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R.I.P.  Wings and Airpower magazines

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haroldmcpherson@msn.com - 26 May 2007 03:55 GMT
Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
has been pulled.

These will be missed.
Steven Jahn - 26 May 2007 05:10 GMT
But you can still get them here:
We are proud to announce that CHALLENGE PUBLICATIONS of Chatsworth,
California, producers of AIR CLASSICS and WARBIRDS INTERNATIONAL Magazines
will become the world's exclusive distributor for Wings & Airpower back
issues and back issue Gift Sets.

> Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
> has been pulled.
>
> These will be missed.
Mad-Modeller - 26 May 2007 05:29 GMT
> Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
> has been pulled.
>
> These will be missed.

Now the values can climb on E-bay.
Sorry to hear they're gone now as I really enjoyed the photography.
Sometimes the articles were the only information I had on a type but I
didn't always find the articles well written.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
someone@some.domain - 26 May 2007 06:04 GMT
>> Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
>> has been pulled.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
>Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

glas i passed up the offers on my 70's issues. that was
their golden age.
Kurt Laughlin - 30 May 2007 00:37 GMT
>> Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
>> has been pulled.
>>
>> These will be missed.
>
> Now the values can climb on E-bay.

Don't bet on it.

In the model railroad world there are two magazines that have been
publishing since the 1930s.  Guys get all misty about their collections and
how these are the "greatest references you could have" and "my most valuable
modeling tool".  However, no one could provide me an answer as to why such a
"valuable" thing could barely be given away at train shows and went begging
on Ebay at fifty cents an issue - even with free postage.  Through auctions
and dealing with the seller directly I bought about 25 years worth for
around $105 - and the seller spent $115 to mail them.

I discovered that about 70% of the magazine was advertising, layout tours
(similar to reader galleries), or subjects that were no longer relevant, so
by judicious use of a razor I was able to reduce a stack of magazines about
17 feet tall to three file drawers of useful articles in folders.

KL
Sir Ray - 30 May 2007 00:53 GMT
> "Mad-Modeller" <checkrep...@nextline.com> wrote
> In the model railroad world there are two magazines that have been
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> by judicious use of a razor I was able to reduce a stack of magazines about
> 17 feet tall to three file drawers of useful articles in folders.

I never gotten misty eyed at all about old issues of Model Railroader
& RMC (the 2 founded in 1930s I presume you meant) - I mean they are
moderately interesting to flip through, but certainly a lot of the
modeling techniques & articles are now obsolete (because the materials
used, or the base models, or the details are no longer offered, or
because the once unavailable have-to-scratchbuild models are now
offered everywhere, or because more or less the same article on
weathering wooden structures has been re-written every 5 years, etc..
I'm not saying everything in them is irrelevant, but I usually clip
about 2-3 articles (sometimes just a column which I scan into my
computer, sometimes several pages) per issue nowadays - I guess that
agrees with your magazine reduction ratio.
>From what I see, magazines & books tend to be dogs on eBay unless they
are ultra-rare or special (of course, most sellers think they are and
set their reserve accordingly - not to mention the ol' extra-high
shipping charges).  Once in a while some (individual) seller gets
lucky (maybe eBay stores do better), but man I wish I took advantage
to get rid of old paperbacks when eBay was hopping and you could sell
almost anything for a good price around the turn of the century...
The Old Man - 30 May 2007 01:00 GMT
> > "Mad-Modeller" <checkrep...@nextline.com> wrote
> > In the model railroad world there are two magazines that have been
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
> to get rid of old paperbacks when eBay was hopping and you could sell
> almost anything for a good price around the turn of the century...

I dunno, old copies of Air Trails (from the 1930s and 1940s) are
running around $3-5 each, and some of the real old Popular Mechanics,
Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Science are more than garage sale
prices as well. ($3.00 as opposed to maybe 75¢.
Kurt Laughlin - 30 May 2007 02:54 GMT
>I dunno, old copies of Air Trails (from the 1930s and 1940s) are
>running around $3-5 each, and some of the real old Popular Mechanics,
>Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Science are more than garage sale
>prices as well. ($3.00 as opposed to maybe 75¢.

Even at double that price you aren't going to put your kid through college
by selling them.

KL
Kurt Laughlin - 30 May 2007 03:08 GMT
> I never gotten misty eyed at all about old issues of Model Railroader
> & RMC (the 2 founded in 1930s I presume you meant) - I mean they are
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> computer, sometimes several pages) per issue nowadays - I guess that
> agrees with your magazine reduction ratio.

There were two camps on the model RR bboard when I discussed this: Those who
thought I was committing some sort of sacrilege by cutting up a 30-year-old
magazine (*) and those who agreed that something was "worth" only what
somebody would pay for it, supported by stories of how they literally
couldn't give away their old mags and landfilled them instead.

The mags with a good bit of prototype content - RailModel Journal, Mainline
Modeler (RIP) and Model Railroading (RIP) command a higher price than the
more model oriented MR and RMC, but I wonder if that isn't due to scarcity
as much as content.  It seems from their annual USPS diclosures that none of
these ever had a circulation or more than about 15,000, and RMJ is now down
to about 5,000 - 7,500.  At their peak in the 1980s MR was printing
125,000 - 150,000 issues a month, IIRC.

(*) It was a magazine, not a book, and my property, not a library's.

