What do you do with your old magazines?

[AyJay]

Being at a completely loose end with nowt else to do, I decided to spend a day clearing my files and turn old paperwork into a mountain of shred.  Well now I'm looking at an equally large mountain of old BRM magazines going back years, stuffed under the bed and thinking that if I don't do something quick, necessity will demand 'one in - one out'.

Yes I know what you're going to say "Go paperless!".  However, I don't have a tablet and find the paper medium much more portable.

Well I cannot just bring myself to throwing them away, then it occurred to me,  half the magazine is made up of advertising and out-of-date  reviews. So how about cutting out the articles, putting them in plastic sleeves and then filing according to subject area!

 

Before I reach for the scalpel, I would be interested in knowing how others have faced this question of magazines in a finite space?

[Stuart Birks]

  I do exactly what you have suggested. Put the articles that are of interest in a plastic sleeve and bin the rest. Then store them in folders according to subject.

Stu

[DaveF]

About twenty years ago I cut out the usfeul articles and took the rest to the tip.

 

I have kept my copies of Midland Record though as I do use them.

 

About five years ago I went through the articles and realised I hadn't referred to any of them since I cut them out carefully filed them.  So they went in the bin.

 

I have enough books for the things I need to look up quite often, most other things I can find on the web.

 

David

[Mike Bellamy]

The only problem with that is that the last page of an interesting article about subject A may be on the back of an equally interesting article about subject B so then how do you file those ?

[Piemanlarger]

I gave everything I did not want from more or less complete sets of the last 15 years model rail, rail express, brm and a few others to Severn valley railway.

 

Kept Hornby mag for reference.

[Big James]

I’ve done exactly the same. Kept all the articles that relate to my main modelling interests. I donated them all to my work mate  I would rather give them to someone then throw them all away. 
 

Big James

[MarkSG]

I keep them.

 

I've got a bunch of Railway Modellers from the 70s and 80s that managed to escape being thrown out along with other unwanted stuff when I left home, and when my parents were themselves moving house a few decades later they found them in the shed and asked me if I'd like to collect them. And I'm really glad I did. Just re-reading them, all these years later, helped rekindle my original love of the hobby that was, at times, threatening to fade. But it also made me decide that I'd keep all the mags I buy now, as well, just in case I ever fancy re-reading them, too.

 

Obviously, it helps that I've got enough space. Most of them are in boxes in the loft, and as long as they're up there the only thing they're competing with for storage space at the moment is the Christmas decorations. Maybe one day, if we ever convert the loft, I'll have to revisit that. But, in any case, my observation is that old mags sell well enough at exhibition trade stands, even if they're only 20p each. So, if I ever do decide to get rid of them, I'll probably just donate them to a charity that can sell them.

[phil_sutters]

I have kept anything with a Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway content and a few others with particular articles of interest. When we moved here ten years ago, the rest went out with the paper recycling. Since then, when I remember, I take them to our local station where there is a bookcase for secondhand books and magazines, with a donation box for Cancer Research. Whether users currently quarantine their acquisitions is up to them. My wife does with any novels she buys from there.

[Halvarras]

My once local club discovered that they struggled to sell old mags at the annual show if they stuck a price on them, but when they decided to trial 'take what you want and please make a donation to club funds' they made more money and avoided having to take them back to the clubroom afterwards. I baulked at chucking out decades' worth of Railway Modellers and many other accumulated mags so in the late noughties I got some zip-bags from work (it's not what you know....), bagged them up by years and laid them out in the main entrance to the show two  years running (it was in a school and luckily the space was available) - again it was 'take them away for a donation' and I was happy for the club to keep the proceeds.

Fast forward to 2019 - the annual show had moved elsewhere, a house move loomed and I had every copy of Model Rail going back to issue 1 in 1997 which weighed heavily (in more ways than one). I looked into various possibilities, including the local preserved railway, but they already had too many donated mags and didn't need any more. It grieved me to do it but I had too many other things to worry about at the time and they all went for recycling.

These days I take the above-mentioned sensible course of action with my current chosen monthly read and every so often go through them to pull out those articles of interest and recycle the rest. Although being mainly interested in diesel-hydraulics and the unpopular Era 6 in general I find that I don't seem to be keeping that much.........

[SZ]

I just burnt a load of mid-70s Railway Modellers, Model Railway Constructors and the odd Railway Magazine. Will use the ash to mix with composted peelings to make something neutral to spread on the lawn. I did keep a few 'sentimental' ones though.

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by SZ

[Stuart Birks]

3 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

The only problem with that is that the last page of an interesting article about subject A may be on the back of an equally interesting article about subject B so then how do you file those ?

In all the articles I have saved that has only happend once so I photocopied the page.

I also go through the folders occasionally and re-evaluate what I have kept and usually throw out some more stuff.

Many years of magazines still only occupy 4 folders.

Stu

[trustytrev]

Hello,

      Scan anything you want to keep. Takes up less space and means you can donate the unwanted piles to someone else.

trustytrev.

