The Magazine Collector

Blogs List

2011-03-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

Read Our Blogs

A Collectable-Magazine Acquisition Roadmap

Six steps every collector should take before buying

The Magazine Collector -- Website Review

The "PR Snoop" reviews our new site
(Guest Blog)

Aircraft Never Built Now Take Wing Online

Our latest press release
(230 search engine hits to date!)

The Thrill of Collectable Magazine Auctions

2011-03-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

Buying and selling rare magazines in a room full of collectors – Heaven!

Welcome Auction Houses

In a recent press release, The Magazine Collector posed the question: When it comes to collectable aviation magazines, are you a picker or hoarder? If you want to really appreciate what being a picker is all about, there’s no better arena than the floor of a live, real-time collectable-magazines auction.

In no other environment can a collector examine the goods being offered up for sale. Critical issues of condition are dispelled because the goods are available for viewing and inspection before the bidding starts. That’s something important that is totally lost with most online auctions. Those run by legitimate auction houses that have qualified personnel who clearly and correctly describe the true condition of an item definitely add value to the needs of the serious collector.

The conscientious commitment to collecting things that characterizes pickers manifests itself in an offline auction. The tension inherent in competitive bidding can fill the room with Tesla levels of electricity.

The auction floor is also a forum for meeting other collectors. Discussing magazines with other collectors, exchanging ideas and news – these are benefits that can only happen in a room full of serious collectors. A live auction is picker paradise!

Online auctions just don’t cut it, although they can be fun. The Magazine Collector website’s function as a communal watering hole where collectors can gather online will never compare to a live auction, of course. But this online community does fill a social networking gap in communicating with like-minded collectors.

This website is open to auction houses wishing to promote their events and other collector services. Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. Also, being a retired aviation publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

Read an observer’s review of our site at: (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314204/The-Magazine-Collector-An-Alternative-to-Recycling)

You can help make this site prosper as collector’s portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Buy and sell magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

Magazine Publishers Are Members, Too

2011-03-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

The Magazine Collector online community networks magazine collectors and aviation publishers of both online and print periodicals.

The history of magazine publishing – especially aviation periodicals -- is a topic that members of The Magazine Collector online community consider a priority. Our founder’s background as a retired aviation author and magazine publisher/editor, as well as an acknowledged rare periodicals collector, keeps The Magazine Collector website focused on the publishing side of the membership’s magazine collections.

A savvy magazine collector always looks into the publishing side of the periodicals in his/her holdings. Information about publisher Street & Smith, for example, is integral to any collector holding copies of Air Trails. This and other pulp classics of the pre-WWII “Golden Age of Publishing” were produced by the longest-extant publisher in history (1855 – 1959). How every issue went from raw content to distribution is, in itself, a fascinating story of publishing innovation and survival.

Whether you publish online or in print, our site’s membership is likely your target readership. Our members are aviation buffs first, and are collectors as a hobby or avocation. Your participation in our online community would bring value to you and our networked community of magazine collectors. Our user-friendly sight provides you with a number of resources, such as our open-discussion Forum page, and the Resources page. You can even post your own guest blogs!

Want to pitch your subscription promos or back issues/archives? Use our Buy/Sell page to get the attention of our universe of magazine collectors. Our website is open to the public, and we provide non-members access to many of the web pages.

Read an observer's review of our site at: (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314778/The-Magazine-Collector-Website-Review).

You can help make this site prosper as an publication-lovers’ portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

· Sell collectable magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

Online Community of Pilots and Aircraft Owners

2011-03-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

The Magazine Collector is a social network connecting those who enjoy “Things With Wings.”

Welcome to The Magazine Collector!

You are probably like most other pilots or aircraft owners who “caught the flying bug” because of a magazine. Surprisingly, it sometimes only takes a photo or article about a classic aircraft to get hooked. Maybe it was Jimmy Doolittle’s Gee Bee R-1 racer, the Spirit of St. Louis (Ryan Monoplane), Howard Hughes’ H-1 Racer, “Winnie Mae” (Lockheed Vega), or any one of those “Golden Age” (circa 1919-1939) planes that set off a spark inside you, which eventually ignited your aviation lifestyle.

