Car Magazines

[TexRiv_63]

While I have become pretty active with online car forums like this one, I still get a lot of my automotive fix from printed publications. I get at least 7 different retail magazines every month plus four club magazines plus Hemmings. I used to save them all "for future reference" but that quickly became unmanageable. I tried selling some of the older items with very limited success. I now recycle a number of magazines every month but it always bothers me that someone else can't use the information inside. I still have a large quantity of saved items but have decided they need to go. Is there interest out there from anyone? I will give them away free but they would have to be picked up.

[Bill Stoneberg]

I take mine to my Doctors office and refresh the old tattered ones from them. I also have switched to E Magazines.

The pile does not get nearly as high.

[Dave@Moon]

I will give them away free but they would have to be picked up.

If you still have some left over that want to get rid off, might I suggest dropping off small loads of 10 or 12 in the lounge areas of local nursing homes for people to read. The really technical stuff (i.e. Skinned Knuckles) won't be appreciated much, but leisure reading stuff like Collectible Automobile and SIA I'm sure will find more than a few avid readers there.

[rocketraider]

I'm in the same situation. Not really easy to repurpose the car magazines but I do take stuff like Nat Geo, Our State, New Yorker and Mental Floss down to my cousin's B&B for her and her guests, then they either get thrown out or someone takes them home. The archaeology and most of the Civil War history magazines go to a college-aged friend. Then there's always the Share Shed down at the county recycler. Ditch the labels or anything with your name and address and someone will pick them up to read.

[DNC]

I take mine to my Doctors office and refresh the old tattered ones from them. I also have switched to E Magazines.

The pile does not get nearly as high.

E-magazines are the best thing since electricity. I love being able to keep all my magazines where space prevents that with hardcopies and access is so difficult.

[TexRiv_63]

Thanks for the responses, all good ideas for current magazines, although E magazines probably won't happen, I still like to hold something in my hands to read it. My main question was really about disposing of a large quantity of older magazines in larger lots. I'm talking about Cars and Parts, Auto Restorer, Skinned Knuckles, Journey with Olds, Etc. - many hundreds of magazines. Is there anyone interested in taking them off my hands?

[Harold]

I've been trying to sell my collection of magazines for quite a while to free-up some space and get a little lunch money in the process. From my experience, these items are a very tough thing to move.

There are a number of high-volume car magazine sellers on eBay who may be interested in buying in bulk. You can quickly find out who they are by searching for the magazine titles you have and then noting the sellers with a huge number of feedback ratings.

As a side note, I'm perplexed as to why or how they move as many magazines as they do. My pricing is in-line with others and yet I will only occasionally make a sale.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Don, since you are looking for someone to take them with minimal hassle (and nice your taking the time to do this rather than just toss them) here is an idea - are you active in any local car clubs? If so advertise in their flier, bet you get a taker. Our AACA region only meets for specific events, but for years I belonged to a local MARC region - we met monthly at a set location and always had a "free table" anyone bringing magazines were guaranteed not to have to bring them home. Just a thought.

[Scooter Guy]

Half Price Books buys (and sells) "used" magazines. They give you virtually nothing for them, but it would be a way to get them cleared out and end up with a few bucks. They have multiple locations in the DFW area, so finding one that isn't too far from you shouldn't be a major issue. Their flagship store on Northwest Highway is buying magazines constantly and they have a surprisingly good automotive magazine and book selection there.

[Paul Dobbin]

All good suggestions. Here's another.

We take some of ours to the antique car club meetings where there is a table for magazine exchange.

Bring some, take some. It's amazing how many old ones show up and other than the prices in the ads, they're still good reading.

Spread the hobby around with all the suggestions above.

[NTX5467]

Scotter, it's been a while since I've been to the Half-Price Books location on Northwest HIghway (a used-to-be popular and upscale restaurant in the later 1960s!) and we used to follow some of their neighborhood stores as they moved from place to place every so often to find car magazines to fill gaps in our collections . . . or to look for specific ones that had particular articles. That was in the later 1970s, when they were much more regional in where their stores were.

