Do you keep magazine "back issues"?

[Gogar]

I'm nearly complete cleaning out my office; a project that's about 5 years overdue. Throwing away old papers, scraps of paper, boxes, etc. Shredding stuff, throwing away receipts from tax returns that are more than a few years old.

Anyway, in my office there's about 10 years of back issues for trade magazines MIX Magazine, EQ, Pro Audio Review, Keyboard, and Electronic Musician.

Why did I keep them, I don't know.

Do I throw them away, or try to give them to someone, or what?

Do you keep old magazines? Like your "Excellence", for example.

If so, how many years do you go back before you just say "Screw It."?

[speedracing944]

I have about 7 years of Excellence. I keep all my mags which are mostly car mags and some Wooden Boat magazines.

I justify to myself that I will use the magazines later when I am in the market for a used car. I can read about the review when it was new.

In my time of B.P. (before Pelican) all I had was Excellence for reading material.

Speedy

[TimT]

I recently tossed all my saved "Porsche" nee "Excellence" magazines

I think what happens is you read something that piques your interest, so you justify saving that issue of the magazine....

While I was cleaning out all the old magazines etc, I realized I hadnot looked at some of them for years...so into the recycle bin the go...

I dont save any magazines now... quick read... then into the recycle bin...

BTW: I had vol 1 issue 1 of "Porsche" magazine and every issue to this day

[SlowToady]

I keep back issues. They're fun to occasionally re-read.

I have about 35 years worth of National Geographic, not a single missing issue. From ~1965 to ~1999.

[Mothy]

I tend to keep old interesting ones or sets of magazines. Got all the Total 911, GT Purely Porsche and a smattering of Excellence and others.

Also used to have the entire set of National Geographic from 1927 to 2005 with only a couple missing during WW2 because the ship was sunk bringing the mail to Australia. The collection was started by my Grand father and I inheritted it. Took up too much space in the end so I sold it.

Magaines are rarely worth much - but kool to read back and see what people thought at the time. Read old 70's magazines and they start to speculate about features on cars which are common today.

Tim

[Oh Haha]

I have boxes and boxes of mags. Mostly Porsche related but some Modern Drummer and Men's Health mixed in. I too like to go back and read about the cars when they were new.

BTW--My dad left me a collection of Playboys from the 60's on up through the 70's. They were my uncles who left them to my Dad. Any of you know, besides Ebay, where I might find the value of them? I don't want to keep them.

[id10t]

My Dad saved 30+ years of Road & Track, Car & Driver (formerly sports cars illustrated), etc. I've still got 'em - need to catalog and sell 'em

[slodave]

I have about ten years worth of European Car. A couple of years worth of model R/C mags, some I never even look at, they come with membership dues.

[djmcmath]

I used to keep my Excellence and Pano. Recently tossed several boxes of them. I still miss them. It hurts. But I'm a packrat of collossal proportions, so throwing away ANYTHING is hard.

[VINMAN]

Still have every issue of Maxim since #1!
I have boxes upon boxes of old magazines. Cant bear to part with them. Especially my brothers old issues of Hot Rod and Car Craft from the '60s and '70's. A few yrs ago I started to cut out any interesting articles and tech stuff and putting them in binders. then tossing the rest of the mag.

[VaSteve]

When my mom moved, I cleaned out my old crap. I had a bunch of car magazines from around 1989-1991 when I go my license. All devoted to supercars, Ferraris and Porsches. The C4 was new then, so a lot of ink on that. Anyway, I brought his junk to my house like 2 years ago. Still couldn't get rid of it. I took the pile to Hershey and sold about 10 of them for $10. The rest I finally threw out. I'm a packrat. If I have the room, I keep it. I used to have to trash stuff more often when I was younger and would move a lot. Now I have a big house and a pile of crap in every corner. Eventually, I just get angry at the mess and throw a bunch away.

[Soterik]

I've got every issue of Excellence, almost every issue of Pano (just missing a couple from vol.'s 1 and 2). I've got Christophorus English from Vol. 1 #1 through 1974. Every issue of Gmund. Boxes and boxes of all the non specific UK car magazines, plus multiple years of 911 and Porsche world, AND boxes of VW magazines as well, etc. etc.

I did however finally pitch most all of the Hemmings and Autoweeks that I had, as it really was starting to get out of hand.....

I will take any 60's and 70's Road and Track, Car and Driver, etc that anybody wants to send to me!

Eric

[rouxroux]

Too many closets filled with magazines including every National Geographic since '63. Tons of audio, radio & car mags as well.

[masraum]

I really wish I had my old issues of Road and Track from the 80's & early 90's.

I love the old car mags. I've got all of the car mags and Nat Geo that I've bought in the last 7 years or so. I'd love to have the 60's, 70's, and 80's from Road and Track.

[Mothy]

I love the advert's from early National Geographics

- The 1932 Turret Top Chev with an All metal roof, balloon tyres and 4 wheel brakes.
- The Rock of Ages Tombstone Company
- Fork Union Military Academy
- White Star line (before the days of air travel, ships were the principal means of world travel)

And of course all the Coke Cola ads from the back page - you could frame them.

Tim

[livi]

A month ago I discovered a huge pile of old Swedish car magazines in the addic at my parents. Looking almost new tracing back to 1975 and up to 1990. Fascinating reading about the Porsche tests from back when the different models came out! Funny how every new model is regarded as hyper modern with the attached question how difficult it is going to be for Porsche to make an even better car next year.

No, I would not think of throwing away any Porsche mags. Apparantly..

[URY914]

I take a razor blade and cut out the pages of articles I want to save. I got tired of moving from town to town with boxes of old stuff. After I cut them out I file them by car type of articles, ie. 914, 911, 917, etc. Much easier to find stuff.

[azasadny]

I have a ton of old Zymurgy and Brewing magazines, along with some Ferret magazines. I should probably throw them away...

[Zef]

I got the excellence mags since the beginning...not a single issue missing...!

[oldE]

I have had fun re-reading articles from Sports Car International from the early 90s. I tossed averything but the Road & Track, Excellence (about 7 years worth) and the SCI.

Les