KL
Mad-Modeller - 30 May 2007 05:10 GMT
I reduced my MR collection in much the same way as I knew they weren't
worth diddly on the market.  I bought a lot of them for a quarter a
piece at a small shop in the '80s.
I did sell all of the Mainline Modellers and was particularly surprised
to reap some reward from the few Narrow Gauge Gazettes that I had.
What I'm in a quandary about is the Toy Train Collector mags.  They seem
too full of info to just trash but there has been no interest in the few
I tried to E-bay.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
someone@some.domain.invalid - 30 May 2007 01:43 GMT
>>> Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
>>> has been pulled.
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
>KL

w and ap were somewhat like that. they have recycled
pictures endlessly and a lot of atricles were re-used. as
solid modeling references, they were about a c-.
Ron Smith - 30 May 2007 07:56 GMT
> I discovered that about 70% of the magazine was advertising, layout tours
> (similar to reader galleries), or subjects that were no longer relevant, so
> by judicious use of a razor I was able to reduce a stack of magazines about
> 17 feet tall to three file drawers of useful articles in folders.

Heretic! Burn him! The villagers are marching up the mountain with
torches and pitchforks...........oh, wait, it was just a
magazine.........nevermind. Actually I'm seriously thinking of hacking
up my old FSM's to get rid of the drivel and keep the few articles worth
keeping. It's not like I don't have access to original documents in the
genres I model or anything. Anyone know where to get 9" wide by 14" high
binders?
Stephen Bierce - 31 May 2007 06:40 GMT
>Anyone know where to get 9" wide by 14" high
>binders?

Office Max?  Staples?  Office Depot?

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922
{Sig Quotes Removed on Request}
willshak - 31 May 2007 12:20 GMT
on 5/31/2007 1:40 AM Stephen Bierce said the following:
>> Anyone know where to get 9" wide by 14" high
>> binders?
>>    
>
> Office Max?  Staples?  Office Depot?
>  

More than likely.
> Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922
> {Sig Quotes Removed on Request}
>  

Signature

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

someone@some.domain - 26 May 2007 06:03 GMT
>Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
>has been pulled.
>
>These will be missed.

sad. even though they got thinner and thinner and repeated
much, they were still among the few.
Stephen Tontoni - 26 May 2007 10:47 GMT
> Looked at their website yesterday.  "Hard copies" are no more.  Plug
> has been pulled.
>
> These will be missed.

My dad started getting them in 1973, I think when they started
publication. I might be wrong about that, but it seems that's when they
started. I picked up my own subscription for a while from 1986 to
90-ish. When my dad passed away, I got the whole she-bang.

So I've got stacks and stacks of the things. Well pawed over.

What I noticed over the years is that the articles were either about
lesser and lesser significant types, or they were rehashes of
already-covered types. Not a lot of really interesting stuff, in my
opinion, that wasn't in older issues.

What I miss are the Wings of Fame... I got all of them, and they were
brilliant.

---Stephen
Nigel Heather - 26 May 2007 12:10 GMT
> What I miss are the Wings of Fame... I got all of them, and they were
> brilliant.

Really?  I collected these and got all up to and including Volume 20 when I
got a letter from the publisher saying that they had decided to cancel the
product and offering to move me onto AirPower instead.

I was quite annoyed at the time because I had invested quite a lot of money
in the collection and thought it unfair that the publisher could simply
decide he was going to complete it.

As for prices soaring on eBay.  They might eventually but the first thing I
noticed was that the publisher sold their stock to budget bookshops.  A few
weeks after the series had been pulled I could have bought all 20 volumes,
brand new in a budget bookshop for £25.  I think I had paid closer to £150.

Cheers,

Nigel
Mad-Modeller - 27 May 2007 05:19 GMT
"Nigel Heather

> > What I miss are the Wings of Fame... I got all of them, and they were
> > brilliant.
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Nigel

Had the same experience with some of the auto books from Publications
International Ltd.  I could spend $34.95 plus tax at Border's or go down
the lot to Ollie's and get them for $10 each.  I now have the complete
set of "Cars of..." and "100 Years of Ford".

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
Sir Ray - 27 May 2007 17:11 GMT
> Had the same experience with some of the auto books from Publications
> International Ltd.  I could spend $34.95 plus tax at Border's or go down
> the lot to Ollie's and get them for $10 each.  I now have the complete
> set of "Cars of..." and "100 Years of Ford".
Just an aside, including the surprizing hard to find "Cars of the
Sensational 70s"?
Asking because late last year Borders AND Barnes & Noble more or less
had a clearance sale on the other 4 books (that I know of ... 30s,
40s, 50s, 60s)  and they were about 12-15 apiece (you still beat that
price).
Mad-Modeller - 28 May 2007 06:09 GMT
> > Had the same experience with some of the auto books from Publications
> > International Ltd.  I could spend $34.95 plus tax at Border's or go down
> > the lot to Ollie's and get them for $10 each.  I now have the complete
> > set of "Cars of..." and "100 Years of Ford".

> Just an aside, including the surprizing hard to find "Cars of the
> Sensational 70s"?
> Asking because late last year Borders AND Barnes & Noble more or less
> had a clearance sale on the other 4 books (that I know of ... 30s,
> 40s, 50s, 60s)  and they were about 12-15 apiece (you still beat that
> price).

Yes, there were copies of that title there.  Burned me up because I DID
pay $34.95+tax for that one at Borders.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
 
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