Crushed under the weight of good living
December 28, 2012 6:18 AM Subscribe
More than a decade's worth of Saveur magazines. What to do?
I want to reclaim a whole shelf of my cookbook cases. I have several years worth of Saveur magazines. These magazines are approaching the density of a National Geographic horde. Now that Saveur is online (about damn time they got a decent site) what should I do with these magazines?
No public library wants them (I checked). I started getting Saveur in its second year of publication and have a pretty complete run except that time I was out of country and my subscription paused.
Help me be tidy and non-polluting!
I want to reclaim a whole shelf of my cookbook cases. I have several years worth of Saveur magazines. These magazines are approaching the density of a National Geographic horde. Now that Saveur is online (about damn time they got a decent site) what should I do with these magazines?
No public library wants them (I checked). I started getting Saveur in its second year of publication and have a pretty complete run except that time I was out of country and my subscription paused.
Help me be tidy and non-polluting!
This is what recycling is for.
posted by HeyAllie at 6:21 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by HeyAllie at 6:21 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Came here to mention Freecycle as well. Remember, (1) Reduce, (2) Reuse, (3) Recycle.
posted by inigo2 at 6:24 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by inigo2 at 6:24 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I should ask, are these things worth money? Because I got burned on freecycle when I gave away children's clothing. I found out that they all got resold even after winnowing down requests for people in "need."
posted by jadepearl at 6:26 AM on December 28, 2012
posted by jadepearl at 6:26 AM on December 28, 2012
I try not to judge what people on freecycle are doing. Hey, they have families to feed, too, you know?
There may be issues there that are worth money but how much is your time worth? If you really want to make money out of this then do ebay. Do lots at a time and sell them for auction. So, the entire year of 1998! Etc. Maybe you'll make fifty bucks out of the endeavor.
posted by amanda at 6:30 AM on December 28, 2012 [5 favorites]
There may be issues there that are worth money but how much is your time worth? If you really want to make money out of this then do ebay. Do lots at a time and sell them for auction. So, the entire year of 1998! Etc. Maybe you'll make fifty bucks out of the endeavor.
posted by amanda at 6:30 AM on December 28, 2012 [5 favorites]
Well, the thing about Freecycle is you just have to want things gone. You can't necessarily control what happens to them beyond that.
Looks like in 2007 someone was selling sixty of them for 40 bucks on CL, so you're probably not going to make a killing. Maybe them going to a good home (or even being resold piecemeal by someone with more spare time than you) rather than you recycling them is enough?
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:32 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
Looks like in 2007 someone was selling sixty of them for 40 bucks on CL, so you're probably not going to make a killing. Maybe them going to a good home (or even being resold piecemeal by someone with more spare time than you) rather than you recycling them is enough?
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:32 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread on Chowhound indicates they may be worth some money, and more than $50.
Back issues of specialist type magazines do have buyers on eBay - how much you make will depend on how much effort you are willing to put into listing and shipping the items.
posted by needled at 6:34 AM on December 28, 2012
Back issues of specialist type magazines do have buyers on eBay - how much you make will depend on how much effort you are willing to put into listing and shipping the items.
posted by needled at 6:34 AM on December 28, 2012
They might also be of interest to schoolteachers for use in collages?
posted by rosa at 6:58 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by rosa at 6:58 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
There are some dealers in back issues of magazines--but the shipping might make it not worth while.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:20 AM on December 28, 2012
posted by Ideefixe at 7:20 AM on December 28, 2012
My "Assistance League of Glendale" takes magazines. Donate them.
posted by snowjoe at 7:24 AM on December 28, 2012
posted by snowjoe at 7:24 AM on December 28, 2012
You could try to ebay them but don't underestimate what a potential pain in the ass that can be.
I think you should try to sell them on Craigslist for a week or so, then offer to give them away - as long as you can accept that somebody taking them for free might have a connection or a system set up to make money off them. Take comfort in knowing that they aren't going to the landfill.
posted by davey_darling at 8:29 AM on December 28, 2012
I think you should try to sell them on Craigslist for a week or so, then offer to give them away - as long as you can accept that somebody taking them for free might have a connection or a system set up to make money off them. Take comfort in knowing that they aren't going to the landfill.
posted by davey_darling at 8:29 AM on December 28, 2012
Ebay them for pickup only. That way you can unload them on somebody who actually values them enough to pay a nominal amount of cash. Freecycle will often just be speculators/junk hounds and some of them can be pretty awful people to deal with.
I'd love to have these. I use the web for recipes but I love browsing through recipe mags. Somebody out there will want them as well.
posted by srboisvert at 8:30 AM on December 28, 2012
I'd love to have these. I use the web for recipes but I love browsing through recipe mags. Somebody out there will want them as well.
posted by srboisvert at 8:30 AM on December 28, 2012
One thing to consider is that just because the recipes are available online for free now doesn't mean they won't disappear behind a paywall in the future. Sounds like your primary motivation is freeing up the shelf, but just thought I'd mention it.
posted by HotToddy at 10:00 AM on December 28, 2012
posted by HotToddy at 10:00 AM on December 28, 2012
I agree with HotToddy, and would also like to point out that magazines are making all kinds of weird decisions in today's "it's all on the Internet" changing publishing culture. They might be doing great now, but who's to say that next year, or in five years, they don't take all the recipes off of their site because some new social networking site has a special deal where they can sell them all one-by-one through their site? Or maybe their web person leaves and the successor mismanages things so badly that none of the links work on the site anymore? Or maybe they just plain go under and their website disappears. (I'm a librarian and have seen this happen over...and...over...) You can't even be sure magazines like this will be archived at a large university's Domestic Sciences library, or that you'll be lucky enough to live near one that does.
If you need the shelf space, go for it, but Saveur is my favorite magazine and I'm keeping mine!
posted by gillyflower at 11:21 AM on December 28, 2012
If you need the shelf space, go for it, but Saveur is my favorite magazine and I'm keeping mine!
posted by gillyflower at 11:21 AM on December 28, 2012
If you want to just get rid of them, see if your area has a Friends of the Library that would be interested in selling them.
posted by fifilaru at 7:06 PM on December 29, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by fifilaru at 7:06 PM on December 29, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by vers at 6:21 AM on December 28, 2012