Couple of questions...

[Tom Gehring]

Hey, folks. I've got a few questions about my collection specifically and collecting in general:

1 - Currently, I've got just about every issue from January 1956 to the present (seen here, I'm missing 24 issues); most of which are in excellent condition (I've had a subscription in my name since 1981, so those issues are single-owner :). I'm about to take out a renter's insurance policy, and I'm not sure how to value this collection. Any rough guesses as to how much I should estimate for insurance?

2 - I'm also working on filling in my collection further back; I'm thinking the easiest way to do this would be to finish the '50s, then from 1945 to 1950, etc. in 5 year increments. I've hit up all of the local bookshops in my area (Richmond, Virginia) to fill in gaps in what I've got now, and it looks like I'm going to have to turn to the Web to do this. Is there a price guide somewhere to give me a reasonable idea of what I'll end up spending? I've looked at eBay periodically, but it's not always the best resource.

I'm also up in the DC area fairly frequently and would like to try some bookstores up there. Does anyone have any recommendations?

3 - I'm assuming it'll be fairly easy to fill in back to about World War II, but issues before that would be relatively expensive. Is there a point at which back issues become difficult to find/more expensive?

Thanks in advance,

Tom Gehring
[e-mail]

[Jean Thibault]

Hello Tom,

The cost of shipping for the modern issues (1950 to date) makes it preferable to pick them directly (in the DC area, for example). Personnally, I don't believe that their value justifies insurance, but thats only my view.

The 1940 issues are still quite readily available, but the hard part is finding them in really good condition. Thus it is preferable to also buy these in person if you can.

For the 1920's and 1930's, your best bet is probably in Year sets via Ebay and/or other reputable dealers. Expect to pay around $5. per mag for the 30's, and $10. per mag for the 20's in good condition.

If you get more ambitious, you can still get sets for the 1910's at maybe $10. per mag for the later years, and $15. per for the earlier years.

You also have to decide how keen you are for the supplement maps (and earlier pictorials) whose value more or less parralels the value of the mags, but are a lot cheaper in terms of shipping costs.

All of this is assuming that you want only single mags. Privately bound issues (6 months each) are fairly easy to find, but the difficulty here is finding long matching sets that haven't chopped away the individual covers/table of contents.

Hope this is useful to you.

Jean

[Tom Gehring]

There's also sentimental value in the collection I have; they were my grandmothers for the most part. Granted, insurance can't replace the issues that were hers, but I definitely don't want to have to pay out of pocket to replace them if something were to happen.

But it's good to have a rough idea of the price to go further back. Thanks for the reply.