 1752 with 32 colour plates for £415.50. A 1769 volume sold for £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 different 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 from 1970 to 2005 sold for £167.59 (46p each).
  • A copy of the 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 the Radio Times sold for £137.67 with 5 bids;
  • Lost Magazine issues 1 to 9, all, said the seller, 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.
  • The first 100 issues of Classic Rock with the 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.
  • a copy of 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



 

What sells a magazine?

The Ebay list gives some excellent clues to what sells. Attractive elements include:

  • the quality of the title;
  • rarity;
  • 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 necessarily make a magazine valuable, but it will multiply the value if it already meets some of the above criteria;
  • the seller's reputation.

However, a sale can sometimes be down to luck. For example, there were 70 completed listings of Oz in the period covered. They ranged in price from £1.95 (issue 40 in good condition, 'although there is a felt pen marking on cover which has come loose'. The listings also show that Ebay is far from a perfect market. One copy of issue 26 didn't sell; another sold a week later for £4.20. Both were in 'reasonable' condition. Two copies of Oz 7 (the cover of which was used as a poster) 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.



 

How do people collect magazines?

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 fashion or design titles;
  • link to a sport or hobby, be it motoring or cookery;
  • illustrators and designers will collect magazine for inspiration;
  • 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;
  • pocket pin-up monthly Span published 266 issues (1954-1976).

Then people might buy a one-off title, for example to commemorate a birthday or rekindle a teen/childhood event.

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).'


 

Places to buy and sell magazines

  • 26 Pigs to buy and sell mags and comics
  • 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 as well as 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 collecting motoring titles
  • Celebrity magazines back issues from UK
  • Charles Buchan's Football Monthly run by Martin Westby and inspired by 1950s magazine. Has magazine grading guide
  • Collectors Gazette - one of 3 collecting titles from Warners Group
  • Collecting Books and Magazines in Australia
  • Comic collectors' fairs
  • Crazy About Magazines run by Jackie Holmes specialises in celebrity titles such as Hello! and OK!. Also stocks Vogue and music titles
  • E-Bay auction site
  • I luv magazines trading website in US
  • 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
  • PopMagzUK for Smash Hits, Record Mirror, etc
  • Radio Times collector has some 450 issues
  • Soccerbilia for vintage British soccer / football magazines
  • The Magazine Man hosts advertising
  • Tilleys vintage magazines. Easy-to-use site. Shop in Chesterfield near J29 of M1 (phone first)
  • Vinmag Archive 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, London stocks 250,000 magazines and comics
  • Vintage Motorshop in Batley for car books and magazines
  • You Must Remember This film magazines and memorabilia




  •  

    The condition of magazines

    A seller who is not familiar with 'official' 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;
    • 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 magazine 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.





     

    Selling on Ebay

    It's astounding what people think they can sell a magazine for. One Ebay seller recently put up a first issue of Cosmopolitan that had an undisclosed reserve on it (bad idea in the first place) that turned out to be something ridiculous like £100. I asked them 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 buff, 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 puttting 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. If you do this, maximise the 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 99p and you charged £4!;
    • finally, make sure you have checked all the pages are there 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 by appealing to fans, even of people you've never heard of.


    Back to top  

    Oz first issue magazine cover
    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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