I have a bunch of Model Railroader Magazines that I’m looking to part with. I’m interested to see if anyone is interested in them. I have some from '78,'79,'80,'83,'88,'89-'94. I’m just going to through them out after I scan the articles that I like. If anyone is interested in any of these, please contact me via email through this site.
Zak, congratulations on slimming-down your load.
A couple words of advice:
-
shipping is so expensive, it will be hard to find a taker
-
it’s MUCH easier to scan the pages if you first slice them out with a razor blade. You get a much better scan, and the magazine doesn’t fall off the scanner, and you don’t have to try to “mush” it down.
Again, congrats! Welcome to the world of very few bookshelves! Soon you’ll feel like as light as a hummingbird…
I would love them. How much are you asking for them?? Tim
Also getting rid of mine. Really can’t find any takers. I found it easier to cut the articles out that I want. I put them in 3 hole plastic sheets, put them in notebooks according to subject & store them back up in a filing cabinet. Takes too long to scan. May have to resort to scanning if I run out of filing cabinet room.
Guys…if you can’t sell them, please take them to the nearest veterans hospital or somewhere similar. They are appreciated because the occupants are always looking for something new to read.
This is why I was really hoping MR would have put all their back issues on DVD. It would probably be cheaper or at least no more expensive than buying more book shelves and they take up next to no space, unlike book shelves. I think I would pay like $80 for a decades worth.
Ya but as I said before they refuse, thats why I asked if there were any patent attournys out there as I am sure some of the old ones are up, Gazzett says they can’t because they have one shot rights, but MR has endless rights and a very iron clad contract and as far as I can tell always have.
My LHS resells them for 50c and donates all proceeds to the local children’s hospital train set.
Fergie
I just had a hard drive failure on my desktop machine at home. Nothing MR-wise of great significance, although I hope I can recover my original track plan for historical reference.
Once you scan in the articles, dump all the scans out to CD’s. Make 2 copies. Yes, your hard drive will fail, too. It’s not a question of if, it’s just a question of when.
We had an extensive collection of Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, Mainline Modeler, and other magazines going back to the 1950’s at our club and couldn’t find anyone who wanted them. After a lot of deliberation, we decided that there was no use in keeping any magazine that was more than 10 years old because very few of the advertised products are still available, the advertisers have mostly all gone out of business, the technology has changed too much for the articles to be relevant, and we were too short of storage space to keep so many old, flammable magazines.
.
Guys,
Thanks for all the great advise. I really don’t want to part with them but I really don’t read them more than once. Plus I’m trying to model the modern day era and most of these old magazines have out dated stuff that I can’t relate too. The ones from the '70 and '80s used to be my grandfathers and all I can say about the modelers back then that didn’t have all the great supplies and models like today, were really great innovators. Truly magicians for what they had to work with and thus created.
I just couldn’t see myself just up and throwing them into the trash when I know that they might be loved by another. I thought about keeping them for my son but then again he’s only 2 years old. I do like the idea of donating them if it comes down to it.
Thanks for the idea. I may just do this.
After my friends went through them for any issues they were looking for, I took them with our club layout to train shows and handed out the copies free to any interested folks and kids as sort of a primer. It should also be noted that these were 1997 and newer but still some folks enjoyed the idea. At the end of the show, what was left went to anyone in the room that wanted them
Guys,
Back in the 60’s, in MR, one time a suggestion was made for old issues. And with energy proces where they are today perpahs this is still good advice.
To roughly quote: “Spread your old issues with pages open around the house. All the hot air produced will lower the heating bill!”
don’t shoot the messenger , I read this!
Chuck Shaffer, Olean, NY
I’ll tell you one thing. If I was buying a magazine, and when I got it I found out there were pages cut out of it, I would return it. I like magazines complete.
Replying to another post, If you had magazines from the 50’s at a MRR club, why would you consider throwing them out? Who cares if the products advertized aren’t avaiable. They are for REFERENCE use. If I need to find a product review from the 1990’s or whenever, I look in a MRR issue. If I am trying to find out how to model a certain car, and there are no publications on it, I will find exactally what I need in a MRR issue.
Personally, the stupidest thing you could ever do would be to throw out or sell an old MRR magazine.
BUT, I’m not you.
Phil
I agree. I recently “processed” the equivalent of about 25 years of MRR and put the “husks” out for recycling (although the rigamarole our local refuse hauler demands for recycling glossy paper made simply dumping them in the trash rather appealing. . .).
I believe the statement the original poster was making about product unavailability was in reference to magazine ads. Nevertheless, they make a good point. In the mags I cut up ('70s and '80s for the most part), generally the first 50 and last 25 pages had nothing of value and most of this was ads. I reduced a stack of mags from 67 inches of paper to 21 inches of data, as described here:
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/885595/ShowPost.aspx
A reference source only has value if it’s easy to use, and 25 years of individual magazines isn’t.
It may be ill-advised to to throw out useful information, but I would not extend that comment to model RR mags in general. As one astute poster on here said, “You have to decide if your hobby is model railroading or collecting magazines.”
KL
Guys,
I been chugging boxes of old magazines around for the last couple years and maybe only 2 to 4 days a year do I pull them out and revisit them. After reading most of the articles all I do is look at the pictures now.
It’s a hard decision that I’ve been stuggling with. I really would like to keep them but I feel that others would have more need now then I. I really like the idea of donating to some place, if a place will take them. My wife really thinks that they need to go.
I would never sell or give away a magazine with pages missing from them.
That’s too bad. I’ve been hunting like mad for an MR April 1957 issue. I found one at a swap meet but it was in really ratty condition and marked $10. Actually I would have paid the $10 if it would have been in excellent condition.
I often buy boxes of old magazines where ever I can get my hands on them. As others have already stated I can always find some waiting room somewhere that could use a train magazine or two. I use them for projects with the Youth In Model Railroading group or other similar functions. And they always make good give-away foder at the mall shows. Anything that might attract a young person to the hobby…
I like that idea too. My wife works at a dentist office, I could send some with her. I really like the Idea of trying to spread the interest to get others into this hobby.
I take old magazines to the local library and they give them away to whoever wants to take them, just like they do with their own back issues (which includes MR!).
My LHS also sells/gives them away.
Our grocery stores have bulletin boards for posting free ads for stuff.
Then there’s www.craigslist.com
I sometimes take extra copies to the train shows and trade them for other issues.
There’s many things you can do if you look and think about it.