You eventually bought or built a plane, perhaps then joined a flying club, and even started to put aside some copies of aviation magazines that held your particular interest. Now and then, in a quiet moment, you thumb through those pages…those pictures are a pilot’s soul food. The articles transport your mind to the cockpit of those planes, even if those stories are about aircraft that last flew before you were born. Like those hooked on cars, flying is an avocation that also works when performed from an armchair. That spark inside you is imagination, and that’s one human factor that magazines provide in spades. It’s what initially made us want to learn how to fly, and what keeps refueling our enjoyment of flight.

Classic Aviation Periodicals

The quintessential imagination of flight appeared in the pages of pre-WWII magazines. Air Trails is the de facto standard by which other aviation pulp magazines of that day are measured. That magazine is universally acknowledged as having made aviation a keystone of our country’s culture. If you are skeptical, read one or two of the adventure novels published in Air Trails. The aircraft depicted and their pilots were the real stuff of a pilot’s imagination…they were pure fiction, ergo totally presented as flights of the reader’s imagination. The magazines captured the pure essence of the armchair experience of flight. That fulfillment of a pilot’s imagination is what makes collecting historical magazines so worthwhile to pilots and aircraft owners.

A Portal to “Things With Wings”

The Magazine Collector website is a portal to fulfilling your innate fantasies of flight. Our site supports a community of people like you who love “Things With Wings.” Not only are our members pilots, aircraft owners, homebuilders, aircraft restorers, members of flying clubs, airshow enthusiasts, etc., they are preservers of that spark inside us all that fuels and keeps our imaginations flying high.

Read an observer's review of our website at: (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314778/The-Magazine-Collector-Website-Review).

Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. Also, being a retired aviation publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

You can help make this site prosper as an aviation-lovers’ portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Buy and sell magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

Online Magazine Dealer Marketplace

2011-03-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

Connecting buyers/sellers, and collectors with other collectors of model aviation periodicals and collectable modeling paraphernalia…that’s what The Magazine Collector online community is all about.

Welcome to The Magazine Collector!

Sellers of scarce and rare aviation magazines (as well as books and aviation paraphernalia) are the lifeblood of The Magazine Collector website. As an online community of aviation magazine collectors, this website’s users rely on dealers like you to meet the demands collectors have in growing their holdings. For retailers like you, its targeted audience differentiates this website from others promoting the buying and selling of aviation magazines.

The site is designed to provide not just visibility for magazine purveyors, but to offer web pages like our Buy/Sell, where both buyers and sellers have an open marketplace. Further, both the Forum and Resources pages give you a place to showcase your expertise and know-how to our collector audience. That aviation audience encompasses a wide range of enthusiasts, from pilots and aviation associations, to modelers and museums/libraries. It can be said that if it has to do with “Things With Wings,” our The Magazine Collector community has something to offer. More importantly, we solicit new members through aggressive ongoing marketing campaigns. Frequent press releases and e-mail blasts also contribute to increasing our online traffic through site visibility and awareness.

A No-Fees Marketplace

From a business perspective, using our online presence as part of your marketing/sales strategy is straightforward. There are no fees at all. You post your own promotional content and manage it yourself on the Buy/Sell and Forum pages. Photos and images are allowed. You can link to and from your website, too. You can publish to other pages, including posting your own guest blogs! We even provide a detailed how-to Member User Manual to help you get started.

Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. Also, being a retired aviation publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

Read an observer's review of our site at: (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314778/The-Magazine-Collector-Website-Review).

Spend a few minutes becoming familiar with this site. Except for the members-only Buy/Sell and Forum pages, the entire site is open to the public and searched by Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.

You can help make this site prosper as a collectables marketplace by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Buy and sell magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

# # #

The Magazine Collector -- An Alternative to Recycling

2011-03-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

Glenn Shoup (aka “The PR Snoop”) previews a new online community for historical aviation magazine aficionados. This website preview was originally published on Site Review (http://sitereview.org).

Admin (The Magazine Collector)

______________________

Previewing a website just before it launches is akin to critiquing a restaurant meal or hotel experience on the day before the place opens. That said, The Magazine Collector website shows promise for its targeted aviation magazine collectors’ audience, as well as perhaps for those of us who are not collectors, but do have an interest in aviation.

