Old car magazines

Trying to determine why I felt the need to save all of my car mags from the 90s up. I guess there is enough reference material there to justify them but how to organize other than by title + year? At this point everything but GRM and Hotrod is heading for the big circular file in the sky.

That's the same thing I do. Now I roll my "inventory" on all the other titles every 12 months. I've got GRM back to the "AutoX" days and Hot Rod back to 1967 !!

I can't toss reading material in the trash.

I finally gave up on my collection. I gave several boxes of nice magazines to Maroon92. I gave a ton to the Salvation Army (it might have literally been a ton). I retained maybe 10% of magazines that I know I will refer back to at some point. It was liberating after lugging around all those magazines for the past 25 years from apartments to houses to more houses, etc.

I've been a subscriber to one of the "mainstream" car magazines since the early 80's. I had always kept every issue. I just kept them for fun, every once in a while I would go back and browse through some. I always found it amusing to look at the spy pictures of what at the time were future cars, but were now years old. In 1994, my apartment building burned to the ground, and all was lost. I didn't really start collecting them again until about 7 years ago. Wishing I still had the collection from the 80's and on.

It drives my wife crazy, but I just can't stand to throw a magazine out. I threw away a copy of 0-60 only because a whole gallon of hawaiian punch got leaked on it. Pages were pink.

I've got off road magazines back to the mid nineties. I know I'll need to reference some tech article sometime, maybe.

I have C&D from the present to the mid-80s pretty complete, and a few dozen issues that are older, going back to the early 60s. I have Autoweek from the 90s back to it's tabloid days, I threw out all the 2000-newer stuff. That magazine went to hell when Leon Mandel died. I also have selected old issues of R&T, a few MTs, and other random ones. And of course, all my GRMs.

There used to be a used book store in Muskegon near where we had a cottage when I was growing up, and they would occasionally get a pile of old 60s and 70s car mags in, and I'd clean up when they did.

When my parents moved, my dad shipped me all of his magazines. At home I have Road & Track and Sports Car Graphic going back into the '60s. Yeah, I guess that's where it comes from. (Then there's all of my magazines from the '80s, '90s and '00s.)

I haven't tossed a magazine (except the occasional AutoWeek) in 10 years.

In fact, I often run into hoards of free magazines from fellow GRMers. I have several bookshelves full.

Guess what I'm adding to your box then Brad...

I tossed 15+yrs worth of C&D, Offroad, and some other misc when I moved. That was my 'reference library'. Kept a few key issues, figured I could find most anything else online.

In reply to Gearheadotaku:

That's the thing - most of the time when I think of something I want to look up in a mainstream magazine, it is quicker to just search the article on their website then do digging around in my basement.

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to Gearheadotaku: That's the thing - most of the time when I think of something I want to look up in a mainstream magazine, it is quicker to just search the article on their website then do digging around in my basement.

True, but the online archives only go back so far.

What I should do is eBay some of the really old stuff one at a time. It'd be a PITA, but I bet I could make some cash on at least some of them.

Javelin wrote: Guess what I'm adding to your box then Brad...

bring it on! I'll take what you don't want. SWMBO might roll her eyes, but I can put up with it!

If I got rid of my old car magazine collection the house would rise up a couple inches out of the ground. Have every Hot Rod since June '83. Then it expands exponentially from there

I have a plan to archive a good portion of them to PDF. Need to experiment first to find the right balance of settings vs. a usable file size. Then time to do it.

The archive process should help me weed the piles down a good bit. I know there are some duds in there not worth keeping but they are mixed in with the good stuff.

They did come in handy for my friend that was researching Shelby Dodges for her website. It's always good to have enabling friends.

I used to keep all my magazines for technical reference, but now we have the internet, and it takes up a lot less space. I take my old GRM's, from the 90's on, to work, usually 2 at a time, and leave them in the cafeteria. After a week they disappear and I bring 2 more.

The only thing I save is GRM. I used to save them all, it got way out of hand. There's still a lot. I have this dream of scanning them all in and turning them into PDF's but they just seem to sit there, it would probably take 10+ hours per issue so I doubt it will ever happen.

I save them all, C&SC and Rodders Journal are upstairs and HR, Hemmings ( four titles), CC, automobile, road and track, GRM, and some wood working magazines are all downstairs. I gave up subscribing to everything though... GRM rodders Journal and classic and sports car (and nearly freebies Hot rod/car craft) are really it anymore.

I forgot PVW and Retro Car, I love looking at back issues.

I'd love to save them all but space is an issue. So far I've kept mostly 70s R&T collection as well as some Practical Classics. If I really like an article or two I'll scan it for later reference.

It was painful to accept, but I finally went through all my GRM's and CM's and accepted that I'll never refer to them as long as the internet is up and running. Found a home for the CM's and donated the GRM's to the local charity via: (sample image; not the actual dumpster) It only hurt for about 30 seconds as I tossed all of my pristine, unwrinkled GRM's in for recycling. When I got home I enjoyed the newfound storage and haven't thought about them until now. Nope, still no tears.

I want to build a fort with all of my old books and mags. .

Honestly, I don't care if you throw out old GRM and CMS mags...that just means you'll be searching for online back issues as we start digitalizing our 30 years of back issues.

Rob_Mopar wrote: I have a plan to archive a good portion of them to PDF. Need to experiment first to find the right balance of settings vs. a usable file size. Then time to do it.

I've thought about that, but I simply can't imagine doing all that scanning. It would take forever.

Per Schroeder wrote: I want to build a fort with all of my old books and mags. . Honestly, I don't care if you throw out old GRM and CMS mags...that just means you'll be searching for online back issues as we start digitalizing our 30 years of back issues.

That will save me the trouble of PDF-ing the 12-14 years of mine. Thanks Per!

Tom_Spangler wrote:

Rob_Mopar wrote: I have a plan to archive a good portion of them to PDF. Need to experiment first to find the right balance of settings vs. a usable file size. Then time to do it.

I've thought about that, but I simply can't imagine doing all that scanning. It would take forever.

Takes even longer when you never get around to it.

I'll have to experiment with one to see just how bad it's going to hurt.