posted on June 6, 2010 06:37:47 PM new
I lost interest in garage sales years ago, but my relentlessly optimistic husband (who never finds anything) always wants to stop when he sees a sign, and well, I like books anyway.
I found a magazine today, a 1922 issue of Confectioner's Review. It's a trade publication, but it's really interesting and cool, not to mention nostalgic. Full of ads, of course, but mostly for products sold to candymakers and retailers. In 1922 you could stock children's wristwatches with black licorice bands or complete miniature train sets made of licorice. "Cocoanut" (spelled just that way) was a popular candy ingredient.
It occurs to me that most ads I've seen for sale are from popular publications rather than rags like this. Is that an accurate perception? I thought I'd ask the experts.
posted on June 7, 2010 04:29:54 AM new
Most of my fun on eBay involved selling old car magazines. I tried clipping and selling ads, its a lot of work!
Your assessment is correct. I would suspect there is a market for the ads for tools of the trade as well as any other weird machines and products of the 20's the recipes or articles might have value. The Q might be is it more valuable in pieces or whole?
Your perception is fairly accurate. Trade publications were published in much smaller quantities, and were more likely to get tossed once the purchasing season was over... so they're not the typical ads you see available. Sometimes they can be great finds! I got a bunch of Electronics Magazine from the WWII era. Very industry specific stuff... but they had great crossover into Militaria as well. Plus, a lot of early origins of some companies (such as early Hewlett-Packard equipment). Just like any collectible, it all depends on rarity and desirability.
I'd take a single trade publication over a stack of National Geographic's any day... but it still takes a lot of work and time to get any profit out of it. If you're looking to sell it... you'll definitely get a quicker turnaround selling it whole.
Oh... and wish I had the Moore's Law issue with my Electronics Magazines (shows how much some trade publications can be worth!):
posted on June 7, 2010 08:37:16 AM new
Hey, thanks guys. The whole magazine is great, I would hate to cut it apart. It seems to touch on a lot of candy and sweets history. There's a columnist who notes that recently this guy in Iowa cut up a block of ice cream into slabs, coated them with chocolate and is calling them "Eskimo pies." He concludes that we need more good ideas like that in the business.
There are a few subtle references to Prohibition, which was in full swing in 1922, though its disastrous effects were yet to be fully felt. Did you know that the federal government required poison to be added to industrial alcohol so bootleggers couldn't use it to make shine? As many as 10,000 people died from drinking poisoned alcohol before Prohibition ended, according to Wikipedia.
Candy was definitely safer. You know what Ogden Nash said.