I fall into the latter category by happenstance. I happen to live in what Los Angelenos call “The Valley.” As such, it’s not unusual for me to be lounging at poolside (my office) and see a P-51 roar overhead. Or a formation of T-6s, a B-25, B-24, Bearcat, Ford Tri-Motor, the Goodyear blimp, pass overhead at low altitude. And the list goes on and on. The oft underrated “Valley” happens to be steeped in aviation history. Wiley Post, Will Rogers, and Amelia Earhart flew out of local airports that are still operational, for example. Therefore, my review of this new aviation website may not be as objective if I were writing it from Missoula, Montana.

The Magazine Collector website, itself, is a communal effort as an online social community. Its web pages show a conscious effort to anticipate a target audience well beyond scarce or rare aviation magazine collectors. The Gallery page, for example, is open for posting photos of most anything with wings, from models (flying or static), to homebuilts, historical photos, etc. The same broad brushstroke holds true for the Resources page, where postings can range from sources such as magazine dealers, to information about aviation museums and libraries.

I personally am focusing on the members-only Buy/Sell page. I have a pile of my father’s old aviation magazines somewhere in the attic. As an alternative to recycling, I’m going to list those on the Buy/Sell page to see if any collector wants to purchase any or all of what I have. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, but my opinion is that using eBay is too complicated and not always very profitable. I figure that placing these possibly-collectable magazines where collectors hang out online should produce better seller outcomes for me. At The Magazine Collector, there are no fees (even membership is free, and there are no hidden “upgrade” fees). No display advertising is allowed, but I’m sure that Google will do the usual thing with this site as one of its blogspots.

I’m anxious to see how the website’s Forum page will evolve. I have been exposed to some of the aviation chat on Yahoo! Groups, and have come away underwhelmed at times, but not always.

A thumbs up to The Magazine Collector’s “open-mic” approach to its blog-page content. Any member can post a blog, and those postings are available to the public. Actually, most all the content is accessible to non-members and the general public, except for the Buy/Sell and Forum pages.

I got a sneak peak at the Member User Manual, and was impressed. With over 40 pages, it walks a new member through every step (replete with screen shots) of how to use the website. This is obviously targeted to online newbies.

In summary, all the elements of a viable social network are in place at The Magazine Collector (http://themagazinecollector.blogspot.com/). Since I am writing about a brand new site just before its first day live, I’ll look forward to seeing more content, as new members – and even non-members – contribute to the information displayed on this site.

As an online social platform, I see a future for this website beyond its meme as “a community for aviation magazine collectors.”

# # #

Press Release -- Aircraft Never Built Now Take Wing Online

2011-03-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

This press release was issued on 11 March 2011.

Admin (The Magazine Collector)

___________________

Golden Age of Aviation concept planes come to life again at

The Magazine Collector, a new online community.

What does it feel like to fly a high-performance fighter plane that never went beyond the concept stage? Those who had that experience did so as armchair aviators in the mid-1920s to the late ‘30s. They were at the controls of futuristic flying machines engaging in dogfights against advanced-design enemy aircraft. All they had to do was read the aviation adventure novels published in 10¢ pulp fiction magazines.

Each issue featured aircraft that were created in the minds of the most talented aviation artists of the day. These sleek concept planes were so futuristic that they could never have been built with the technologies of those days, yet many of them have since been proven flight worthy when built as flying models.

Those same adventurous experiences of flight are alive today on a new website dedicated to preserving those vintage aviation publications. The Magazine Collector (http://themagazinecollector.blogspot.com/) is a social network for an aviation community that focuses on collecting titles such as Bill Barnes Air Adventures and Air Trails that captured the experience of flight in the pre-WWII era.

See a review of the website on Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314204/The-Magazine-Collector-An-Alternative-to-Recycling).

About The Magazine Collector

Members of the site’s community have interests beyond collecting aviation magazines. They may build their own airplanes (or build models) and share their aircraft and flight adventures. The website is a platform for those interested in aviation: librarians, museum curators, magazine sellers, aviation historians, and just about anyone else who wants to contribute, or simply enjoy what’s there. The website is public, membership is free, and non-members are always welcome.

Contact The Magazine Collector

Use online form at:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFVYN25kS1hNVm1Cd3gyRWtRTW5wRkE6MQ

# # #

Like Magazine Collectors, Aircraft Restorers Preserve History

2011-03-10T14:43:00.000-08:00

Restoring a vintage aircraft captures the quintessence of what The Magazine Collector is all about.

