Car Magazines... How Can I Not?

[Tom Geiger]

I was just going through yesterday's mail and I had three envelopes from car magazines.

I had subscribed to all three of the excellent Hemmings Magazines. First I had subscribed to their Classic Cars, then I got an offer for Sports & Exotic Cars and Muscle Machines. I love Classic Cars, and the way they'll do a feature on some old plain jane, station wagon or oddball car.

So I take a look and Hemmings puts out an enticing offer... I look at the Muscle Machines envelope and they're offering 12 issues for $12... a buck a month. Hmmmm. Then I open the Sports & Exotic Cars expecting to see the same offer, but this one is $10 for 12 issues. How can a guy refuse these?

The third envelope is from Road & Track, that I've never subscribed to. This one is only $7 a year! Or $12 for two years and $14 for three years. And they'll send me a Road & Track dashboard mat too. I don't think they can even mail it to me for that!

I think you know what I'm going to do. If you read someday that my house has collapsed under the weight of all my magazines, you'll know why!

[High octane]

I collect and read car magazines from the 60's and today's magazines leave a lot to be desired, at least for me. I wouldn't want today's magazines delivered to my house even if they were FREE. Besides, I don't have room for anymore piles of magazines either.

[1930fordpickup]

Tom if you enjoy the read go for it. I just let my Classic car mag go last summer. I started that right from the start of the magazine.

Just did not have the room for anymore magazines. The digital option does have me thinking.

[Harry P.]

Like the others have said, I just don't have any more room to store piles of magazines. Nor the time to read them!

[Lunajammer]

I have 500-lbs. of National Geographics dating to 1948 that are taking up a big chunk of space. My friend got 100 years of issues, all the maps and special extra features on DVD. Is the value of grabbing a paper issue to thumb through worth the burden? Can't decide.

[Tom Geiger]

I have 500-lbs. of National Geographics dating to 1948 that are taking up a big chunk of space.

Many years ago I noticed that Nat Geo had their advertising in the front and back of the magazine, but not within the content. So I would carefully cut the car ads out with a metal straight edge and exacto knife without damaging the content. Then I'd bail up the magazines and donate them to the Goodwill store where someone else could read them.

The ads in Nat Geo were pretty cool with high end cars like Cadillac in every issue, often ads that wouldn't appear anywhere else.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Tom Geiger

[Ace-Garageguy]

I collect and read car magazines from the 60's and today's magazines leave a lot to be desired, at least for me. I wouldn't want today's magazines delivered to my house even if they were FREE. Besides, I don't have room for anymore piles of magazines either.

I have to agree with most of that. I have an extensive collection of late '40s through '70s hot rod and sports car mags for reference / research, and that's where my primary automotive interest lies.

Almost every time I pick up a current car mag, I'm disappointed by the lack of hard-tech info, and the preponderance of advertising and gee-whiz-this-is-written-for-guys-with-clean-fingernails fluff as opposed to substance.

As I'll never willingly own (or probably even agree to work on) anything ever again built after 1996, I just have no further need to subscribe. I don't give a damm about bell-and-whistle laden electronically overcontrolled production cars, including exotics. Even if something will run 200mph right out of the dealership, just exactly what relevance does that have to reality, where can anyone possibly use that performance (an entry level Kia is more car than most drivers will ever learn to control at its maximum capability), and what do you do with it when its vast over-complication leaves you immobile in the middle of the road?

No new mags for me. Anything I NEED to know, I can find in 30 seconds or less on the web anyway.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[Harry P.]

No new mags for me. Anything I NEED to know, I can find in 30 seconds or less on the web anyway.

True.

[unclescott58]

I've just quit subscribing to Hemming's Classic Car. Like others, I too have no more room for more magazines. Especially ones I will only read once. I liked the magazine. And I've got every issue up to this last December's. But, I never go back and re-read them. I not wowed by new cars. So I don't get Motor Trend, Car and Driver, or Road & Track anymore. (Plus Road & Track dumped their long time PS feature! The best thing in their magazine.) I still pickup model car magazines, but off the news stands. I only subscribe to Collectible Automobile anymore. Which again I have every issue and do go back to for reading pleasure and reference material.

Scott

[iangilly]

Im subscribed to 5 magazines and with all the deals I got on them it was less than $40 for a year of them. How could anyone turn that down?

[Tom Geiger]

Nobody said you were obligated to keep every magazine for life!

I have a huge car brochure and magazine collection going way back, which I used for reference. I haven't touched them for years, it's so much easier to just Google today. I save all my model car magazines, Vintage Truck and the Hemmings Classic Cars. The rest of the magazines I get, especially current rags like Hot Rod, which is 80% ads anyway, get read quickly and then I give them away at model club meetings. I will get the other two Hemmings mags, which are excellent quality, but I don't think I will keep them either. For a dollar, that's worth it just for entertainment.

[1930fordpickup]

For a dollar they are worth it to me. The laundry mat is also a good place to take old magazines .

[Rob Hall]

Except for Collectble Automobile, I switched all my magazine subscriptions to electronic a few years ago, read th e m on my tablet. Much better than print mags piling up.

[High octane]

I don't go to the Laundromat and do my laundry at home. I DON'T want anymore magazine subscriptions even if they're FREE.

