Old Issues of OGR and other mags...any market for them? Catalogs too.

Several months ago, I sold the binders that I had my issues in on the Forum. I gave the magazines away for the cost of shipping which made a forum member very happy. Otherwise the issues would have gone to the landfill. (If you need to ship them, use the 8.5/11 flat rate USPS boxes. - Interestingly I found out that twice during the past 20+ years, OGRR has changed size slightly requiring some spacers added so the contents did not rattle.)

For the most part mags. Have no value. The Richard Kughn issue I would keep.  PW catalogs have some value but don't count on getting rich.

I saved mine too up until a year ago.  Now, between current issues, I grab an old one, read it once again then dump it.  With catalogs I'm keeping the old ones for sure and maybe holding on to one each of the newer ones.  RICH

The western PA model RR museum takes old magazines as donations, and sells them (in bundles, for a few dollars) to raise funds. In Pittsburgh area, I’m guessing you already know of it 

the San Diego 3 railers accept old magazines and catalogs to be given out to children who visit.  their eyes really light up.  especially when they receive the ones with lots of train pictures.

The magazines and catalogs do possess value to some, yours truly included.  The demand is not broad; just a matter of connecting with the right person at the right price. 

Personally would  be interested in all of your K-Line catalogs and maybe some of your MTH catalogs to fill holes in my "library".  

Dr.,

I would called Childrens Hospital in Pittsburgh and ask them, if they would like to have them. If they say yes, I would donate them.

I have stacks of OGR and CTT. Charter subscriber to CTT - as are many of us.

The thing that really bothers me is not selling these things (cheap), or giving them away to someone interested - it's throwing them away that just seems so sad. That has no value at all.

But, I will never look at most of them again. Ever. So, I'm slowly going through my OGR's (CTT is next), reading what I want and scanning what I want to save onto my computer (finally - a home computer actually has some value...), then "tossing" (giving away, I hope) the issue away. (I have kept a small percentage of the really "old" ones.)

I'm sure that I'll regret whatever I do - including keeping them.

I am looking to fill gaps in my own OGR and CTT, but I don't need a complete 25 year collection. If anyone would be interested in selling/giving separate issues please let me know.

I had a large car magazine collection that I went thru and gave my wife the issues I no longer wanted to take to the doctor's office she works at so the guys have something besides Womans Day or People to look at.

I have occasionally paid for a copy of Model Railroader or Trains from the year/month of a friend's birthday to give as a gift.  But in general, it amuses me that people will haul them to meets and expect people to pay for them.  

IMO, best use is to put them on a table at a meet as a freebie, or donate to a senior center or other such organization.

Hi all,

I keep them for a while, then donate them to a local train club, which gives them to children who visit the club during open houses. Who knows, maybe some of the kids will be enticed into model railroading from something they read in a past OGR (or other model railroading) magazine.

Chris

I seen the Mags on e-bay from time to time. They are usually asking two to ten dollars a copy. Of course they can ask anything they like but getting it is another question.

I see them at Train shows as well for the same amount.

My self, I like to pack them into boxes and take them all to the Toy Train museum in Strasberg, Pa. I ask nothing for them but at lest the museum can get a buck or two for them.

As for the catalogs the older ones might sell, but the newer ones not so much for obvious reasons.

Just two months ago i went through all my Lionel, MTH, Kline, Weaver and Williams catalogs, grouped them, and put an ad here offering them for free, just pay the postage. In most cases except for a few that went in plain envelopes, USPS Medium Flat Rate Priority Mail boxes worked great. In two weeks they were all gone. Magazines i've had no experience with except selling the very first copy of CTT for $100 at a train show, I gave the rest away at another show. My next project is to go through OGR which goes back to when it was "O Scale Railroading"  under Myron Biggar and possibly some when it was under Vane Jones and get rid of those.

I accumulated many, many magazines over the years. Most I gave to my younger brother, who is into trains, I do not know what he did with them. However, I kept selective years to remind me of the progress of our hobby. Thus, I have many magazines from only two years, 1947 and 1990. To me, I recognize the past. With reference to catalogs, I keep the Lionel ones and Maerklin (Gauge 1). I have them in binders for each year and in plastic sheets. They are are on book cases. In the binders for those years, I also added photos taken and anything of train interest. An issue is digital: the photographs gradually peter out. Instead, I store later items on a computer. Also, digital videos have superseded photos. What I have, therefore, is sorted by era and what technology is available. Every now and then, I pull a binder to stroll down memory lane or watch a video I made.

I gave my old issues to a forum member years ago.

Here's another idea to consider... I too have many magazines and when I went though them, I found articles and photos I did want to keep. So I ran a razor blade along the inside edge and sliced out the pages I wanted. Any cuts that weren't perfect, I then used a ruler and razor to make the cut clean, nice and straight.

Then then I took a bunch of those slide type plastic binders (the type used for like reports or research papers, found at Staples, etc.) and categorized the articles. 