Welcome Aircraft Restorers!

If there are magicians of aviation, they are the vintage aircraft restorers. Without these professionals, museums would disappear. Air shows would be boring displays of contemporary mass-produced planes. Young Eagles would be deprived of seeing the grandeur of a real vintage airplane. Ironically, photos in the magazines our collector-members archive and preserve would be as close as anyone would ever come to actually experiencing most vintage planes, were it not for the magic that the restorers perform.

The Magazine Collector website supports aircraft restorers, and would like to be an online showplace where the restoration magicians display their magic. Photos, videos, and text depicting a restoration would reveal the technological, aeronautical, and fabrication expertise that goes into either a static-display or flying machine.

A Portal to “Things With Wings”

The Magazine Collector website is a portal to fulfilling your innate fantasies of flight. Our site supports a community of people like you who love “Things With Wings.” Not only are our members pilots, aircraft owners, fabricators of homebuilts, aircraft restorers, members of flying clubs, air show enthusiasts, etc., they are preservers of that spark inside us all that fuels and keeps our imaginations flying high.

Read an observer’s review of our website at http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314204/The-Magazine-Collector-An-Alternative-to-Recycling

Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. Also, being a retired aviation publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

You can help make this site prosper as an aviation-lovers’ portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Buy and sell magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

Online Community Presents Its Own Static Virtual Air Shows

2011-03-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

The Magazine Collector is a social network connecting those who enjoy “Things With Wings.”

Welcome to The Magazine Collector!

Most pilots or aircraft owners “caught the flying bug” at an air show. Whether an informal local fly-in or a full-blown professional air show, that first up close experience always gets them hooked. Those fortunate enough to experience at an air show replicas of classic planes such as Jimmy Doolittle’s Gee Bee R-1 racer, the Spirit of St. Louis (Ryan Monoplane), Howard Hughes’ H-1 Racer, “Winnie Mae” (Lockheed Vega), or any one of those “Golden Age” (circa 1919-1939) came away from the show with a spark inside that eventually ignited an aviation lifestyle.

While there’s just no substitute for that in-your-face air show experience, aviation magazines have historically been a surrogate. Now and then, in a quiet moment, the same experience is achieved by thumbing through pages with articles that transport the mind right into the cockpit. But it is the air shows that reign supreme when it comes to refueling our enjoyment of flight. In a way, magazines are static virtual air shows, and this website is dedicated to preserving that.

Classic Aviation Periodicals

A Portal to “Things With Wings”

Read an observer’s review of our site at http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314778/The-Magazine-Collector-Website-Review.

Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. Also, being a retired aviation publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

You can help make this site prosper as an aviation-lovers’ portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Buy and sell magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

# # #

Librarians and Museum Curators Are Welcome Here

2011-03-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

Aviation collections attract The Magazine Collector online collector community.

The Magazine Collector services those who are attracted to the archives and holdings of libraries and museums. Our members, as collectors of primarily historical aviation periodicals, rely on museums and libraries. Part of being a collector involves historical research into not only the magazines themselves and their contents, but also finding information about publishing and other related aspects of the historical environment in which these collectables existed.

Librarians and museum curators have a definite place in our online community, as invaluable resources. Not just their knowledge in primary research, but they bring insights as “professional” collectors themselves. In a way, every one of our membership’s collectors is a librarian and curator, too. Each of them is a conservator who preserves documents of the past. Like the acquisition specialists in a museum or library, they find and bring into their holdings what are often very rare or scarce materials that should be archived.

For the most part, collectors’ closely-held holdings have usually been private and inaccessible. However, The Magazine Collector provides an online community where these curators and conservationists can socially network with each other, as well as interact with museum curators and librarians. Thus, making your institution accessible and visible on our website brings an opportunity to communicate with people who share a common interest in you and your institution’s holdings.

Perhaps you want to have a brief write up and link to your aviation periodicals archives. That belongs on The Magazine Collector Resources page. Maybe you can contribute information to our collector membership using our discussion Forum page. There are pages on our website for just about anything you want to do…even post guest blogs!

Read an observer’s review of our site on Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314204/The-Magazine-Collector-An-Alternative-to-Recycling)

Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. A background as the assistant curator of archives at a major metropolitan library brings an appreciation of the relationship between institutions like yours and the collector community. Also, being a retired aviation author, publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

You can help make this site prosper as an archivist’s portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

· Buy collectable magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

# # #

Welcome Aviation Organizations and Associations!

