Thread: Magazine Collections

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The trivia thread started me thinking about where we all learned this stuff.

About 7-10 years ago, as I became more comfortable with the internet, I decided to stop buying magazines. I had realized I was getting far more information, and seeing many more cars, than I ever did through magazines.

My own collection had started in 1958. A friend and I were building model cars, and he had these really neat car mags. The first one I bought off of the news stand was a 1958 issue of Hot Rod, with a shots of dragsters smoking the tires on the cover. After that the collection had not only grown to about 6,000 issues, but I had gotten older ones dating back into the '40s! (Of course I have multiple copies of the ones with my paintwork in them.) :-)~

The first thing I did was offered them to all of my friends, customers and newfound model car buddies. I didn't have to do anything else! They swarmed in....sorted for issues and articles they wanted..... and about 4 weeks later had bought every one! (except for a couple hundred that I could not part with!)

Today I don't even stop at the magazine racks any more. I watch my drag race coverage on TV, and can get obcessed whenever I want with all of the internet information that is available.

What is your story?

Hot Rod Paint....last week a friend of mine dropped off over 500 Hot Rod and Street Rodder magazines from the 1955 to 1997. Unfortunately I had to throw away quite a few since they were wet and mildewed from being stored in the bed of his pickup. Fortunately I have about 200-300 that are good. I told my wife that I know have something to read when she throws my ass into a nursing home when I get older! (LOL) Hope I live long enough to read all the mags! (LOL)

Pat

I subsrcibe to three for my self; Rod & Custom, Street Rodder, and Car Craft, and Custom Trucks for my son. I used to get Hot Rod, Cars & Parts, and Chevy High Performance but I cancelled them and switched to these three. Street Rodder is the bomb, I could probably drop all the others and stick with that one. Actually, I should probably drop them all and just spend the money on parts for my car!

I started collecting car magazines in the mid 60's and did so faithfully through the mid 80s. Every year my dear wife would sent them to a book bindery and have them bound in hardcover, color coded to the magazine, Red was HOT ROD, Blue was CAR CRAFT, green was POPULAR HOTRODDING and so on. I removed the index page from each issue and had them bound in the front of each book for better reference. I even went as far as to make a yearly cross reference index of the articles and had that bound separately for each year.

WHAT A COLLOSAL WASTE OF TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had been trying to sell my 25 year Street Rodder collection and had taken it to NSRA/York 3 years in a row for the swap meet. I think I sold 1 years worth - some guy had a feature car back a ways and had lost his original copy. Another year went to a guy building a 'bucket - so that left me with 22 or 23 years worth. For a very little money, I "gave" the rest to a publications swap meet guy. It seems that no one wanted them - even the guy that bought mine said he had every copy there was and for .50 to a buck apiece. Do I miss 'em - nah. They had gotten just like my 50+ years worth of National Geographics - and I gave them away. There are some early issues of Hot Rod that are collector's items and I had those at one time too, but dang few are worth the trouble. I even have my 2007 Street Rodder and will give them to anyone interested. I just don't go back and read them anymore plus we are starting to lighten our load of "stuff" so we can move to a warmer area in a year or so.

Same story here. Had magazines from here to there. Decided to move. Boxed all of 'em up except '58 to '70 Hot Rod, which I kept because that was the era I grew up in and it was the golden era of the horsepower wars, gave all the rest to Goodwill and took a tax deduction.

That was my era of choice too! The cars after 1970 were a lot less interesting. Muscle cars lost thier muscle.....dragsters had the motor in the wrong place.....Funny Cars were "generic" under the skin....and Gassers and Altereds were no longer headliners. :-( Also, in the '80s street rods started to look like antiques....customs lost popularity......and the "billet" thing took off. Maybe I can build a time machine? ....with mags! :-)

I quit buying them when they stared employing jerks who were trying to tell everyone how it was in the '50's and '60's but they were born in the '80's and '90's and couldn't find their a** with both hands and a road map.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

I quit buying them when they stared employing jerks who were trying to tell everyone how it was in the '50's and '60's but they were born in the '80's and '90's and couldn't find their a** with both hands and a road map.

Hey Ken, ran across some pics of you. Will post them on Classmates when I get a chance. One of them is me humped up over the fender of the Lark with you and Lanny Davis hangin' out.

For years I was a magazine junkie, bought probably 5 or 6 a month and rummaged through the $ .25 to $ 1.00 boxes at swap meets to find ones I somehow missed. But I am like Jay, the internet now takes my interest and I rarely if ever buy a magazine.


Don

I will probably get excommunicated for this but if anyone has street rodder from 1977, I think, They featured my '57 Pontiac altered wheel base car and used in the cartoon in the back. sure would like to have a copy if any one has it.
Ken

What month Ken?


Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

What month Ken?


Don

I don't remember, CRS syndrome
Ken

I'll dig around next time I am at the shop (that's where I keep them these days) and if I have it I'll let you know. How about Brian, can he get you something out of his archives?

Don

I always thought of asking him, but he is always so busy. We are having dinner Thursday, I'll see what kind of mood he is in
Jerry took his new car to Bonneville and it went 203mph, then he drove it home! Got to love him.
Ken