Has anyone here sold a variety of video game magazine back issues on ebay before? I'm trying to figure out the best way to approach it. I have lots of random issues of magazines like Tips & Tricks, GamePro, EGM, and so on. Some are in well-read condition, some are like new. The issues range mostly 1994 to 1998.

Looking at completed listings, a lot of the individual issues don't seem to fetch more than $5-10 individually, plus shipping. But bundling them together doesn't seem to work well either, with odd bundles getting few bids, as people tend to want runs of issues or years. Advice?

I am also interested in this. I have hundreds of video game magazines (and early 90's Car and Driver) I am about to have to throw out ranging from 1991-201X or so.  I would like to think I could get something for them on ebay or some such.  My local series of Half Price Books won't even take them and if they did the employees freely admit they'd throw them out.

At this point I'd almost give them away rather than see them in the trash.

If you have enough to warrant a flat rate I would stuff one full and just advertise it as "free" at the cost of shipping. We have a section for such at the top of the Sellers Forum if you wanted to go that route (for the gaming magazines only though). There area a few mag collectors out there but mostly people are after Nintendo Power and mags from Pre NES up to SNES then a few collectors for other eras past that. Other than that I would just donate em to some thrift store and they can deal with em.

On the other end, I've been looking to buy gaming magazines for years. When I find them in the wild they're usually marked $1 or less at game stores or conventions (or they've been sitting at other stores at $10 a piece for years, unsold of course). Transportation and storage then become an issue, as do filling in the gaps from random buying. They're hard to move for a seller, but they're just as inconvenient for a buyer. Filling a flat rate and getting what you can for them is probably the way to go, unless you have highly desirable single issues or complete runs.

These should qualify for Media mail making them dirt cheap to ship.

Media mail. Sell in bundles of each type of magazine in logical lots. (I.e. Nintendo Power 24 issues 1995-1996, all of your EGMs in one lot, etc.). Probably better off with BINs that accept best offer than auctions unless it's a lot worth highly desirable issues of NP

If you can't sell them find a mom and pip game shop and just give them to the store. They'll probably price them at $1-$2 a piece and that way they might sell over the years. But please don't just throw them out

Heavy items + low value = tough sell. I'm not sure there is a good solution to this prpblem. But I agree with others above: sell the valuable ones and throw in a few cheap ones as a "bonus" for the buyer and ship flat rate.

They won't sell. Sell them as free and buyer pays shipping or just toss them in the recycle bin. Hell I've tried to give away some for free and nobody would take em so I just recycled them. Or just toss em in free with purchases of games.

make a post on the forum over at retromags.com before you toss them out. they are big on preservation and likely will toss a couple bucks your way if you have any missing issues

To the people saying send media mail- don't. Anything with advertising is not allowed media mail and you certainly wouldn't want a buyer to pay a huge postage due.

We have a auction section here, I suggest buying a flat rate box and filling it full and starting the auction off at the price of shipping.

Diehard Gamefan issues generally are worth a lot more than other '90s mags If you've got any of those set them aside to sell individually or in small lots.

I collect old gaming mags. It's getting harder and harder to find nice copies of the 90s gaming mags. I'd definitely be interested and i'm sure others would be as well, but it's definitely a much smaller market.

Came here to post this.
 

Usually on TV they bring a dumpster into your driveway and haul them out with handtrucks when you have too many magazines.

Do you have Game Players /Ultra Game Players? Paypal ready  

Hi, been collecting video game magazines for about 15 years, and currently run a non-profit video game history library that I donated my collection to. I'm probably one of the few hardcore buyers of this stuff, and at this point mostly what I pay for are things that fall into that weird category of "rare as hell, but nobody cares."

Mags that sell well as individual issues on eBay are the ones with cult followings, these are the only ones that have multiple people trying to complete sets: GameFan as mentioned, early EGM (earlier than your 1994 date), some Ultra Game Players and Next Generation on a good day.

Mags that are totally unpredictable but SOMETIMES do really well on eBay: pre-crash stuff, the random rare obscurity that only the five or so of us bidding against each other on eBay care or even know about, an actual rare issue of an otherwise easy to complete run (GamePro #2, EGM #5 etc.).

Mags to sell at conventions and stores: Nintendo Power, anything that has beloved games on the cover (Final Fantasy VII etc.).

Other than that the best middle ground between them sitting on eBay forever as individual issues and you offloading everything as a cheap lot is to bundle full years together. If you've got, say, all of EGM from 1995 (or at least like 10 of the 12) you can probably do okay on eBay for them.

If you've got multiple Tips & Tricks from that era I'm a buyer, I'd probably buy the whole lot, as we're missing several and those that we do have are falling apart. Plus you get to put them in a permanent library where people can use them to study history, which is cool!

One little tip that might apply to what you have: if you've got GamePro December 1994, check to see if the Michael Jordan card is intact, and list it on eBay with that as the focus.

EGM² 4 lyfe

Does anyone really collect that? Or SWATPro for that matter? The majority of the content was codes and strategies, which doesn't seem like very substantial reading now that you can get all the info you need online.

 

TBH I find Nintendo Power almost unreadable and it's one of the most collectible game magazines. It's choc full of the most basic tips ever and pointless walkthroughs/maps for the easiest levels of games. Of course the layout, art, and comics are all great, but there's not much of interest to read, it's very much something to skim through. If I had space for magazines it would be Next Generation all the way.

You hit on why I abandoned NP for GamePro and EGM back in the day. Also, NP had no ads which I found informative and entertaining in the other mags.

 

Sure, we have full runs of both of them in the library. The tip magazines are really hard to complete, because they tended to be thrown away much more than the ones focused on editorial. Few people kept collections of SWAT, tips & tricks, etc., but many readers held on to EGM, Nintendo Power...
 

Ya, once you get past the nostalgia, NP is really kiddiefied and shallow as compared to EGM or the one I really like now as an adult, Video Games and Computer Entertainment.
 

What bothered me about Nintendo Power, even when I was a little kid, was the reader letters section. They only ever printed letters that were blind, drooling praise from little kids, with pandering responses. The collectibility of Nintendo Power is one of those things based a lot more on nostalgia than enjoyability in the present day.