[andyman7]

1 hour ago, SZ said:

I did keep a few 'sentimental' ones though.

 

That's really my only criteria now. There are several RMs from the late 70s and early 80s that have great nostalgic value. 

[33C]

9 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

The only problem with that is that the last page of an interesting article about subject A may be on the back of an equally interesting article about subject B so then how do you file those ?

Photocopy! I once had every single copy of every railway/Airfix/classic car mag going after a local railway had a clear out. They half filled my spare room, floor to ceiling! After 2 weeks holiday and a sharp scalpel, i now have the interesting bits in labelled folders and can fit these in a small sideboard (3'x2'x18") bought for the purpose, and i can find what i want, sometimes, quicker than G**gle! 

[Martino]

It’s a concern I have too.  I have copies of BRILL, Bylines, Steam World and Back Track going back about 10 years.  Before that I kept all my magazines (The above plus things like Railways Southeast).  Never re read them of course, so when I moved house for the umpteenth time, and before moving to the US, I donated them to charity shops.  Even earlier I had Railway Modeller’s dating back to the early ‘60s and late ‘50s.  They got moved on too. The thing is I regret not having those RMs and the stuff I gave away 20 years ago.  Will I regret getting rid of things now?   I have a full set of Railway Wonders of the World that my father collected in 1935, which I look at from time to time.  I also have some Car magazines from the early ‘70s that again, I occasionally browse.

So, what to do

[tomparryharry]

I don't keep many magazines; I used to have tons of them, but I've steadily thinned them out over the years.  It's the same with books. I've only really kept some reference books to area, niche or trade-specific. 

 

Nowadays, most, if not all, is on the 'net. 

[cypherman]

Hi all,

I used to give my old magazines to my friends. But lock down has stopped that. So now for the time being they go in the recycling.

[APOLLO]

There's nowt better than sitting in the conservatory on a warm summers day with a cup of tea and a box of old mags !!!!

 

Chuck NOWT away, it can all go in a skip when I'm gone !!!!!!

 

Brit15

[Northmoor]

I would be very wary of believing that it's all on-line (and trusting it).   There is a lot of material on the Web that no-one has proof-read and contains an enormous amount of conjecture and guesswork being stated as fact.  

However I am in the same position as everyone else and am steadily thinning out magazines due to a genuine concern over the weight in my loft which is not designed to hold heavy boxes.  I am currently going through 20th Century Railway Modellers and all my older BRMs, scanning the aritcles I want before disposing of them.  Over the last few years I've cleared out seven A4 paper boxes full but there are plenty more still to go.

The day I really fear is when I inherit my Dad's collection because he is quite a hoarder; I once worked out that his combined books and magazines (mostly railway) may approach 20,000, yet he still buys more and offers to take mine when I suggest I'm disposing of them....

[muddy water]

You will need to keep the articles you are modelling, as you can not rely on the internet. Remember that some photo sharing websites and yahoo groups got shut down. Resulting in huge amounts of data disappearing. Some has been recovered or reuploaded to other sites, but some is lost for ever.

[96701]

Every one gets recycled. About 15 years ago I realised that I had too many to re read in my lifetime, so out they went. I have followed that maxim ever since. In fact a friend of mine advertised in the Railway Modeller so got a complimentary copy which he duly read and gave to me knowing that I could put it in the recycling whereas he couldn't bring himself to.

Edited March 7, 2021 by 96701
missing "o"

[Steamport Southport]

Why don't people give them to someone else rather than binning/recycling (same thing really)?

 

Unfortunately it's normally a case of "Does anyone want 1000 magazines? Must pick them up by tomorrow" No? Nobody wants magazines then, so I'll put them all in a skip.

 

Contrary to popular belief people do actually want them and they do sell on eBay. They just don't want loads at the same time. They want one or two, at most a years worth. Not forty years worth of something like RAIL in one go.

 

 

Jason

[Zomboid]

I don't get any paper railway magazines, but it do have a subscription to a car one. And that just goes in the recycling when I'm done with it, unless we're due to see my father in law imminently - in that case I give them to him, after which I imagine they the up in the recycling.

[SZ]

12 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Contrary to popular belief people do actually want them and they do sell on eBay. They just don't want loads at the same time. They want one or two, at most a years worth. Not forty years worth of something like RAIL in one go.

 

That's the problem, not worth it even at a few quid a time.

 

For me it would have to be £10 each, and in whatever condition they are in after 40 years of neglect.

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by SZ

['CHARD]

I had to deal with the aftermath of hoarding parents.  Something which I would consider selfish to impose on my children, so for this very reason I take stock daily of hoarded matter, and consequently old music and railway magazines have been pulped, long ago. 

 

Seriously, it's like keeping bits of string, nuts, random bolts, washers and pieces of wire.  Get shot of the lot of it, you'll feel fantastic after.    Retaining crap holds you back, it won't ever come in useful, even if we live beyond 27.