2011-03-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

The Magazine Collector is an online social network connecting those who enjoy “Things With Wings.”

Are Your Members Magazine Collectors, Too?

Some of our members are likely members of your organization as well…that’s inevitable. Your association appeals to its members’ interest in aviation, and The Magazine Collector taps into one manifestation of that – reading and collecting aviation periodicals. Admittedly, there are likely crossovers among our member communities. As communities, aviation organizations and associations like yours have a shared commonality of goals with The Magazine Collector.

To show how closely we both are aligned, your website may offer information on aviation resources (see our Resources page). You may provide a discussion group page (ours is the Forum, only viewable by members). Our associational similarities have mutual aviation commonalities: Serving the needs and expectations of a shared aviation-membership community.

That said, we would welcome your organizaton as a member of our online historical aviation collector community. Please consider using our Resources page, for example, to expose our members to your community’s resources. As another example, by your association joining The Magazine Collector, your executives can post guest blogs as a way to create more awareness of your community on our site.

Read an observer's review of our site on Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314778/The-Magazine-Collector-Website-Review).

Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. Also, being a retired aviation author, publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

You can help make this site prosper as an aviation-lovers’ portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

· Buy and sell magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

# # #

An Online Portal for Aviation Modelers

2011-03-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

The Magazine Collector community supports builders of static and flying models

Welcome to The Magazine Collector!

Being a model aviation enthusiast is almost synonymous with magazine collecting. What model builder – whether of static-display or flying aircraft – doesn’t rely on hobby-related information published in specialty magazines?

Just as the earliest generation of pre-WWII modelers thrived on the plans and latest modeling products in the pages of Model Airplane News, and thrilled to the aerial adventures printed in Air Trails, the popularity of modeling experienced another “Golden Age” after the war. This second renaissance of modeling brought forth publications such as American Aircraft Modeler, Model Airplane News experienced a resurgence, and there were also Flying Models, R/C Modeler, Model Builder, and Scale R/C Modeler. This rebirth of modeling was so strong that American Aircraft Modeler hit a circulation of over 250,000 copies in the mid-1970s!

Today copies of these, and other hobby magazines like Scale Modeler, are (or are becoming) true collectables. It would seem that there’s an untapped market for these periodicals. Supply is perhaps driven by the inevitable hoarding decades ago of these titles in modelers’ attics and garages. Casual observations point to buying/selling/trading mostly happening among modelers at the local club level. For a collector, that’s somewhat limiting, of course.

A Global Online Modeling Marketplace

On the demand side of the collectables equation, The Magazine Collector is providing a global online marketplace (the Buy/Sell page) on which collectors can post their want lists. Such postings enable magazine dealers to respond by providing collectors with hard-to-find copies that are essential to successfully growing a collection. Even if you are not a collector, per se, you might be looking for a specific copy of a magazine, perhaps one that published a set of plans you want. Connecting buyers/sellers, and collectors with other collectors of model aviation periodicals and collectable modeling paraphernalia…that’s what our online community is all about!

Read an observer’s review of our site at http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314204/The-Magazine-Collector-An-Alternative-to-Recycling

Our founder is a trophy-winning modeler, as well as a retired aviation author, publisher, and editor.

You can help make this site prosper as an aviation-lovers’ portal by signing up as a member.

Members and Non-Members Welcome

Membership is FREE, and by joining you get to:

· Buy and sell magazines and aviation paraphernalia on the Buy/Sell page

o Includes a free e-mail blast promoting your offering

· Engage other members on the discussion Forum page

· Post your own guest blogs

· Contribute to the Resources page

· Submit photos and images to the Gallery page

Click here to sign up as a Member.

You don’t necessarily have to become a member of The Magazine Collector community to get access to and use of this website. Non-members can:

· Access all web pages, except members-only Forum and Buy/Sell

· Pose questions on the Q&A page

· Get advance e-mail notification of the latest happenings at The Magazine Collector

Click here to sign up as a Non-Member.

Online Community for Owners/Pilots of Homebuilt Aircraft

2011-03-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

The Magazine Collector is a social network connecting those who enjoy “Things With Wings.”

Welcome to The Magazine Collector!