It also might well be that the Northwest Highway location is the ONLY location dealing in magazines, from my experiences. When I would take some magazines to the closest store, the clerks would imply that they didn't want to deal with them. What they offered (for a batch of 24 or so) would not cover the gasoline expense to get to the store (back when gas was way under $1.00/gallon!). After watching them NOT want to deal with purchasing magazines, then telling me why they couldn't offer me more than about 10 cents/each, less if they were "older than one month", it became more hassle for me than it was worth. One time I sent them an email about magazines and they replied that they were trying to get away from them and move more toward "electronic media" to resell . . . as magazines didn't sell very well for them, compared to other merchandise.

I ended up letting all of my car magazine subscriptions lapse (Car and Driver was the last to go), opting to purchase the particular issues I wanted. Just as I ceased to subscribe to newspapers. But I still have a huge archive of car magazines back to 1959 or so. They'll end up somewhere, someday, no matter what. I might donate them to the local public library (or similar). Or perhaps one of the automotive heritage groups . . . freight-paid.

At some point in time, I'll probably scan some of them for the www.wildaboutcarsonline.com website, for their electronic archives of magazine articles and such. There's enough to keep me off of the streets for a good while! But I'll still need to mow the grass and trim the trees, first.

Re-distribution is probably the best option, being careful to take them where they might be appreciated. At least this puts the "throw them out" orientation in someone else's hands! As mentioned, removing or obliverating any address labels is a needed thing to do.

Enjoy!

NTX5467

[Guest myold88]

I just sold a complete set of "Special Interest Autos" (180+ copies) in near perfect condition but it took over a year. . Suprisingly, no one in our local club wanted them even for free, and the shipping out of the State was very high. I sometimes bring 5-10 random titles to our club monthly meetings and they go. I also bring a few to our towns recycling yard where they have a put & take room.

The internet sure has killed printed material.

[John_Maine]

I have the very first Motor Trend I ever bought, the November 1961 new car issue. I sold some of my older magazines from the 60's and 70's in the early 80's but have been collecting them since then. I have them in bags and storage containers in the basement. The only ones I'm keeping now are Hemmings Collector Car, Car Collector and the Buick Bugle. The other ones I get, I save up and every couple of months take them to a friend who reads them and passes them on. There is not much value in old magazines but the advertisements they contain are another story. One of my retirement projects is to go through them, pull out the car ads and try to sell them, either individually or perhaps to a vendor at Hershey. Just haven't gotten to it yet.

[The Continental]

I'd like them, but I'm over in Abilene. If I'm ever that way I'll give you a shout.

[john2dameron]

I'm like you, I prefer magazines I can hold in my hands rather than the "e' stuff. I still have some Speed Age mags from 1948 and Motor Trends from 1949. I would think you would have some young acquaintances that would be very glad to your magazines. You might recruit some future AACA members that way. Years ago I started gathering up magazines such as Look and Saturday Evening Post and removing the car ads from them. When I decided I wanted them, everybody else must have decided they also wanted them. Don't even think about trying to buy magazines at auctions around here.

[TexRiv_63]

Thanks for all your responses, I see this is not a problem unique to me. I think my next step will be to go through everything and identify exactly what I have and what I want to get rid of. At that time I'll post again with the specifics and see if anyone on here is interested. I'm not looking to sell them, I'll give them away to anyone who will come pick them up.

[Aaron65]

I'm in the exact same situation...I give my newer ones to the local hospital, but I have ones from when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s that are taking up a bunch of space in the basement. Good ideas here, but sad to say, no magic bullet! Thanks for bringing up this subject, Don...it looks like there are plenty of us in the same boat!

[John_Maine]

Reading all this, I decided to get the magazines I had around the house into one place and discovered I have enough to fill another plastic tub, so went down to Wally World and bought a couple. I have pulled out some of the older Collectible Automobiles to re-read which is like getting a new magazine - only some of them are 20+ years old. Surprisingly, I remember some of the pictures. I also have a tub filled with sales literature. There are old car mags that vendors have out at Hershey. I've seen them from 3 for $1 to $1 ea to as much as $3 or $4 each - old Motor Trends, Car & Driver, etc. They are kind of fun to read again and if you have a '61 Chevy, it's interesting to read road tests of them. There just isn't much demand for them out there. And count me as one who wants paper - no e-readers or whatever for me.