I have 500 Time Magazines. What is the best way to list.

[hiinthesky]

I have 500 or so Time Magazines - is there a way to post on ebay where a person could say - I'm interested in the May 8th 1985 issue and then I could make a buy it now auction for them.  It would take months to post 500 mags and the cost would be too high.  I need a way for folks to cherry pick from the 500 mags.  Some issues are not worth anything...  Some issues are worth what the buyer thinks its worth...  Some issues like Michael Jackson,  The wall coming down, ect could be worth more.  It's most impossible to determine what an issue is worth.  So, I think if the buyer could cherry pick is the best method it there is a way to post such an auction/classified ad.

[inhawaii]

What do you mean by "best"?

More money/more work  ... list them separately.

Less money/less work  ... list them as a set.

[alcoforever]

Ninety eight percent of them belong in the recycle bin.

Have you researched sold listings of "time magazine" here on ebay?   That will give you a good idea of which have value and what they are going for.  For example, the May 7, 1945 issue sells for anywhere from $150 to $250.

[1786davycrockett · Accepted solution]

You could create an individual ad, with a photo of a huge display of various TIME Magazine covers, offering each individual issue for an open variable price ("$2.00 TO $40.00 EACH," for example), with the add-on message that potential buyers should specify which dates or cover subjects or specific articles and/or subject matter in which they may be interested.

Don't bother with auctions, as you may surprised how few buyers are interested in TIME Magazine.  Use "Buy It Now."

I see several eBay ads for books, magazines, comic books, etc listed in this manner -- just do some research on your own to see how other sellers have worked it.

That being said, I'm afraid that most of your TIME Magazines are probably worthless -- keep in mind, TIME Magazine has been around for decades, and is one of the most popular magazines published in America; so back issues are not considered rare.

In addition, magazines have to be shipped at USPS First Rate or Priority Rate -- they can NEVER be shipped at USPS Media rate, no matter how old they may be.

Good luck -- but don't spend too much time on your listing.

[aeparts1]

Do an advanced search for Time magazine -high. Then change to highest price first. Search the high priced sales, see if you have any of the valuable ones. If you do, pull 'em out & list. The other go in the recycle bin.

[dryophelia]

@hiinthesky 

I would group them together by quarter (January-March). That might be a reasonable quantity to sell as a lot.

Realistically, I don't think there is much of a market for them, unless they are in pristine, never read condition. Even thrift stores won't take them.

[nobody*s_perfect]

I agree with the suggestion to just check on what Completed listings have sold for.  Do your own cherry-picking/prioritizing  based on that.   

When you do list some, you can mention in your listings that you have many many back issues, and will check your inventory and list specific dates upon request if available.

[m60driver]

Problem with such magazines is that they aren't worth much and that they contain ads so do not qualify for media rates.  Your best bet is to determine how many fit into a single Regional A box and then sell them in such lots with calculated shipping.

[coolections]

First step is go through them and pick out the ones with the most popular people on the cover. From there throw away, (recycle) the other 450 of them. Secondly check sold listings for the 50 you kept and see if any of those are worth even listings.

[alcoforever]

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@coolections wrote:

First step is go through them and pick out the ones with the most popular people on the cover. From there throw away, (recycle) the other 450 of them. Secondly check sold listings for the 50 you kept and see if any of those are worth even listings.

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Not just popular but notorious as well.   Hitler a prime example.

[postingid7659]

Pretty much what's been said, you look at sold listings to see which issues bring more than a dollar, pick those out and sell them.  The rest are trash, or use the pages for packing material for other stuff. 

[theteamsetguy]

When going thru make sure to dump the Trump ones in the dumpster! No need to waste your time listing those.

[coolections]

@theteamsetguy 

No way. When he gets re-elected those will be worth a fortune.

[printpeople]

Some of the older Time magazines can be valuable.  I'm not sure which dates you have, but personally, I would keep an eye on the sold listings (price plus shipping, highest first) and just pull a few occasionally rather than list them all at once.

[1786davycrockett]

The current press run of TIME Magazine is 1,600,000 per week; so ANY contemporary issues are worthless, due to over-saturating the market.

It doesn't matter WHO is on the cover -- there simply is NO market for an item that is so easily obtained, and is so readily available.