I have to make space, so I need to get rid of most of my old Trains magazine issues, going back maybe 20 years.
Any suggestions? I will be happy to send issues to anyone who covers the postage or shipping. If it matters, I live in northern CA.
Approx. what years are they? 2000 to 2020? Or something different?
I had the same problem a few years back… contacted local model railroad clubs. Not only did they not want them, they actually gave me attitude over it. Like who was I to foist magazines on them? I naively thought young members might like them. SIlly me. I ran an ad in Craigs List. Two months later, someone from a nearby city contacted me to ask if I still had them. I did, and gave them to him.
I would occasionally take an issue with me to a doctor office, and leave it there. MAybe spark interest in someone new. I live in an old folks home, and I am sure if you dropped off a few, someone there would enjoy them. I doubt they want 20 years worth though.
I once had 30 years worth of 5 RR-MR mags-bound. The local NPR station was having an auction. I donated (dropped them and ran) and they sold immediately. Now, to avoid a build up, everytime I go to the doctor (at my age that is often) I drop off the pile from the previous month.
Interesting idea - and I volunteer a lot at our local PBS station.
If there’s a problem with that, it’s that I need to sort them out - and there’s every bit of 40 years worth of both MR and Trains upstairs in the “stacks.”
I drop my old issues, and by that I mean two, maybe three months old, of “Trains,” “Classic Trains,” “Classic Toy Trains,” and “Railpace” off at my gym’s magazine table. They usually disappear within 24 to 48 hours. Maybe I’m doing the hobby some good?
Anything older that are keepers usually take up residence in the bathrooms. Hey, otherwise it’s wasted time, right?
Fahrenheit 451.
I inherited a giant stack of Model Railroader. But I don’t model. I contacted a model RR club, and they were thrilled to get them. Obviously, YMMV.
Some clubs will gladly take them. The one I’m with is relatively new, and we took them so we could build up a library for reference.
Some day I’ll need to address this. I have many years’ worth of several mags, some going back to the 50s. From what I’ve seen on Craig’s List and Ebay, they’re not worth much in the open market. It’s not about making money on them anyway, I just don’t want to see them going to waste if someone else wants them. But just like in my house, they’ll take up space in someone else’s. Certainly no doctor’s office I frequent will take them.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and the local PBS/NPR station will make money on them.
I had fifty years of Trains, Model Railroader, RMC, and Railfan/Railroad. Donated them all to the Great Overland Station in Topeka, Kansas. The Great Overland Station is a restored Union Pacific depot that is simply beautiful.
I leave old train and model train magazines for people visiting my doctor, dentist, optometrist, barber, car repair shop, community center, etc. They’re always gone by my next visit. Ones under 10 years old (they aren’t supposed to take older in case of mold) go to my school teacher and Boy Scout leader friends, to pass on to the kids. When I can I insert membership flyers into the organization ones.
Some model train clubs welcome previously owned magazines to put out during their shows or open houses. Visitors, especially kids, appreciate it.
A group I’m in has a table in a model train flea market twice a year. Putting a “FREE MAGAZINES” sign on top of a pile of magazines has made more than a box of them disappear. (Be careful, though, putting that pile right beside something for sale.)
Some people have built mini book lending libraries on posts beside their sidewalks or in parks. Gotta build one myself. Some of those can handle magazines too.
Don’t forget your neighbours, friends and relatives, especially nephews and nieces.
It wouldn’t hurt to pass the ideas in this topic on to friends and clubs.
[quote user=“PhilBurton”]
I have to make space, so I need to get rid of most of my old Trains magazine issues, going back maybe 20 years.
Any suggestions? I will be happy to send issues to anyone who covers the postage or shipping. If it matters, I live in northern CA.
When Kalmbach offered the CD back in 2010 that had all the issues back to the beginning yearI got rid of my issuesgoing back to 1956 (I was 16 when I statrted subscribing. I donated them to a local non-profit group in my town that maintains a static locomotive,caboose,and interlocking towerdisplay in a city park. The groupisalways looking for money and holds two “swap meets” and “raikfairs” each year. They took the magazines If they can sell them for a quarter a piece at a rail fair it’s something…and someone else gets to store them.
Hello! I collect back issues of Trains, and I would be very interested. I live in Columbus, OH. How much do you think that postage would be?
For Christmas one year, my uncle gave me several year’s worth of MT & T magazines from the early 70s. He was a teacher, and I suspect the school library was thinning the herd.
Check with your local library. They may take a donation in good condition. Otherwise, they or a “friends of the library” group may use them in a book sale to raise money.
Friendly reminder to keep buying and selling off the forums:
- No buying and selling via the Forums. Our forums should not be used as an advertising medium for companies who want to promote their business or products, or by individuals who want to promote their items for sale or their eBay auctions. However, links to share fundraisers for incorporated nonprofits in railroad preservation are allowed.
Thank you for interjecting a aspect to the thread that was never mentioned in thread. [/sarcasm]
Fascinating how some folks don’t even seem to read the actual thread, but feel they have to put up a boilerplate alert notification. See jerseyguy’s direct quote that his inquiry isn’t about making money from a sale.
I’m sure there are plenty of situations where the prohibition on ‘selling on the Forums’ can be invoked with validity, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that moderators have quite a job ‘behind the scenes’ finding and removing various kinds of opportunistic ‘posts’ selling various things or comprising some sort of e-mail-blast marketing. The point here is that, as far as I saw (and, in fact, can see on re-reading the thread) there is no indication whatsoever of advice to sell, aside from a request for the cost of postage and mailing. It is hard to construe this as the kind of ‘selling’ that the Kalmbach TOS intends to prohibit here.
HI Phil . . How about donating your magazines to the El Dorado Western Railroad. Better yet, how about becoming as a volunteer and ride the rails with us? Your magazines will be used in our El Dorado museum to share with other railfans.
Go through each issue, cut out a feature that may be worth saving and put those in a binder or folder.