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. The same search in February 2010 returned 62,470 entries - so the market for magazines has doubled in just three years. 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.

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 (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

What sells a magazine?

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

• the quality of the title;
• 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.

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;
• 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.

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

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 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. 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.

Quoting Magforum

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 the page;
• 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.