Vintage mags...to sell or use otherwise

coffeegrl

coffeegrl

Registered Guest
Would it be sacralige for me to tear apart some vintage mags (50s and 60s the 80s ones are as good as gone - becoming something else)?
All Family circle - they don't seem to have a high selling price and I want some of the adds and recipies - what do you think? Sacralige?...
 
I would probably copy (or scan) what I wanted and then Freecycle or otherwise give away the originals if they weren't worth selling.

You never know when someone will be interested in a particular vintage magazine. When we bought our first house (a 1948 cape cod), I bought some Better Home & Garden mags from the period.

Someone researching women's issues or cooking or household management might be interested in the magazines, for example.
 
I've never used freecycle, I got all confused when I went to the website - I use Kijiji alot and I just took 221 lbs to "buy by the pound" out here, they support children in poverty, they give a tax recipt (that's why they weigh your donation), I almost died when she told me the weight of my donation lol packrat much Val?? Hmmm.. lol -

I really like them, it's not like they're useless - I'm using the stuff inside of them :), maybe I will keep on photocoping as I was doing - I just love the look of the old ads and stuff. But some I am going to gently pull apart and take out the advertizing and recipes, laminate or frame them - the car ads in one are AMZING! And it's all ripped up the spine and musty smelling so it won't sell (scariest little short story I've ever read in it too - creepy, seriously not what I expected from a woman's mag at all - scared me for days!!) ...I guess I figure if someone else is just going to rip them up for collages and stuff, I might as well do it, or I'll just list them. I have a hard time wrecking up something in perfect shape that's 40 years old, even if it's just cuz I like them :)
 
Sorry for reviving an old thread - I hope I'm not out of step here?!

I'm going to second Laura's advice to scan rather than cut or take apart old magazines!

As an historian, I've used old magazines a lot for research and it breaks my heart to see them being cut up and used for scrapbooking or framing of individual ads. You never know what might be of interest to future researchers - even the tiny small ads, or advice columns on back pages can be gold mines of information! You can get accurate dates for new products - and prices - plus there's lots of contextual information about social attitudes and beliefs that add so much to our understanding of the times.

As an example, I've found questions in problem pages from young women who are constantly battling with their fathers (or even husbands!) about what they wear to go out at night, or about wearing make-up. One answer, to a girl who wanted to wear lipstick in the 1930s, was to wear a colour that was exactly like her own lip colour so it didn't look like she was wearing any! :lol:

The problems, and the answers given, are a real insight into social attitudes about decency and what was appropriate for women at the time.

But that said, I can completely understand why people do it - the images are wonderful! - and I suppose if the magazines are already damaged or incomplete then they're fair game.

I'm totally not being judgemental about this! :)

Ideally, it would be great to donate old magazines to relevant museums, libraries and archives so they could be accessible to interested students and researchers, but I'm not going to pretend this is an easy job. Most of them are pretty fussy about what they accept, and I think in most cases they prefer long runs rather than one or two issues, unless they're rare.

I'll shut up now! :embaressed:
 
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