Selling Magazines, Anyone?

Unless you think they’re really special or total garbage, we sell magazines by the entire year. But they rarely sell quick.

I’d just donate if you want to get rid of the fast. Or try your luck selling locally on Facebook or Craigslist. Another seller might buy your inventory for $40.

I sell lots of magazines, both singles and lots. I’d lot them up by year or in groups of 10 or 12 and sell them that way. I would think being craft magazines that they’d sell pretty quick.

The trouble I had with selling magazines was that I couldn’t send them media mail b/c they have ads in them, and lots can get heavy. So I figured how many I could fit into a medium flat rate box and that was my lot.

Yeah – it was a surprise to me, too.
Here’s the official info:

https://about.usps.com/notices/not121/not121_tech.htm
Media Mail packages may not contain advertising.

Before you toss them… I sell magazines. I photo the front, the contents page, and if there is one, the pattern insert. I try to mention a hook in my title that’s not on the front page, like a pattern or technique. Depending on the brand, anywhere from $12 to $18 free shipping. ($18 for the heavy ones that can’t go First Class.) Yes, they can’t ship Media Mail, although I know of some scofflaw sellers who do. Each magazine is placed in a plastic bag with a SKU label* stuck on it for easy find, and they’re all stored in the bottom drawer of a filling cabinet. Out of sight, out of mind. I too had subscriptions and dozens of magazines taking up multiple shelves. I too thought I’d just donate them. However, they’ve become a “don’t feel like working hard today” easy list item, and they sell on an ongoing basis, one magazine at a time. I’m very happy to let them just chug along.

*SKU is easy. I got some Avery labels and printed out a batch of consecutive numbers. I use the code B for all books and mags, so I printed labels as B1, B2, B3 etc. Then I just slap on the next one on the sheet, input that number into my SKU field on my listing, stuck it in the drawer. And I can use Sell Similar.

Mostly I think magazines are hit-or-miss. I’ve sold vintage craft magazines before but they had great covers/very distinct style, and always pre-1980s. I shipped them in a flat rate envelope and had the buyer pay shipping, if I’m remembering right.

For newer magazines, usually the smaller-subscription magazines in high $ interest areas do better (like architectural design mags). I have some magazine lots up now that I’m trying to sell but I’m dreading shipping them because they’re so heavy, even in a flat rate box…

Lol – I had the same indecisiveness about listing the magazines I had. Took me a long time before I finally listed them. Didn’t make tons of money from them. Probably could have made more listing something else in my backlog. But now the magazines are gone from my house and I can say that I’ve experimented with magazines, and realized they’re really not my thing.

Someone once gave me really good advice: If you’re having so much trouble making a decision between 2 different things, then it probably means that it doesn’t make much of a difference which way you go, so just pick one. B/c if one of the choices was truly much better than the other, you would have realized this.

I see how many I can fit into a USPS padded flat rate envelope and then that’s how many magazines I’ll put in each lot. They get too expensive to ship otherwise. Magazines are a consistent seller for me, they just take a long time to sell so it depends on if you’re willing to keep them in your inventory for the List It and Leave It long haul.

An update: I sold one of the lots I listed last week! And I managed to cram them into a padded flat rate mailer! Otherwise shipping would’ve been $16, yikes. With fees and COGS, I profited about $22.

I used to collect magazines and have had luck selling them, but when it comes to “collectors items” its very frustrating how fussy people are about condition of them. I doubt this applies to hobby magazines, but I have had more returns and complaints from the people that buy old mid century magazines. Picky bunch just like comic book collectors. I now avoid buying them unless its for dirt cheap.

I just picked up a batch of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. It will be interesting to see how they do.

Probably the 80/20 rule applies here. I remember going into a Borders bookshop and looking at the huge range of magazines available; a lot were (still are) “ephemeral”. Read once and chuck.

I had success selling Engineering In Miniature magazines dating from the 1980s to the 2010s. As Amatino mentioned, scanning the contents page is good. On the other hand I bought a large pile of Model Engineer magazines from the 1930s through to the 1990s; the post-war ones are now presumably someone’s hoard of toilet rolls (I put them in the recycling!) The older ones went to a thrift shop. The difference I think is that the Engineering mags had “how to” articles; the Engineer mags didn’t, and were virtually unsaleable.

I had a pile of After The Battle magazines. They sold quickly; unfortunately I accidentally listed one twice, and had to order a back issue from the publishers to be sent out to the buyer.

I haven’t done it, but if you can sell the entire magazine, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to sell a small portion of it, too.

People sell full-page ads out of magazines, so can’t see why you couldn’t sell an individual article.