One binder for product reviews I wanted to keep. Another binder for repair articles. Another with scratch building/kitbashing projects. Another binder for layout articles, another for interviews and company history stories. So now several shelves full of magazines is cut down substantially while I still have articles I value and may find future use or reference for.

I spread the joy around and leave them in my local barber shop and my dentist and doctors office.

Steamer posted:

I am looking to fill gaps in my own OGR and CTT, but I don't need a complete 25 year collection. If anyone would be interested in selling/giving separate issues please let me know.

I had a large car magazine collection that I went thru and gave my wife the issues I no longer wanted to take to the doctor's office she works at so the guys have something besides Womans Day or People to look at.

I have nearly all OTT from the begining up to about 2007.  What do you need, and what awould you pay for them.

I don't know how to send a reply to the poster as opposed to the group.  My email is mlaughlinnyc@yahoo.com.

Malcolm Laughlin

Steamer posted:

I am looking to fill gaps in my own OGR and CTT, but I don't need a complete 25 year collection. If anyone would be interested in selling/giving separate issues please let me know.

I had a large car magazine collection that I went thru and gave my wife the issues I no longer wanted to take to the doctor's office she works at so the guys have something besides Womans Day or People to look at.

mlaughlinnyc posted:

Steamer posted:

I am looking to fill gaps in my own OGR and CTT, but I don't need a complete 25 year collection. If anyone would be interested in selling/giving separate issues please let me know.

I had a large car magazine collection that I went thru and gave my wife the issues I no longer wanted to take to the doctor's office she works at so the guys have something besides Womans Day or People to look at.

I have nearly all OTT from the begining up to about 2007.  What do you need, and what awould you pay for them.

I don't know how to send a reply to the poster as opposed to the group.  My email is mlaughlinnyc@yahoo.com.

Malcolm Laughlin

 

 

Steamer posted:

I am looking to fill gaps in my own OGR and CTT, but I don't need a complete 25 year collection. If anyone would be interested in selling/giving separate issues please let me know.

I had a large car magazine collection that I went thru and gave my wife the issues I no longer wanted to take to the doctor's office she works at so the guys have something besides Womans Day or People to look at.

 I meant CTT, not OTT.

ML

With the back issues now on CD or DVD, I don't keep any old ones anymore, they go into recycling.

Members will give you all the magazines you want just pay the shipping.

The first issue is a classic - Ed Boyle still had hair.   

I agree with the posters who suggest giving them to clubs to give out at open houses.  As a teenager I had lost interest in my Lionel layout when a music teacher gave me some 2 to 4-year-old Model Railroader issues that kick-started my lifelong interest in model trains.

Value? Funny. And sad. 

Gerry

I'm one of the sick ones.  I had just about all of the CTT copies, and actually paid money to eBay sellers and Kalmbach itself to fill in the holes.  I have every copy.  Have all of the OGR PDFs that are in the digital library.  I have every Lionel catalog since 1931; most mint from about 1947 on.

Yes - I do occasionally dig one out to re-read it.  I'm a software guy (i.e., love technology) but still prefer to turn pages.

I see them for sale on eBay at times for ridiculous amounts of money. I have plastic storage bins full of decades of magazines. I was thinking of cutting out the articles I like and scanning them and storing them digitally on my computer. That’s a lot of work too. I wish OGR would offer pdf downloads to subscribers going back to the mid 1990’s.

This discuaaion has been very useful.  Now I know what I'm going to do with my 27 years of CTT.  I will announce on several forums that they are available for the cost of shipping.  What isn't taken in a few weeks gets recycled.

Weight is a problem.  A test weighing indicates that shipping cost is at least $1.50 each for six or so, and it takes at least a dozen to get cost down to $1.00 each.to $1.50 each with a minimum or

A very interesting and timely topic. Let me tell you of my experience. Recently while I was watching "Garage Rehab" I had an epiphany. Garage rehab BTW is a TV show on Discovery where Richard Rawlings buys into struggling repair garages and turns them around. The first thing he does is throw out everything the garage owner has. Everything to the bare walls. Well, my epiphany was "why am I keeping all these magazines?". I'm talking 30 years of Model Railroader, 25+ years of OGR, 20 years of Fine Scale modeler, 25+ years of CTT, catalogs etc. You get the idea.  This stuff was so overwhelming, This stuff takes up so much space, I couldn't function. I decided right there and then to get rid of all of it.

Since I had the 25 year DVD of CTT, that was the first to go completely without a thought. Then I decided to look through all the remaining magazines and  where I found a useful article, structure plans, equipment scale drawings, track plans and the like, cut those out of the magazine and pitched the rest.

Lets face it, 80-90% of any given magazine is advertisement. Not something you really need to keep. Just think of it. Of the storage racks of "paper" that I had accumulated, 80-90% was worthless. That thought made the decision to cut ties, emotional, sentimental, or whatever, with this stuff, easier to live with.

in the end, I have a single box with the articles, how to's, etc that I really find useful. Now the task remaining is to organize my saved articles into categories, Structure, scenery, Equipment, how to's etc. into binders for easy reference.

