Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

[Creature]

My grandfather passed the other day and he had about 15yrs worth of these damn things. I have the past 5 or so years myself. I really don't have any desire to read these(or hoard them) and wondered if I should keep them.

The reason I ask is because I cleared them out for my grandma today and tossed them in my dumpster. I kind of feel guilty about tossing them out and am wondering if I should go take them out. I figured if he took the time to save them maybe I should try to do something with them.

 

[ORD]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

To the right person, sure they may have some value, but generally speaking...NO in terms of purely monetary value. Have a look around eBay, GunBroker, Armslist, etc. You'll see plenty of dumbasses trying to command outrageous prices for 10-, 15-, 20-year collections (or more) of the mags but it is rare if ever that they actually sell. Some issues, I have seen people really want in order to complete a collection (i.e. - missing the May issue of the 1979 series or something like that) and occasionally you'll see someone pay $6-7 or so per issue for those purposes.

If they mean something to you in terms of sentimental value, then by all means fish them out and put them away somewhere safe for your kids or grandkids, etc. to view someday.

 

[TOP PREDATOR]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

i have the sme situation, field and stream, outdoor life, etc from the 70's and 80's.

my ol' man hoarded everything, magazines no exception. when he passed, i had boxes of them.

if no other "collectors" want them, the covers of them look pretty good in a frame, even a cheap assed poster frame where you can fit several of them.

probably easier to sell as a decoration for a gun guy's man cave, bar, or hunting cabin / club.

that's my martha stewart tip of the day

 

[Creature]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

Well the problem is that his name and address are on the front of all of them. That means I'd have to go through them all and either cut it out or mark over. I think I'm just gonna let them lay. Thanks guys, just needed a another person to affirm my thoughts.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

Best value... the information inside.

Read every issue!

The old ones (that I used to devour because in my high-school library, they had every issue from 1940 - mid-80's) are an amazing historical record. What was I doing during study hall? Reading AR.

Today, you can't bring a gun magazine into school, probably. But it was a heck of an education on firearms, history, and, in some ways, good American values.

Oh to have a time machine and be able to go back to Bannermans Arsenal and pick up a nice $300 Colt Gatling gun... or FA Thompsons for $100... back when the tax stamp of $200 was twice the cost of the gun...

If I had the space, I'd accumulate a total set of American Rifleman! Talk about a world class reference...

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

I would not. Whatever informational value they might have had was quickly superceded. Otherwise, it's just another way of living in the past; and at my age, I already do too much of that.

Look around. All the important information is already available in electronic form. My Kindle takes up less space than a magazine or two and currently holds 34 books with several hundred more already read and archived to the cloud.

I gave all my good (<span style="font-style: italic">Precision Shooter</span>) gun mags away. I didn't even save the issues with my own articles in them.

Greg

 

[steelman303]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

the only value to American Rifleman magazine is the new product spotlight. The rest is just kind of ... blaaah... regurgitation of everything else that is on the shelf.
I gave up my NRA membership a couple of years ago. I know they do some great things politically but I got tired of being hounded every other week for donation money that I don't have to give. I found it about as useful as that membership to Sportsman of North America that I got suckered into.

 

[Sharpsman]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

Not even good 'outhouse' paper! All Ads! Total BS compared to 50 years ago!

 

[leadbullet]

Re: Do American Rifleman magazines have any value?

not to me, i haven't bought a subscription to any gun mags in over 6 years, too many adds and too many accuracy testing of AR's with an Acog and wolff ammo.