Magazines & Grading

[Touch'EmAll]

Am interested in collecting magazines with possible intention to grade via CGC. Acquiring magazines such as Sports Illustrated, SPORT magazine, Baseball Digest, Ring Boxing, etc. might be quite fun.

Certain covers have really nice and colorful pictures of greats - Nolan Ryan, Ali, Aaron, Mays, Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Magic, Jabbar, Bird, Nicklaus and the like. They can be just as nice or better to look at and display than cards.

Does anyone here collect magazines? Condition - worth grading if just middle of the road condition? First appearance of an athlete more desireable? Label showing vs. removed vs, no label Newsstand? Price appreciation? Advice welcome.

Thanks, Steve

[hcv123]

I have been collecting magazines (not just sports) for years. They are still largely under/unappreciated by the market. Unless the magazine is really rare or potentially valuable, probably not worth grading mid-grade examples.

First appearance of an athlete as well as big name athletes on the cover of more obscure magazines (Jackie Robinson on the cover of "Our World" or "Color" magazine) command higher prices.

Label showing vs removed - more desirable (unless it was done so carefully that there was no damage as a result)

No label (newsstand only) - most desirable (especially with SI)

Many of the magazines did not survive in the condition and quantity that cards have. While for now the collector base is small compared to cards, it wouldn't take much of an increase in demand to create upwards price pressure - especially for the 'key" magazines in top condition. There are already a handfull of collectors who have been actively snapping them up for a while now. There are some real challenging mags to find.

[wazir of wham]

Hey Steve,

I have been collecting Magazines with Baseball covers for over 30 years now and find the pursuit of new additions to the collection Great Fun and very Challenging!!

I mainly collect Life, Look, Saturday Evening Post, Ebony, Color, Colliers Etc. There are some really nice covers but condition can be a challenge! I currently have over 400 magazines all with related baseball covers and only a handful are without mailing labels, and what I would consider Excellent+ condition.

As far as getting some graded if they are in at least Excellent condition with no mailing label then it might be worth getting a couple of the rarer issues graded. I agree that Magazine collecting is kinda a under appreciated part of our hobby, but I believe that an April 23, 1949 issue of Saturday Evening Post magazine with the Rain Delay cover by Norman Rockwell (Photo attached) is just a rare if not more that many vintage baseball cards!!

Anyway just my 2 cents!! Attached is a photo of one of my Favorites!!

Rich

[JLange]

I love Baseball Magazines, or rather magazines with baseball subjects. They are really undervalued in my opinion. Some of these have really amazing photos / covers and can be quite hard to find in presentable condition. I do think that size and condition both play a role in their collectability. When a really nice item comes to market though there are usually multiple bidders. Part of the fun for me is finding magazines I never knew existed, or seeing cover subjects I had not seen before - something that still happens with some regularity. Here are a few of my favorites!

[Touch'EmAll]

Thanks for replies.

As a kid in the late 70's I had a subscription to Baseball Digest. I always couldn't wait for the next issue to arrive. It had nice articles, very informative, good pictures, nice looking covers, fit into my kid budget. I might try for a few of those - see how it goes - take me back to my kid years.

Cruising ebay, the Sports Illustrated Newstand (no label) are expensive and mostly already graded by CGC - of course SI has to be near the top of magazine sport collectibles, seems already very picked over and collected. But the Baseball Digest aren't so much in collector demand, er so it seems - still able to find nice raw newsstand copies.

Steve

[Jcfowler6]

The image and content of the cover matter most to me. Then significance to sports or the hobby also matters.











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[mrreality68]

Alot of History There

and amazing Covers

Keep Them Coming

[jbsports33]

I have sold and bought a lot of magazines over the years with a few collectors taking about grading them. Rare items do very well, just like comics - so I am thinking grade what you like, just make sure it will be a decent investment grading it! Good luck! - I collect a lot of boxing and baseball paper including magazines, catalogs and programs.

Jimmy

[ocjack]

Always hoped I would run into Pia and get her to complete the signatures on this magazine. And of course, Barry got too expensive.

[sicollector1954]

So took my magazine to the National this year and found out it CAN"T be graded. It is the first issue of Sports Illustrated and once many years ago had Eddie Mathews sign it. He had said he had never seen another one like it. It has a "hard" cover denim cover and has the letters SI sprinkled all over it. I have been told it might have been issued in 1964 to the first 500 subscribers but can not confirm this information. The "hard cover has protected it all of these years and everything inside is MINT. The company that does the encapsulating had no answer in regards to grading it which was disappointing to say the least. Curious if anyone else has one of these? I have seen 3 total in the last 30 years.

[mr2686]

Originally Posted by sicollector1954

So took my magazine to the National this year and found out it CAN"T be graded. It is the first issue of Sports Illustrated and once many years ago had Eddie Mathews sign it. He had said he had never seen another one like it. It has a "hard" cover denim cover and has the letters SI sprinkled all over it. I have been told it might have been issued in 1964 to the first 500 subscribers but can not confirm this information. The "hard cover has protected it all of these years and everything inside is MINT. The company that does the encapsulating had no answer in regards to grading it which was disappointing to say the least. Curious if anyone else has one of these? I have seen 3 total in the last 30 years.

I don't have one but have seen them. In 54 they had the leather bound one and then yours which is called a hard bound. From what I can tell, they were both released in 54, and why the grader would not have heard of it is strange to me.

[pherbener]

I've recently started picking up older magazines. Especially Baseball Magazine. As a Matty fan, this one is my favorite. Got the supplement too!

