The Antique Trader Vintage Magazines Price Guide
Craig Stark writes a Book Think Review which will give more details than I give here, but I will tell you this much--I ordered it from Amazon.com ($19.99 retail, currently on sale for just $13.59), received it in two days, made an eBay purchase totalling just over $16 including shipping by using the listings in the Price Guide, and within two weeks had turned around this purchase selling one item for $82.50 and two others for over $20 apiece! These deals are tough to find but I certainly would not have found them without the listings of high spots found inside this handy little text.
I agree that this book could stand a second edition, and fast, but not because it is weak, simply because it is so strong that it whets your appetite for more! It does not have many listings from after 1940 or so and does not touch upon Sports or Movie Magazines at all. It is strong on listing issues that key short stories appear in--the kind of gold you can mine on eBay from sellers who don't bother to look inside their magazines! It also provides excellent coverage of cover art & artists. Where it lacks is providing coverage of celebrity covers--the content of the cover, not the creator.
The book begins by detailing several artists and writers who collectors should be seeking out and then follows with a similar list of sleepers (a second edition could both expand and combine these listings). It then follows to list magazine titles alphabetically, include a brief history of each publication, and then a chart with some key issues along with prices--I understand they need to publish prices, as this is a hook with many buyers, but I really don't believe in "Price Guides" myself--I go by the theory that an item is only worth as much as a buyer will give you for it. (Price Guides often establish artificial demand for items causing buyers to either overpay or sellers to sit with an item that is actually in low demand priced too high to move.) I am however a strong believer in "Identification Guides" of which this is an excellent source. Every magazine also has numerous color photos accompanying the listings and descriptions, in fact the back cover claims over 1,100 full color photos.
The book was published by Krause Publications, who publish many price guides and baseball card collectors will be especially familiar with as publishers of both SCD (Sports Collectors Digest) and the Standard Guide to Baseball Cards. It's an excellent addition to their library of "price guides"...now I want more! I could easily see this 304 page book expanding to double that size in just a few years if there were to be an annually updated edition.
Put it on your list or pick it up as a gift, no matter your level of collecting you will get something out of this book!