[ToyLvr]

Nobody said you were obligated to keep every magazine for life!

I have a huge car brochure and magazine collection going way back, which I used for reference. I haven't touched them for years, it's so much easier to just Google today. I save all my model car magazines, Vintage Truck and the Hemmings Classic Cars. The rest of the magazines I get, especially current rags like Hot Rod, which is 80% ads anyway, get read quickly and then I give them away at model club meetings. I will get the other two Hemmings mags, which are excellent quality, but I don't think I will keep them either. For a dollar, that's worth it just for entertainment.

Here's how I do it...

Whenever I get one of those cheapo magazine offers, I give the info to one of my family members and tell them to order the subscription as a birthday/Christmas/Anniversary present for me. Most of my economically-challenged family members are delighted at the thought of only spending as little as $7 bucks on me, and I wind up with a good bunch of reading and reference material. I just give 'em away when the pile gets too big.

Where to get rid of them?

Model Club meetings;

Local Veterans groups or VA hospital;

Local volunteer fire department;

Barber shop, doctor office, car repair shop - take one with you to read while you're waiting, then just leave it (remember to remove or mark-out your mailing address);

RECYCLE BIN.

[ZTony8]

I just tossed some Autoweek issues from the 80s and 90s(I needed the shelf space for some boxes of model car magazines).But I'll keep the rest of my magazines.

[cobraman]

Between model magazines and auto magazines and gun magazines I use to get about 10 a month. I cut that down to 5 now. They do tend to pile up. The model ones are the only ones that I tend to keep.

[espo]

I agree that Hemmings has the finest magazines out along with Collectible Automobile magazine. They are well worth the money. On the Road & Track, I've subscribed for many years but the "new" format that they are using leaves me a little cold and they really a partial to BMW's and Toyota's . They make great reference material for builds. I think I need to buy some more book shelves.

[Tom Geiger]

I got Collectible Automobile for a while many years ago. It was expensive and no sooner did you get your first few issues, they'd start sending you renewal notices!

[afxmustang]

I got a similar offer about a year ago. The subscriptions were about $7.50 and I ended up getting four or five. I was quite disappointed in them as they were mostly all ads and a lot of the articles were of no interest to me. Took me about ten minutes to read them. I did not renew. I still subscribe to Hot Rod Deluxe, Rod And Kulture and Rodders Journal. Great articles and not a lot of ads.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

No new mags for me. Anything I NEED to know, I can find in 30 seconds or less on the web anyway.

Ah...but you don't know what you don't know, so how do you search for the unknown?

Reading magazines etc may spark interest or creative juices for a project. Maybe you never heard of a particular builder/engineer/product, but once you do, NOW you go online and search up more info about them. I have done that with builders I have seen in Hot Rod magazines for a while now.

[tubbs]

I use the internet often for many searches. but there is nothing like sitting down with a Super Stock and drag Illustrated from 1968, or 1001 Van Ideas, or Hot Rod, or a vast array of off the wall magazines, even some old Model Car Magazines. my 10,000+ magazine collection takes up 2/3'ds the space in my room and the models will go before the magazines. just this guys humble opinion.

[lordairgtar]

Collectible Automobile is the par excellence of car mags. Hemming's titles come in for a close second. I get CA at the news stand, and I subscribe to the Hemming's titles. Car & Drivel, Road and Tacky, Bloated Trend are general interest mags with a bit of everything and are written in the same technique as tabloids, ie, for the 5th grade reader, plus they tend to be filled with ads. Lots of header styles from just out of graphic art school types. The print equivalent of a sound bite. At least the Hemming's titles carry ads related to automobiles. Hemming's Titles are niche publications that cater to a specific reader. So are Rod and Kulture, Hot Rod Deluxe and those types geared toward traditional hot rods and customs. I know people keep mags for quite a long time but do they really hold the value. I see the same guy selling the same model mags from years back and he carries home most of them every time. I don't keep mine. I read at work during break and trade of with the boss for mags I do not subscribe to. Otherwise they go to another place where they will be read like the Zablocki Center VA or my Docs office. 500 lbs of NatGeo, or other mags is nothing but a fire hazard. read em, save the ones you want for ideas and pass on the rest.

[Ramfins59]

I only subscribe to, and have piles of, Model Cars Mag and SA. I'll occasionally pick up issues of Ol' Skool Rods, etc., but not very often. As others have said, all the reference material you'll ever need or want is only a couple of clicks away on the net.

[SfanGoch]

I have 500-lbs. of National Geographics dating to 1948 that are taking up a big chunk of space. My friend got 100 years of issues, all the maps and special extra features on DVD. Is the value of grabbing a paper issue to thumb through worth the burden? Can't decide.

Aside from books, I avoid hoarding magazines. I prefer digital copies to avoid clutter.

When I was a kid, the phrase commonly used by mothers when walking into a kid's room overstuffed with the total accumulation of useful junk like comics, toys, models, sports equipment and anything that we found in the street and thought was too cool to leave for someone else to scarf up was, :Watsamattawithyou?!? Clean up your room or you'll end up like the Collyer Brothers!!!"

Edited January 2, 2015 by SfanGoch