Seven Ways to Make Money with Old Magazines

Would you like to make money from something people read once and then throw away? Many people assume a magazine only has value if it’s very old. Nothing could be further from the truth. People value magazines for their information. If you have a magazine with information about a particular product, hobby, person or a magazine article that solves a very specific problem, people will gladly pay money for it.

People also value magazines for their photos. Magazines depicting rare photos of particular celebrities, leaders, criminals or other persons of interest, particularly if those photos are not common, can be in high demand. If you know how to market them, old magazines can be a gold mine.

Would you like to get started making money with old magazines? Here’s how:

1. Look for magazines with cover photos of popular celebrities. If the celebrity generates interest or is controversial in some capacity, this makes the magazine even more marketable. Surprisingly enough, it’s often the lesser known celebrities that garner the bids on
   eBay
   since there are fewer magazine covers featuring their photos. If in doubt regarding the marketability of a particular magazine, you can do an eBay search using the celebrity name and see how quickly items relating to that particular celebrity sell. Again, eBay is the best place to sell magazines with celebrity cover photos. If there’s an inside photo spread of the celebrity, be sure to mention this in your description.
2. Look for older issues of popular magazines, particularly the first few issues produced. Those issues tend to be less common since fewer were produced. They’re also in greater demand because fewer people have them since the magazine wasn’t as well known at the time of initial publication. Of particular interest are early issues of niche publications on specific hobbies or collectibles, especially if the magazine is out of print. Some of these issues can bring very high prices on eBay.
3. Flip through your magazines and find articles containing information on how to do a hobby related project. This should be information that’s not easily found elsewhere. You can sell the article along with the complete magazine on one of the auctions sites such as eBay. It’s important that you list the article under the appropriate eBay category for best results. If you’re selling an article on building a ceramics kiln, list it under crafts followed by one of the ceramics categories. Don’t list it under the magazine category as this is too general. Other articles that can be sold using this technique are rare articles on particular types of collectibles which can be found in such magazines as Antiques Magazine.
4. Another way to profit from older magazines is to look for old ads for watches, cars, beer, coca cola and other items people deem worth of collecting. Carefully, remove the ads from the magazine and sell them to collectors who can frame and display them as art. You can sell just the ad or you can frame the ad yourself and sell it as a completed work.
5. If a magazine has a cover created by a famous person, the magazine can be sold on the merit of its cover. For example, a magazine with a Norman Rockwell or Maxwell Parrish cover may be in great demand with collectors.
6. If you have large groups of a particular publication, for example a years worth of Martha Stewart Living magazine, you can sell the magazines as a set. Often, magazines that won’t sell well individually can be sold in groups of three of more issues.
7. If all else fails or if you don’t have time to put your magazines up on auction, you can display them at your next yard sale and sell them for 25 cents each. You’ll be surprised at how quickly those quarters can add up.

The beauty of this unique business is you can often get the magazines for free since people want to reduce the clutter in their home. One strategy is to attend a yard sale as its ending and offering to cart away all of the magazines that didn’t sell. Most people will gladly take you up on your offer. Pretty soon you’ll have a ton of inventory and a nice profit.