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Disposing of old magazines


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SWMBO has initiated a post retirement downsizing edict with respect of my collection cluttering up our garage. My question is what do you do with all your old magazines? It seems a shame to put them in a skip but I’m not prepared to list them on any auction site, there are just too many of them!

 

Tim T

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Likewise.

 

I sorted out mine into those I wanted to keep and those I did not. This meant a lot of interesting browsing. There was a lot of good stuff in the 1970s and 80s!

The unwanted ones then got taken to the NYMR.

 

So, two pleasurable tasks out of what could have been a chore! 

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SWMBO has initiated a post retirement downsizing edict with respect of my collection cluttering up our garage. My question is what do you do with all your old magazines? It seems a shame to put them in a skip but I’m not prepared to list them on any auction site, there are just too many of them!

 

Tim T

Tim, you could ask at some local care Homes (if there are any left.....,) if any of the residents might be interested in looking at them or staff using some for activities etc?

It could be that for dementia patients, pictures of the railway old and not so old might be useful for discussion.

Ask them to put in paper recycling after they have made use of them.

Phil

Edited by Mallard60022
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Please explain for the benefit of an old ignoramus?

Tim T

Not sure of the origins but it consists of local grouos that post items no longer required for people to collect. I think one of the original ideas was that it helped reduce landfill.

 

You wil need to do a search with your preferred search engine to find your local group. You may also find that others have items you are interested in.

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Hi,

I pass my old magazines onto my friends. they then pass them on to others. Any other magazines that are not wanted go to my Doctors/Vets/Dentists waiting rooms.

And if push really came to shove I put what's left over in the paper recycling that's picked up once a week.

Edited by cypherman
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I tried to dispose of mine to one of the local heritage lines near where I live and they turned them down. Eventually I put a ‘free to first responder’ ad on a model railway Facebook Group page and someone came to pick them up a few days later. I was quite miffed a few weeks after that to see this gent at a model/toy fair selling aforementioned mags - turns out he is a professional trader.

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All of the above but the skip usually wins in the end.  Sadly you might have a similar problem with the trains as well unless there are many desirable items -  when the time comes!

 

Brian.

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I tried to dispose of mine to one of the local heritage lines near where I live and they turned them down. Eventually I put a ‘free to first responder’ ad on a model railway Facebook Group page and someone came to pick them up a few days later. I was quite miffed a few weeks after that to see this gent at a model/toy fair selling aforementioned mags - turns out he is a professional trader.

I advertised a few things on Freecycle / Freegle or whatever its incarnation was at the time. They were some time apart but the same woman was always first to respond. She didn't get everything because I smelled a rat when she replied within two minutes of my email going in on the third occasion. Spotted her trading at a car boot of sale shortly after. Edited by TheSignalEngineer
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G'Day Folks 

 

All mine went into the recycle bin, took weeks to get rid of all of them, kept all the ones I found useful, plans, layouts, articles Etc.

 

Amazing how much I had spent on them over the years, must have been well over a thousand pounds, could have bought a couple of good models with that.

 

manna

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Oh well, it looks like the skip then, being remote fron a preservervation line that would possibly take them. There are so many it would be prohibitively expensive to post them off to someone as well.

 

Tim T

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All of the above but the skip usually wins in the end.  Sadly you might have a similar problem with the trains as well unless there are many desirable items -  when the time comes!

 

Brian.

 

You might add the books to this list, unless they are rare items. Bad news for the Bradford Bartons, Power of the..., etc., excellent as they are!

 

John.

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All of the above but the skip usually wins in the end.  Sadly you might have a similar problem with the trains as well unless there are many desirable items -  when the time comes!

 

Brian.

 

I agree that there is no real value in magazines but the second hand market for model railways stuff is very lively including the ancillary stuff like controllers accessories etc. Even stuff in poor condition will sell if the price is right.