You eventually built (or bought) a plane, perhaps then joined a flying club, and even started to put aside some copies of aviation magazines that held your particular interest. Now and then, in a quiet moment, you thumb through those pages…those pictures are a pilot’s soul food. The articles transport your mind to the cockpit of those planes, even if those stories are about aircraft that last flew before you were born. Like those hooked on cars, flying is an avocation that also works when performed from an armchair. That spark inside you is imagination, and that’s one human factor that magazines provide in spades. It’s what initially made us want to learn how to fly, and what keeps refueling our enjoyment of flight.

Classic Aviation Periodicals

A Portal to “Things With Wings”

Read an observer’s review of our site on Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50314778/The-Magazine-Collector-Website-Review)

Our founder is an acknowledged rare books and periodicals collector. Also, being a retired aviation publisher and editor also helps keep The Magazine Collector focused.

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A Collectable-Magazine Acquisition Roadmap

2010-12-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

Whether you’re an historical aviation enthusiast, aero-modeler, publishing historian, or a fan of the “Golden Age of Aviation,” pulp fiction, and between-the-wars pre-comic-book super heroes, here are six key steps to successful acquisition of collectable magazines.

I use this acquisition roadmap when acquiring a magazine, based on decisions of whether a potentially colectable magazine is for my personal use, or it’s a potentially rare or scarce holding worthy of inclusion in my collection. You may find some of these guidelines useful in building your collection.

1. Do I want to acquire the subject magazine issue for personal reasons?

Personal reasons might include such subjective issues as:

· I like the cover art. Maybe I want to have the cover framed for display purposes

· The content is relevant to me personally. For example, perhaps I once wrote or published an article about, flew, or built a model of, a plane featured in the magazine

· I want the magazine for research purposes

There are many personal reasons why a collector may want a personal copy of a title, and those reasons should have nothing to do with adding the item to one’s investment-driven collection.

If I am acquiring for personal reasons, I skip to Steps #3 and 3a in the acquisition roadmap.

2. Do I want to acquire the subject item as an addition to my investment collection?

One reason for adding a magazine to a collection can mean simply filling a gap in the chronological sequence of issues already in the collection. Most collectors want to have full sets, with no missing issues. If the subject magazine under evaluation is for a collection, I pay particular attention to the remaining steps.

3. Can I reasonably ascertain the scarcity or rarity of the magazine?

If I am considering the acquisition for a collection, I will research previous auctions, both online and offline. A phone call to one or two of my trusted dealers may be in order, too. I’ll check out the number of times the publication has been offered for sale in the past year, five years, etc. Do the historical records of prior sales indicate anything about rarity or scarcity? This might be all you can gather. My approach will reveal how often a particular magazine issue became available for purchase, which is another way of interpreting scarcity.

3a. If the item doesn’t appear to be scarce (or rare), I’ll consider acquiring it for one or more of my personal reasons in Step #1 above. I’ll still pay attention to condition (Step #4) of course, especially the cover if I’m going to frame it for display purposes. If the condition isn’t just right for my needs, I’ll feel comfortable waiting for a better copy, because I’ve already determined in Step #3 that the subject magazine isn’t really very rare or scarce. Some collectors may find my “wait” strategy a bit risky, because it disregards the availability-for-purchase factor.

4. If my research in Step #3 indicates rarity or scarcity, I next carefully scrutinize the condition of the magazine.

Scrutinizing actual condition can be tricky, especially if the magazine isn’t being offered in a legitimate auction (the auction house’s description fully discloses every condition detail), or by a trusted dealer who will put the condition details in writing.

I’m personally adverse to condition claims that use descriptive terms such as “clean,” “like new,” etc. Only if I know a dealer and have purchased from him before am I usually comfortable with such a generic evaluation of a magazine’s condition.

From my perspective, pulp magazines are fragile and require a more substantive and highly-detailed grading system. If I’m buying an item based mostly on its condition, I don’t hesitate to ask the seller to provide a report based on universally accepted standards of condition. When you see condition descriptions such as “fine,” “very good,” “fair,” etc., these are recognized descriptive terms that explain a magazine’s condition. But even then, such terms have specific sub-grades, which can impact the interpretation of a magazine’s actual condition.

