I have inherited TRAINS and Model Railroader magazines spanning from 1973 to 1989 (most all 12 issues of that year). I am a beginning N-Scale builder and have looked at most of the issues for ideas. What I would like to know is-- do these issues have any monetary value?
Around here they can be had for $.50 to $2.00 an issue, depending on the issue.
I usually see old issues for a buck apiece at Train shows…This is in New England…
Really old (1940’s and prior) issues may go for up to 5 bucks…
That was a pretty good run of Trains under Editor David P. Morgan up until around 1985 or so, and I’ve seen those issues go for as much as $5 each at the various train shows in this area.
Model Railroader was OK until around 1980 or so. I dropped my subscription then because I felt it was more a catalog or collection of advertisements - just pages of lists of prices for brass locomotives and other mass-produced models - than a hobby magazine. The changeover in control technology since then, LED lights, the demise of older manufacturers and the rise of new ones since then, etc., causes me to value those issues at only $1 to $2 each, not more. The 1965 to 1975 issues edited by Linn H. Westcott, and with the layout articles and the equipment and structure drawings, etc. - not parting with those at any price.
- Paul North.
Both Trains and Model Railroader magazines have released digital versions of their entire magazine archives on DVDs, so print versions may not be worth as much as in the past.