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It is actually worth having a clearout of rail mags, books and models every year or so anyway. I moved house in 2011, had my workshop built in 2013, moved to Canada and back in 2014-15 and every time donated, sold or disposed of quite a lot of stuff. The books [except specialist items] and mags are donated but the model collections brought in a reasonable amount.

 

I feel 2018 is time for the next one...there are currently 4 microlayouts in the workshop!

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Well before I moved I went through my magazines take into out the interesting articals and how to reducing a great mound down to a manageable equivalent to two thick books only advice is be ruthless don't keep everything

Second thing is what do you mean your a long way from a preserved railway to give them to?

Unless Calne has moved from when I was born there or you only have a push bike isn't the Swindon and crickalade railway nearish you

Or the Bentley model railway club in the same town to give them to?

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I had to dispose of 30 years' worth of magazines. I went through them, and scanned onto DVD the articles that I thought might be useful, creating an index of them as I went. Now I can find an article in the index, find the relevant disc, put in the page number, and Bingo! Current computers probably have enough capacity not to need the DVD, but it's useful to have a back-up copy. It's a monotonous job to do the scanning, but manageable if divided into logical time slots. Most heritage railways are inundated with magazines, and don't want them except for things like the sadly missed Modeller's Backtrack.

Paul

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Oh well, it looks like the skip then, being remote fron a preservervation line that would possibly take them. There are so many it would be prohibitively expensive to post them off to someone as well.

 

Tim T

 

 

.....Is the wrong answer. 

 

What many of the contributors to this thread are wishing/praying for you to divulge, is details of the magazines and their years; but we are too polite to say so ;)

 

You might find that anyone who is interested in filling gaps in their collection will be expecting to pay postage or (more likely) courier costs. 

 

Remember boxes can be picked up from your home address, or your local parcel point shop, and delivered to similar locations at the other end. I have bought several boxes of ten years worth (120 magazines) and I don't recall the delivery charges to be that expensive. 

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.....Is the wrong answer. 

 

What many of the contributors to this thread are wishing/praying for you to divulge, is details of the magazines and their years; but we are too polite to say so ;)

 

You might find that anyone who is interested in filling gaps in their collection will be expecting to pay postage or (more likely) courier costs. 

 

Remember boxes can be picked up from your home address, or your local parcel point shop, and delivered to similar locations at the other end. I have bought several boxes of ten years worth (120 magazines) and I don't recall the delivery charges to be that expensive. 

Now there's a good idea. I'd rather see my mags (mostly recent years BRM and Railway Modeller along with odds and ends Steam Rail etc.) passed on to someone and then recycled in whatever way (not the skip please) as suggested earlier as well; local collection/delivery a possibility.

I'd much rather this than straight to recycle and I can not believe some people would actually just general waste them...surely not?

BRSR in the late 50s early 60s in Modeller mags and Trains Illustrated from 1958 - 1966 would be great (for me that is). 

Phil

Edited by Mallard60022
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My suggestion is, instead of just saying there is approximately 200 magazines, give an indication of what there titles are and how many of each.

 

For example

 

Railway Modeller  69 issues

MRJ  27 Issues

Model Rail  48 issues.

Etc

 

It wouldn't take that long to sort them out like that.

 

You could even state the earliest issue to the latest.

 

Railway Modeller 69 Issues  1984 February to 2010 August for example. It also informs us that it CANNOT be a full run.

 

 

But I agree, compiling a full list and adding it here, could take more time than you're prepared to spend. But a bit of extra work will be more likely to attract would be interest.

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I don't think that the Swanage Railway or the Severn Valley Railway are taking old magazines any more. I had a big sort out last year when my model railway room was about one foot deep in magazines. I just took out the articles I was interested in and threw away the rest and the article I took fitted in a box.

 

About 30 years ago there was a market for old railway magazines. We sold them for 20p each at Modelworld at the Brighton Centre to raise money for the Swanage Railway. We had piles of Model Railway Constructors and a man looked through them and said that he was interested in that magazine. He bought the lot and then put them on his stand at 50p each. At the end of the show we had cleared most of our magazines but he hardly sold any and had to take them back home.

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