I have a collection of magazines including MR, RMC and a few others that date back to the 1970’s.
I have kept these for reference and general entertainment reading but with the growth of the interent and, especially, forums like this one, keeping them as reference material isn’t worth while any more.
So what do I do with them? I don’t feel comfortable just throwing them out. I don’t feel comfortable recycling them, either.
I’ve listed some on eBay but they don’t sell well, partly because of the cost of postage (they’re HEAVY in any quantity!). I’ve given some away from time to time and offered to give away more but I’ve had no takers. My LHS doesn’t want them, either for re-sale or hand-outs on operating night.
For the time being, I’m keeping my collections of N Scale and N Scale Railroading magazines, although they may become cannon fodder in the future. For now, they don’t require the shelf space that the MR and RMC requires.
So what do I do with the older issues that I no longer want to keep? I’m planning on keeping issues from 1990 on but may decide to keep them from 1980 on. Depends on whether anyone wants the 1980’s issues!
I’m more or less in the same situation as you are. I started going through the magazines from the oldest to the newest, cutting out articles that I thought might be of interest. The remainders were sent to the recycling bin. Much of the material in the older issues is way out of date in regard to construction materials, techniques, etc. and I haven’t found a whole lot that were worth keeping. Some of the prototype material was good, as it might be useful in the past.
So I’d suggest doing the same - keep what you want and recycle the rest.
Scan them into digital format and recycle the paper.
I am going to do that with all my model train magazines and recycle the paper.
My stepson has about three thousand paperback books he is scanning into digital format by shearing off the binding and scanning into his PC. The software allows JPG, PDF, E book reader formats. The scanner is a Canon ImageFormula DR-2020U
The Canon scanner has auto feeder capability and duplex scan capability. Cut the binding, feed into scanner. Get a cup of coffee. He has a guillotine that is for cutting the binding off of books quite nicely.
The subject has often been covered on this forum (try entering “old magazine” in the search community box to the right) and the general consensus is that old magazines are not worth much. I encourage you to find a recycler that takes magazines rather than just “throwing them out”.
The only downside to cutting and scanning is I lose little in the center of the magazine using the shear and auto document feeder. When I cut in the center, there is still a little curl in the paper which can cause paper jams.
Cost of this method will be an issue for most.
If you remove the pages and scan one at time, you generally keep all the info but that is a slow process but doable for selected articles. A decent flat bed scanner is not expensive. I have a Canon Lide 20 flatbed scanner and my $30.00 HP all in one printer has a good flatbed scanner.
You can also develop your own method for labeling the articles in your PC.
Some scanner software will let you scan as PDF or JPG, picture format. PDF’s are searchable.
Check with local schools and libraries, especially small-town ones. Especially if your set is complete, they’re generally thrilled to get them.
I had a collection of National Geographics; every single issue from Jan '63 to April 1990 (the current issue when I made the donation). They were gratefully accepted by the Bath, Maine school district.
I would second the idea of offering them to your local library or schools or senior center. If they have no interest in them, then you can do what I did a year ago with my collection of MR and RMC dating back to 1978. I started with the oldest issues and with an Xacto knife cut out all articles in which I had even a remote interest. I found that there were not that many articles that I decided to save for future reference. Most of the pages of the issues were ads and many of the articles were very dated. Currently, I have the articles that I removed stored, but need to organize them in a file or on my computer for easy access. I gave some of what was left of the magazines to my young grandson who has an interest in model trains for him to look at the pictures. The rest went to my local recycling facility. I do this on a rolling basis so I’m keeping intact only the last 10 years of issues. When I receive each issue, I go through it and mark all the articles of interest with a 3M sticky label so I can more easily find the articles when it comes time to remove them.
Many of my old magazines came from the Westfield MA library back in the late 1980’s. They were selling off old Model Railroader magazines for about 10 cents each…
Over the years I have seen local libraries in my area sell off old periodicals. They get beat up after a bunch of uses.
I will begin cutting out the pages/articles I want to keep and recycle the rest. What I want to save will gointo 3" ring binders with a flat side on the ring. I don’t really need to keep pages that have old sales ads or that have train shows long gone on the pages I don;t need. I can alway scan on the flatbed later those pages if I want.
They are currently pack in boxes. My other theory is that the longer they are packed away, the more i will forget what is in them and won’t even need to keep them at all. Professional organizers say if you haven’t seen or used the item in 1-2 years ago, you probably don;t need it anyway and can get rid of it.
In my area, some historical societies and clubs sell them at shows to raise money. If there are any in your area doing this, they would probably love them as a donation. You get rid of them, they make money, and some hobbyists get some magazines they want.
Personally, I keep all mine as you never know what might pique your interest years later. With the magazines you can go back and read about. Heck I even go back and enjoy the ads from time to time.
Looks like a great site, Rich. I’ll look into it some more. I bookmarked it for reference.
I don’t want to cut them up to save articles or scan them wholesale. Most, if not all, of that information is available on the internet with a little searching.
I have a pile of issues dating back to the 80s. Been going through them from time to time and setting aside the issues that contain info that I find of value. I like the idea of scanning and am considering it. I hope to give the magazines away and donate the others to a club, if its membership is interested.
Something else we can do to promote the hobby. Each time you go viist the doctor, dentist, barber, driver’s license center, or some office where people have to sit in a waiting room and have magazines to look at…drop off one or two of your old MRR or TRAINS mags that you no longer want but are in good shape. You’d be amazed at how many people will pick those up and look through them, especially the MRRs. [;)]
I am in the process of buying older magazines, as the funds become available. I am currently unemployed so so money is tight. I have list of magazines that is stored on my PC & PDA that I used when at train show, LHS, and bookstores to get the used magazines that I need. Which is being updated as my research into my prototype grows.
Contact your local VFW or the Customer Service office at your nearest military base. They are happy to get old model railroad magazines to send to the troops overseas.
I donated about 275 various model railroad magazines to the Pittsburgh Model Railroad Musuem. First of all they filled any holes in their library or replaced worn issues with mine as they where in pretty good shape. Secondly, they sell them at their annual Christmas open house to raise funds for their organization. I felt much better knowing they where going to a worthy cause as some of them date back to the 70’s. You can’t keep this stuff forever and the information becomes out-dated. They told me the kids at Christmas liked to look at the pictures so maybe they will bring in some new members to the hobby as a result.
There is a local business that accepts used books and magazines then resells them. Perhaps you have something like that in your area. I am an avid recycler so IMHO they shouldn’t go to a landfill.
I once bought something off ebay and when I got it, the seller had packed the item with an old issue of RMC’s worth of wadded up pages. When I realized it, I collected them together and it turned out to be one I didn’t have so I read it. [:D]
I used to pack mine in boxes, too. Eventually, I referred to them so little that the boxes were relegated to a self-strorage unit. The unit was burglarized and the ONLY thing they stole were the magazines (go figure). When I go to train shows I like to thumb through the old MR magazines at various vendor booths and I wonder if I’m seeing my old issues.
Currently, I recycle magazines after reading - except for the Gazette; they are too pretty to get rid of. I had been accumulating them all, but I rarely looked back at them. I think MR and others could offer CDs with all the articles for each year and sell them for a good price. I might collect those.