The standard condition grading terminology is fully detailed in The Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide. Don’t let the Comic Book reference in the title mislead you…this guide is used for rating all magazines, especially vintage pulp publications. See also on e-Bay The Guide To Properly Grade a comic book (or magazine).

Both of these rating scales place considerable weight on the condition of the magazine’s cover. However, when properly used, every internal page can – and should – be rated, especially if the acquisition is destined for inclusion in a collection. This level of detail is usually reserved for only those most-rare magazines. Don’t expect a dealer to comply with detailed Overstreet ratings on the commonly-sold magazines, like the ones typically found on e-Bay, where the perfectly acceptable shorthand descriptors like “near mint,” “very good/fine” are (or should be) used.

But, when there’s serious money in the deal, I expect a full-blown condition description. Sometimes the seller has built into the asking price the cost of producing a detailed condition description. If not, the seller may charge extra for the work. I have even been known to share the costs of a detailed condition report, when the price level of the transaction warrants. (See Step #5 “Provenance” for information about the terms “uncirculated” and some variant of “[publisher’s] copy” as these either do -- or don’t - relate to grading condition).

A legitimate auction acquisition or dealer purchase should include a written guarantee of condition. I always want a purchaser-satisfaction guarantee, and/or a statement that the item is returnable for a refund within X days of receipt.

If I’m committed to making a purchase, I’ll contact the seller about how the item will be packed for shipping, who will oversee packing, who is responsible for shipping damages, will the shipment be insured, etc. With pulp magazines, handling requires meticulous attention to the fragility of the goods.

5. Provenance

Provenance for individual magazine copies is almost unheard of, so don’t expect to run into very many offerings that include a description like “Bill Winter’s personal copy.” But they do happen, since there were a number of notable persons involved in the production of “Golden Age of Aviation” magazines, such as the cover artist, editor, publisher, authors, and even some notable subscribers. If you do encounter such a provenance opportunity, find out if it’s real (i.e., “real” means the magazine comes with written validation by a certified authority).

Be prepared to request that your independent authority examine the provenance documents. When it’s time to sell your collectable magazine, you’ll need that written proof of provenance. Solidly documented provenance undoubtedly increases the asking (and, later your selling) price, so make sure you’re actually getting what is being advertised.

Always get every detail in Steps #4 and 5 in writing.

In Step #4, I referenced the terms “uncirculated” and some version of “[publisher’s] copy.” The later term is, as discussed, a descriptor of provenance, and not necessarily a remark about the condition of the item. With the term “uncirculated,” one should look at it as describing something about condition, since an uncirculated copy never left the publisher’s premises.

For example, a typical original source of uncirculated magazines is the number of copies the publisher reserved for back-issue fulfillment (I’ll be writing more on this in an upcoming blog). These copies are warehoused at the publishers, so that they are handy to fill back-issue orders. From my experience in magazine publishing, publishers keep back issues for a year or more, and the number of copies in inventory are carefully calculated. Storage space limitations drive throwing excess inventory out when end of life (when requests for back issues have dropped to nothing), or when newer issues require the shelf space. Thus, uncirculated copies are, in my opinion, very scarce.

As a provenance issue, I am completely befuddled as to how a seller today can validate that a particular issue is really uncirculated. One perception of the use of that term brings forth to a buyer is condition…the magazine is about as close to “mint” as one would ever find in the marketplace. Thus, my perspective is that any magazine copy described as “uncirculated” should require some valid documentation of its provenance, but a buyer’s expectations of such a piece’s condition should be that it’s a spectacular copy.

6. How much investment value will this acquisition add to the overall value of my collection?

This is basically a decision as to cost justification of the purchase. It is especially important if my research indicates that I’m about to pay a price above what others have previously paid for the same item. I always balance the mathematical juggling with a realization that my not buying something when it’s being offered could well cost me a long wait before I every get the chance to purchase it again. This is especially true if the magazine is in what I consider investment-grade condition. Just because a particular magazine issue isn’t particularly scarce doesn’t mean that it becomes available for acquisition very often – “scarcity” and “limited availability” are not always inter-related.

Following this acquisition roadmap can help you avoid regrettable purchases, as well as make you more comfortable in dealing in the collectable magazines marketplace.

The Magazine Collector

Tags: Street & Smith, collectable, aviation, history of aviation, magazines, Golden Age of Aviation, pulp magazines, superheroes, magazine collecting, acquisition