Does Anybody Here Collect really Old National Geographics?

[kiwigtx]

It was always good bathroom reading at our house in the 70s and 80s.

I never understood why people read in the toilet/bathroom.

I go there to dump my load, then get the hell out....after washing my hands of course. It holds little appeal as a hangout.

 

[1967coronet]

I do not collect any papers or magazines but do enjoy reading old copies .
Old news papers from the 40s ect.
Old car mags from the 50s , pretty cool history in them and prices of things.

 

[Black_Sheep]

I found a treasure trove of old National Geographic’s dating to the early 1930’s in the attic when my grandparents sold their country home and moved to assisted living near my folks. True to my grandpa’s OCD tendencies, they were bundled by year in chronological order. They were interesting reading for sure, in retrospect I should have kept them…

 

[62Dodge_]

Howdy Two years ago we had a estate sale and gave away all of our National Geographics' 1985-2005. Lots of trips from the attic as that's where they were hiding.

 

[kiwigtx]

I mentioned this thread in conversation at work today...and pretty much everyone my age is realizing the same thoughts I posted above.....the younger generation have no interest in material things like our predecessors had.
If you can cash in collections now, that's your best outcome....use the money on something else more disposable....food, clothes etc.

The next generation will only end up dumping your precious belongings after your funeral. I have seen this a few times now. And it is only a struggle for them to dump stuff for a brief period of time....after the first few loads of boxes out of storage, it just becomes a race to get rid of the items.

Sad reality...but very true.

 

[old guys rule]

Now that I am Max Wedgeless I’ve decided to work on some of my hobbies. In 1966, my Scout Troop, before curbside recycling, would collect newspapers, monthly, as a troop competition and the local scrap yard would leave us a dumpster. About 1 yard high of papers was worth 100 pounds. The Scout with highest total got a prize. We accepted near any paper. If there was anything interesting I would swap it out against my total. I got Kennedy Assassination stuff, space program, car magazines, it’s where I found out about Maxes and Hemis and, wait for it…… National Geographics from the ‘Teens and the Twenties. Then in 1981 the guy I was working for asked me if I wanted his father’s collection. SURE! His father’s collection was near complete from 1910 to 1960 and his oldest was the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake issue!

I would go to flea markets and antique shops looking for Pre-1910 issues. I would occasionally find one or two and then came eBay! I started buying what I could afford. Then I came up against something that I finally found out about. Issues from about 1906 on are less expensive than 1905 back. Sometime in 1905 they started publishing pictures of bare breasted native women and the membership took off exponentially! Oh, but I read it for the articles!

I met a guy through eBay who I’ve been buying from monthly for about 5 years. He is a retired high end National Geographic dealer. Right now I am to the point where I have January 1904 on to about 2017 when my late wife’s membership ran out and my oldest is 1893. He has offered to sell me everything I need including issue number one either in a bound volume by year or individual issues so I would only need four issues to complete the collection. And yes, for a whole lot of money!

Does anybody else have the National Geographic Magazine Madness like I do? And I also have my 1961 Baseball card collection where I only need 10 out of about 600!

It took me many years to get rid of them LOL!

 

[maxwedgechar]

There are 3 watchers of my eBay auction and I made them an offer. And I told them Threat, No, Promise, No, Reality, Yes! If nobody buys the 55 boxes they go back into the pallet rack and when I'm gone my Executor is going to put everything into recycling!

 

[Richard Cranium]

I never understood why people read in the toilet/bathroom.

I go there to dump my load, then get the hell out....after washing my hands of course. It holds little appeal as a hangout.

Like fine wine, some things just take time. Like right now.

 

[wahya]

We have 3 bathrooms in our house and all of them have a basket full of of old magazines. We really need to get rid of them. Having said that, I have a big box of old National Geographic in my garage, not as old as some mentioned here , but from 60’s and 70’s. Maybe a garage sale?

 

[Richard Cranium]

We have 3 bathrooms in our house and all of them have a basket full of of old magazines. We really need to get rid of them. Having said that, I have a big box of old National Geographic in my garage, not as old as some mentioned here , but from 60’s and 70’s. Maybe a garage sale?

You'll be lucky to get a few bucks for them at a yard sale. See if your local library will take them as a donation & see if they can give you a slip that you can use as a tax write off..

 

[wahya]

You'll be lucky to get a few bucks for them at a yard sale. See if your local library will take them as a donation & see if they can give you a slip that you can use as a tax write off..

I won’t worry about a tax write off, but that may be a good idea. My wife bought me a subscription of Playboy mags back in the day, she told me that they had some good articles. They were stored up in the attic and were falling apart, so not very hard to get rid of them.

 

[68BabyBlue]

I won’t worry about a tax write off, but that may be a good idea. My wife bought me a subscription of Playboy mags back in the day, she told me that they had some good articles. They were stored up in the attic and were falling apart, so not very hard to get rid of them.

Much like some Mopar parts, the ads are often worth more than the actual magazine. I bought a few 1960s National Geographics for 25 cents each, for the Imperial ads, back when I owned the cars in the 90s. I had a subscription to Playboy in the 80s, and those are going to a younger friend, he can recycle them when done, no collector value . I checked with a local antique mall that sells vintage Playboys. They told me that 1960s issues in excellent condition are worth a few bucks each.

I was surprised to hear that the market tends to be young women, who are curious about the culture in place when their grandparents were young. Seems similar to National Geographic's examination of other cultures back in the day.

 

[YY1]

Ebay is littered with full page ads from old magazines for $5 pop, some even $10.

 

[retractable]

Parents had a sale in 2001 with .National Geographic magazines. From 1915 to 2000. Could not get a bid. Library would not take them,school would not take them. Ended up having a big fire to burn them. Big job turning the fire over to keep the books burning.

 

[Charger72]

I had hundreds passed down from my father, I kept one, tried to sell some but couldn't even give them away.