I have ten plus years of Model Railroader (all in perfect or near perfect condition) - to current date. Any ideas re the value of such a collection?
They are not worth much if they are rather recent, particularly with the issuance of the digital MR library. At Boothbay RR Village we have a large collection spanning more than 40 years, and are selling our duplicate issues for 25 cents each or 6 for $5.00.
There is a guy I see at the local swap meets - He sells old MR magazines for a $1 each - So I suspect he picks them up for less that 50 cents each. I had a collection of MR dating back to 1948 - Got the MR DVD and called several ‘paper’ dealers - They offer about 25-50 cents each for them. Having to load up all of those magazine and drive over 100 miles really was not worth my time. It took 3 trips with my SUV loaded with them to get rid of them at the local recycling - At least they did not charge anything. I talked with one of the dealers a few weeks ago at a swap meet - Since the MR/Trains DVD’s have come out, he has had lots of folks wanting to dump magazines. I myself got rid of all of my MR/Trains magazines(except for the last three years, and only kept selected issues of RMC(had those back to 1966). I freed up 4 tall library shelf units when I did the clean-out.
Jim
If your willing to deliver them to our railroad club, we will take them off your hands. We give them away to visitors when they attend our annual open houses.
There are times when a particular issue will actually have some value. Occasionally you’ll see a posting here from someone who needs information contained in an article from a past issue and who might be willing to offer a couple bucks for a magazine.
I see them at train shows for $5-$10 for a year or $0.50 to $1 per issue. Occasionally for $0.25 an issue.
So not much.
Good luck
Paul
As a whole I think they would be hard to sell, so it would be hard to place a value on them.
Two days ago I bought a few back issues here from MR, and another from a company selling Railroad Model Craftsman back issues, in the $3-4 dollar each range. But, I bought them for specific articles.
New math?
To the OP, donate them to nursing homes, they could always use some fresh reading material. One or two years worth to each home would do.
Steve S
Last spring I dumped 20 years worth of Trains and MR. Rarely read or referred to them so away they went. Just too clumsy to dig through for information. I can honestly say they are not missed. I did save some issues of interest.
I subscribed to the digital MR and after some software updates, became very happy with the format. I Have not bought the DVDs, simply not worth the money to me. Its a great ideal. If they drop the price I will buy them, if not I will do without.
Before the DVDs came out, the magazines had very little value. Now probably none.
My LHS takes them back and re-sells at 25c. All monies collected are donated to the Local Children’s Hospital trainset.
I have the MRR & Trains DVD but I keep the Magazines for Reference.
It was so hard taking the 25 inch Flat Screen out and laying it on the table next to my project as the Paper Version goes just where I need it.
The I-Pad I-Phone I-Tab I-Wish I-Can’t - is too small and doesn’t open up as large as my 25" screen does.
And when I flip the pages of the I-Pad I-Phone I-Tab I-Wish I-Can’t - the screen is blank until I turn it back over again ! 
The one thing I don’t have to do with Paper is recharge it!
It is always ready to go - don’t have to turn it on and if I drop a hammer on it the Pages they are still able to be read!
I still like the Paper Version!
But the DVDs could really have a much better SEARCH Function on them!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
You will not get too much for MR mags, or any magazines in this day and age, I had a complete collection of Fine Woodworking Magazines, from issue #1 forward, not one person was interested, couldn’t sell them so I donated the complete collection with indexs and some hard cover books to the local high school woodworking department, they were thrilled to get them, solved my problem, and they are being used.
[:-^]
If given the choice, I would take them at the 25 cents each, thank you.
Makes cents to me…Lol
Johnboy out…
Sorry>>> Duplicate post
We generally sell old books and magazines at tag sales for $0.25 -$0.50 each. My recommendation? Find a small town library, hospital, nursing home, etc, and make a donation. The public library in Bath ME has a complete set of National Geographic magazines from 1963 to 1988, courtesy of yours truly.
I have purchased old MRs just to get the binders. I might add that when buying older magazines sometimes the issue is not so much the condition as the smell! When I buy older books and magazines at swap meets my wife is quick to object to having them upstairs if they have that unmistakable “basement” odor (or worse yet, basement-and-near-the-litter-box aroma).
I actually have known guys who throw away the prior months MR or Trains the way you’d toss a Time or Newsweek magazine.
Dave Nelson
My old MR and Trains are reference books to me. Once I’m finished reading them if they do not contain information pertaining to what I’m working on they get filed and sorted accordingly. You never know down the road when you might need to go back and pull something from an old article.
If you are getting rid of your old magazines I suggest selling them for what you can or donating them to a club. At the very least you could send them to the paper recycle and wait for them to become new Model Railroader.
This topic has been on before with the similar answers and makes me feel bad because I was out of the hobby for years so I spent good money to fill in missing years from eBay. Of coarse the shipping is a killer for heavy magazines, I only buy full years. People ask ridiculous prices for single issues on eBay with no bids week after week, youd think they would wise up. I think its the old Lionel thing where they think if its train related it must be rare and valuable.
Yes at train shows there 25 cents to a dollar but I found to get what I wanted was real hit and miss. Most train shows are a hour drive one way and entrance + parking is expensive especially our county fair parking.
I’ve seen them on E-bay as well for big prices & they don’t sell. It’s the same for old model railroading & train books. My mother in law’s aunt had a fairly largew collection of books from her late husband that she gave to me to sell on e-bay. I took some time to see what similar books were selling for and decided not to waste my time. I found alot of the same books she had given me with starting prices at .99 cents and no bids. Now I have a bunch of stacks of books in my shop & nowhere to go with them. I give all of my old Model Railroader, WOOD, and Feild magazines Field & Stream magazines to my dad and he takes them to the VA hospital waiting room.
I still refer back to old isues all the time, so I won’t be getting rid of any of old issues My collection: MR back to '65, RMC back to '65 and Mainline Modeler back to '80 (first issue).
A few years back, I donated a stack of a couple years worth to our troops serving overseas. Look and see if there is a National Guard unit or active military base near you, and contact a unit.