Just one more thought, I haven't subscribed to MR in years, but having access their online digital archive makes it tempting. (to OGR Hint, hint). My remaining subscriptions just might all be digital as well.

Earlier this year I was doing a remodel on my garage so I could keep my 46 Ford and 66 Mustang in a nice well lit area. I needed to unload my collection of magazines I had kept since 1986 to present. This included all the model train, real train, collector car, hot rod and scale plastic model magazines. I offered all of them to anyone willing to just pay shipping. NO ONE wanted them unless I delivered them or paid shipping. Two F-150 pick-up beds filled with magazines to the recycle center and I have room in my garage. I did keep some....but 90% went to magazine heaven. Good luck 

I've been reading this thread with interest since I'm one of those who's been saving catalogs:  Lionel and MTH predominantly.   I've amassed several feet of paper which is taking up valuable train hardware space.  At one time I thought they might be worth something even just a modest bulk one time disbursement.  But apparently that's not the case.  As an alternative I contemplated lugging them to York and giving them to one of those nice vendors selling the same but father time now prohibits such lugging.  I have a few older ones from the 1950's which I'll keep but it looks like the rest is headed to recycling.

Sad but true shipping costs alone have killed large purchases of magazines, the days of many people looking for back issues are gone web based is the way to go. JMO

A quick look at Ebay shows a range of $5 to $12 for 50's Lionel catalogs, with a slight bias to the earlier years.  With patience you should be able to get $10 each on a buy-it-now.  Forget about selling Lionel 60's and later - I haven't been able to get the cost of postage for them

"Recently while I was watching "Garage Rehab" I had an epiphany. Garage rehab BTW is a TV show on Discovery where Richard Rawlings buys into struggling repair garages and turns them around. The first thing he does is throw out everything the garage owner has."

Yeah - and sometimes his guy probably junks a little too much of it. Richard is indeed entertaining (and smart), though - but he needs just one more tattoo and just one more piece of jewelry...

"Lets face it, 80-90% of any given magazine is advertisement. Not something you really need to keep."

In fact, the ads are often the most interesting part of an old publication, and can have reference info for "collecting" (i.e. - Williams brass on eBay, for example).

Now, the articles can be interesting, also - particularly the "how to modify an ABC-brand 2-8-2" sort - but how many articles do you need on ballasting track or making trees? One of each is usually enough, and buying a book on it rather than keeping 12 magazines with essentially the same info makes more sense to me.

As I said above, I am scanning a few articles here and there - but I really hate to lose the old ads. I scan one occasionally.

I find it hard to give away back issues of model railroad magazines even at train shows.  I have too many.  They are going to end up in recycling.

NH Joe

Boy does this "hit home" with me!  I have been cleaning out my garage for "weeks" now.  My garage has/had car magazines that go back to the 1970's.  Motor Trend, Car Life, Car and Driver, Road and track, Hot Rod, Classic Cars, European Cars, etc, etc, etc......All the magazines are/were kept in like new condition....... I contacted Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed American Veterans, Several car museums, friends and neighbors.......I wanted to give the boxes of magazines away.....no charge just pick them up......No interest whatsoever!  I had probably 30 boxes, maybe more (liqueur type boxes)......and no, I did not drink the liqueur!   Some were also early train magazines, and am now down to about 20 boxes!.....all getting recycled.  Don't even ask if I have such and such issue from such and such year.  I won't look!

I received much advice about selling them on ebay or craigs list or whatever.....I don't want another job!  When all these magazines are gone, I will throw out the previous years worth of magazines......which now reside under my train table.  Magazines are like fish or company..... after a few days of hanging around, they smell bad!.   

AMF posted:

Magazines are like fish or company..... after a few days of hanging around, they smell bad!.   

Actually, I really like reading and re-reading old magazines.  I especially like articles about famous model railroads - Delta Lines, V&O, Sunset Valley, G&D, Allegheny Midland, A&O, etc.  I even find that the ads are informative and interesting.  That is the reason that I have so many and that they will end up in recycling.  

NH Joe

It does not look like there will ever be REPRINTS. 

Once the paper versions are gone there will only be digitally stored copies. 

Andrew

Railroads change frequently. The railroads of 1977 are not the same as they are today.

Magazines from 20 to 40 years ago will show how much has been overhauled on railroads.

If the magazine publisher does not have the photos and articles archived for future printing, then the information will be lost.

Andrew

I keep the few copies that have something I have written in them (e.g. CTT 15th and 30th anniversary issues).

Otherwise the mags go to the kid's club at the TCA meets for free.

I keep digital copies now.

It's amazing how 30 years ago we were so information starved that we waited impatiently for the mailman to deliver the next issue!

Lou N