Collectible Automobile magazine collection -

Collectible Automobile magazine collection -

LOCATION - BELL, QLD
I recently had to assist an elderly neighbour into permanent aged care and clean out his unit. He had a huge collection of model cars, a few of which he took with him and the rest I sold to a local antique shop ( probably the deal of the century for him, but I had no idea what I was doing!)

I now am wading my way through the rest of his collection. Hundreds of Collectible Automobile magazines dating back to the 1980s up until his most recent one was, I think, December 2022. There is also a vast collection of car sales brochures - the ones you used to get from the car dealers when you were deciding to buy a car. Also a large number of mainly muscle car picture books. I have them in boxes in my garage, all in excellent condition and I want to sell them - we have a local aged care project which provided him with much support and it would be nice to put the money back into there.

I know they are worth money and I wonder if anybody would like to buy the collection, or I'll start advertising them on here. I'll put a few up today, see if we have any interest.

Some of the brochures listed below. I also have hundreds of them.

My dream would be to get a good offer for the entire collection!

Last edited Dec 11 '23 at 20:55 (UTC)

Consider adding your location.

I would suggest listing on Facebook marketplace and Gumtree. Or you could try eBay if you are willing to ship.

Thank you for the advice. I haven't any experience in selling online, I have them on eBay but not even a looker! I'll try the other options. I will put in my location and, if you don't mind advising me, should I be trying to sell them just one by one? You look like you're a trader in this kind of stuff? Would you like to make an offer on the entire collection? I really just would like them out of my hair now. There are hundreds of magazines, sales brochures and a load of motor vehicle books. I am located in Bell, Qld.

The problem with selling large collections on eBay is usually cost of postage. Facebook and Gumtree are better for selling collections as you are more likely to sell to a local buyer.

It is very likely you will get more by selling individually. This is best done on eBay from my experience. However, it means you need to individually photograph and list each item. Popular well-priced items will go quickly, but other items could take weeks, months or years. You need to put all the right keywords in your titles and choose the right category to get the best exposure.

I am just a personal collector myself, so not looking to buy sorry.

Suggestions from across the ditch

Hi - just a few suggestions from across the Tasman.

First up those look like great items (and I might be interested in a few myself). I have been collecting motoring magazines and ephemera for many years and have been buying collections and selling on Trademe (NZ) and Ebay essentially to fund the hobby! Freight and postage is your worst enemy and often the shipping costs for magazines (in particular) are the same or more than the sales value of the magazines! It guts me to pay charge or pay more to the postal system or couriers than I pay / charge for the magazines.

Buying a large (and thus heavy) collection is normally not a viable option when freight costs are considered.

The value of any collection is Pareto normal - 80% of the value is in 20% of the items. Finding the 20% where the value lies is the issue. I would be happy to give you some guidance if it helps.

If you want to get rid of a whole lot of the brochures as opposed to the magazines that might work well for you because the value to weight equation is much higher.

You could contact these guys .. https://www.motorbookworld.com.au/product-category/sales-literature/ - they have a lot of advertising material for sale though they are in VIC so not just down the road ...

EBay will give you global exposure and for the brochures that's where I would head as opposed to Gumtree. Aussie car brochures will be worth more (in Australia) than the US car brochures. US brochures will be worth more in the US. Generally you want to be advertising where the collectors of those vehicles are located.

For the car magazines unless they are particularly hard to find I would suggest using Gumtree (though I think their site is a bit rubbish) and maybe you could consider splitting them up - eg if you have 100 Wheels magazines break them up into 10 lots organised by years or in 10 lots with Commodore articles, 10 with Falcon XD articles and so on ... it's a bit of faffing about but it means that the people interested in specific magazines aren't put off by having to buy (and ship) 100 magazines.

My own experience of probably selling 15,000 magazines over the years is that there are either people interested in specific marques, models, drivers etc and then very much fewer "completists" - the odd people (my own hand up here) who want the entire collection of a specific magazine title. You can spot them because of the leather elbow patches on their cardigans.

That's my 10 cents but as that's NZD it's only Aussie 9c ....

Thanks for the advice, I am starting to see that I need to list these magazines somewhere, individually. Or I'll try them in lots of 10 by year, or something. Thank you all for the good advice.