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by pherbener

I've recently started picking up older magazines. Especially Baseball Magazine. As a Matty fan, this one is my favorite. Got the supplement too!

Very nice looking one.

I never thought about collecting them but I have several baseball magazines from the 50’s and need to find them and take a look

[BeanTown]

Completely under valued and just a matter of time before they get hot as they are trending that way. Because they are larger and fragile (normally) has made collectors shy away. I think if there was a grading company who made a thin or custom holder for each brand they would take off in value. I know I would send me entire collection to get a grade and to make sure they are protected for years to come. Hopefully the slabs would use a Mylar sleeve first.

Anyway, here are some of mine over the years I’ve managed to pick off from various auctions and eBay. I am thinking about doing sheet music but I like too much stuff as it is.

[999Tony]

I just got on here today to ask about magazines and this thread was already here! Thinking about buying some 1930s baseball magazines. Looked at some older ones on eBay but were in four digit price range. Are there affordable ones pre 30s? ($50 or so or less?) Battered and not graded is preferable to me. I just got some of the cutout pinups from 30s magazines which got me thinking about getting the entire magazine. I’m in kc so not much chance of finding them around here afaik

[DeanH3]

My only graded Magazine. I have a bunch of SI's that I need to get around to loading pics. There are a lot of really cool covers out there.

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Does anyone here collect Sport Magazine? Some very attractive, colorful covers to be found there, especially in the late 40s through the 60s.

[Lordstan]

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

Does anyone here collect Sport Magazine? Some very attractive, colorful covers to be found there, especially in the late 40s through the 60s.

I do. I have a near complete run from 1946 to 1986ish. My father and I started collecting them in the 1980s primarily to get autographed.
This is a link to my Flickr album with the collection of them.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/96571220@N08/98G72P


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[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by BeanTown

Completely under valued and just a matter of time before they get hot as they are trending that way. Because they are larger and fragile (normally) has made collectors shy away. I think if there was a grading company who made a thin or custom holder for each brand they would take off in value. I know I would send me entire collection to get a grade and to make sure they are protected for years to come. Hopefully the slabs would use a Mylar sleeve first.

Anyway, here are some of mine over the years I’ve managed to pick off from various auctions and eBay. I am thinking about doing sheet music but I like too much stuff as it is.

Wow.
Amazing and Great Collection
So many Great Poses and pictures

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by Lordstan

I do. I have a near complete run from 1946 to 1986ish. My father and I started collecting them in the 1980s primarily to get autographed.
This is a link to my Flickr album with the collection of them.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/96571220@N08/98G72P


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Great collection! Glad to see that others like Sport, too. I hardly ever see it mentioned.

[orioles70]

I only have 1 graded magazine...I believe it is the last issue of a 5 issue run of Our Sports....Jackie Robinson was the editor. I wanted it to finish the run and couldn't find it ungraded. The other 4 issues have baseball covers...Doby, Irvin, Minoso, Paige.

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[switcher7]

IMO, SPORT was the best magazine from 1946-1970. The articles and photos (especially the Ozzie Sweet photos) are outstanding. I have a complete run of the 1st 25 years of SPORT, all newstand issues, mostly nm-mint. I have many duplicates as I am am ridiculously picky and was constantly upgrading. I set up at card shows and am finding that magazines are a really hard sell.

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Very cool on the SPORT run. If I wasn't so dialed into building baseball card sets, I would do a run like that myself, at least of the baseball-oriented covers.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by switcher7

IMO, SPORT was the best magazine from 1946-1970. The articles and photos (especially the Ozzie Sweet photos) are outstanding. I have a complete run of the 1st 25 years of SPORT, all newstand issues, mostly nm-mint. I have many duplicates as I am am ridiculously picky and was constantly upgrading. I set up at card shows and am finding that magazines are a really hard sell.

Do you get them graded before trying to sell? Seems like a lot of the new collectors with all the money coming into the hobby are into the graded stuff.

[switcher7]

No, and I don't grade my cards either. I Have sold numerous cards to dealers at prices I'm satisfied with and let them pay the money to exact a premium. Biased? I guess.

[TUM301]

Always been a fan, nice niche for vintage items on a budget. Couple of my favorites enclosed. 1940`s Detective Mag./ with great 4 page B Sox W Series article. by Hugh Murphy, on Flickr 10/4/1919 Collier`s Magazine featuring B Sox World Series by Hugh Murphy, on Flickr1927 Mid Week Pic. with "Babe Comes Home" article by Hugh Murphy, on Flickr

[switcher7]

Further thoughts about graded magazines - When I buy or sell magazines, I make sure that there are no missing pages, writing, or cutouts. SPORT magazines quite often are missing the beautiful color portraits. If a magazine is slabbed, how can you be sure that that is the case? If you can't be sure, how can you justify paying a premium? Also, some people actually enjoy reading the articles and old advertisements.

[Lordstan]

Originally Posted by switcher7

Further thoughts about graded magazines - When I buy or sell magazines, I make sure that there are no missing pages, writing, or cutouts. SPORT magazines quite often are missing the beautiful color portraits. If a magazine is slabbed, how can you be sure that that is the case? If you can't be sure, how can you justify paying a premium? Also, some people actually enjoy reading the articles and old advertisements.

I think many who collect graded publications, like magazines and comics, do so with an eye toward the investment end rather than for the enjoyment of the publication itself. People who want to read and enjoy the books would either buy ungraded or perhaps a second, lesser condition copy, to enjoy.

Edit: while, I am not 100% sure, my assumption is that part of the grading process would include evaluating the condition of the inner page, including making sure the publication is complete.

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