National Geographic magazines. Are they worth anything?

Ohighway

Ohighway

Wannabe Minimalist
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Been making a valiant attempt at cleaning out my super cluttered detached garage. ( It's been hot and humid out..... you should feel sorry for me)

Today I ran into 8 printer paper sized boxes chock full of National Geographics. Sorely tempted to offload them at the county dump in the paper recycling bin for quick disposal but before I go that route I have to ask.

Are these worth anything? I've had 'em for awhile. As I recall they span quite a few years. The oldest I had my hands on -today- was from 1932, but I'm pretty sure I have older ones.

Part of me thinks there's some value. The other part remembers hearing about them being referred to as the 'yellow peril' by some antique shops.

Any thoughts?
 
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Well I really can't say if there worth anything, but I had the same problem and when I tried to give them to a used book store she said no thanks and pointed to a shelf full of them and said I can't give them away. Soooo....
 
The Coke a Cola Ads on the back are worth more then the magazines especially the Christmas Ads that show Santa.

I had 14) Tomato boxes 1914 to 1996 I finally took the time to sort them down to about 2 boxes worth that had stories I was interested in (mostly aviation) and the rest after having the camera and coke ads stripped out of them went into recycling.

Very old ones pre 1900 are worth money but so many especially from WWI on were kept by families and schools that they are to common to have much value.
 
Mark W. said:
The Coke a Cola Ads on the back are worth more then the magazines especially the Christmas Ads that show Santa.

I had 14) Tomato boxes 1914 to 1996 I finally took the time to sort them down to about 2 boxes worth that had stories I was interested in (mostly aviation) and the rest after having the camera and coke ads stripped out of them went into recycling.

Very old ones pre 1900 are worth money but so many especially from WWI on were kept by families and schools that they are to common to have much value.
Click to expand...

The ads may be a lot more interesting and historically significant.

.dew.
 
Why not give them to the Salvation Army since some people enjoy them. As a fan of nature and photography I always enjoy reading one. I subscribe still as I always have but donate them when the backlog gets too big.
 
there are 3 diff ones that have the titanic on the cover, and when the movie was fresh in peoples minds, that set of 3 was worth about 10 bucks.


but outside of that, no, i dont think so. thrifts sell them for 25 cents or less each around here.
 
As mentioned above, they are often stripped for their automobile, coke, and camera adverts, as people like to frame these. Same thing for old Life mags. I've framed several ads from both magazines.
 
Yeah I noticed some of the 50's issues had some really cool automobile ads. That appeals to me but.... that's a lot of material to sort through!!
 
I don't know what counts as "something" to you, but pre-1970 are worth a little in nice condition if you have long sequences, and Pre-1920 are worth a little more. You can get 50-200 for a nice old collection, 25-50 for a "catch-up" set that includes every issue in the most recent years/decades, and that's about it.
 
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