Collecting Magazines as a Hobby or as a Business - adjusting expectations

It has been interesting to witness an increase in the number of magazines being offered for sale on eBay and the asking prices placed on some of them. I have been monitoring it for a couple of weeks (during Feb 2011) and storing some 'real world' valuations (from completed auctions where the item actually sold) which I will use in the future to plot and compare trends. The overriding feeling I get is that a lot of people are hoping the collection stored in their loft might actually be worth quite a lot of money today, and I feel it might be worth dampening expectations just a touch.

With our economy so spectacularly on its knees (no, don't get me started on that) it's no surprise that people are hoping to uncover a goldmine at the end of their loft steps. It some cases they may find some 'gems', in magazine terms, that even now will earn them some useful extra holiday money, but for the most part it's very much a buyer's market, since magazine collecting is not as yet a mainstream hobby. Later, as magazines become e-Reader-only digital editions when the folly of chopping down trees and the expense of running tons of paper up and down motorways sees the traditional format consigned to the history books... sorry, to an entry on Wikipedia - then I think it will become a collectible in the same way a great artist's work often only becomes 'great' after their death.

If you start out collecting magazines as a hobby, you really can't go wrong. Your investment is made out of the interest you have in the magazines and the pleasure you get from them. If, one day, they actually become in any way valuable, you'll be the envy of family and friends and perhaps your children will benefit from it if they later decide to 'cash in the family's riches'. Building a collection at this point in time is not an expensive thing to do, and there are plenty of sellers out there!

If, on the other hand, you are buying magazines specifically in order to make money, it is best to take a longer term view than to expect quick gains. The only genre of magazine that is currently sure to earn you better than pocket money, if you are lucky enough to have a collection, is the men's/adult genre. There are probably not too many like me who collect magazines irrespective of genre. Most will collect because they have a hobby associated with a particular title or genre of mags. Adult, hobby? Well, you know what I mean. Even then, prices at auction are generally not high and I would doubt dealers are currently selling many advertised at £15-£20, even if they are probably in better condition than those offered privately. But I may be wrong - the adult genre is not a market I am in, apart from a few acquired first issue titles.

Apart from the men's magazines - notably the 'superior' titles such as Playboy, Penthouse and Mayfair (I term these 'superior' for their paper weight, print/photograpic quality and the editorial quality of their writers) plus the 'vintage' pre-1960s magazines that are just so wonderfully coy - there is no other single genre of magazine guaranteed to sell at auction, although true vintage issues of any type in good condition, older cinema/movie magazines, first editions in general and the more quirky publications do sell. The more well known fashion magazines - Vogue and the like - also seem to sell.

So it is all about curbing expectation if you are tempted to buy lots of magazines in the hope of making a quick killing. It's unlikely to happen... unless you find a first edition of Playboy in there. But take it on as a hobby, perhaps with one eye on it as a longer term possible investment, and then I'd certainly recommend taking a look at what buyers on eBay, eBid and similar auction sites have to offer. [Kevin O'Byrne - Editor, MagazineCollector.co.uk - March 2011]

MAD First UK Edition sells for £37.89

A First UK issue of MAD Magazine from 1959 sold on eBay.co.uk for £37.89 on 29th Dec 2009. The auction attracted 10 bids for a copy advertised as carrying some spine wear and a fold across the centre of the front cover, where the magazine had at some point been folded.

But the better buy was probably the run of the first 11 UK issues (1959-1961) of MAD, which went at auction on eBay for a total of £42.59 (£35.59 plus delivery) some three weeks later (18 Jan 2010), attracting 12 bidders.

All issues were claimed to be in remarkably good condition for their age, with all the bindings perfect and a couple of copies said to be near MINT. [News from Jan 2010]