WHAT'S UP: That was a fast month, even for February! I do apologize for not finding an opportunity to update the The Photoplay Magazine Checklist this month, but it is on my short list of things to do. I believe that the only page of new material added to collecting-old-magazines.com since the last issue is a page detailing SPORT Magazine in 1956, though I did do some other tinkering with the site. You can find all of the contents of collecting-old-magazines.com listed in an orderly fashion on the Sitemap.

Tough decision this month selecting the Random Issue. Initially I chose to go with the February 1927 issue of the Atlantic Monthly because its contents looked interesting and my issue is falling apart so it's a ripe candidate to be further dog-eared and perhaps even marked up. Problem was that I pulled it out too late to do my best, so I decided to go in another direction. In the meantime, you can look for an examination of the February 1927 Atlantic Monthly in the next issue. In fact, what I'm going to do is play the part of a 1927 Atlantic subscriber to the hilt and act like I just received this issue in the mail. Rather than cramming over a few days I'm going to read this one little by little throughout March, make my notes as I go and hopefully have a thorough report next issue.

As for this issue I went in about as completely a different direction as you can go. So take a moment and shake thoughts of the 20's out of your heads and settle instead in 1954. It's a few minutes after 5, you have a train to catch home from the office and want something breezy to page through on the ride home. You already read People Today earlier in the week and they're all out of Quick which was your first choice. What the heck though, Focus is only a dime and you can slip it right into your back pocket while you jog to your train...which you're about to miss if you don't make a decision soon! You toss a dime on the counter and are on your way.

I'll take you along for that train ride in a few minutes when I peel back the cover of the February 17, 1954 issue of Focus. A few other things first.

AUCTIONS: Look for some great vintage publications over the next few weeks in my auctions. I'll have Playboys from the 1960's, early 1950's issues of the aforementioned Quick, Saturday Evening Post from the 1930's through the 1950's, 1970's and 80's wrestling magazines, and some choice odds and ends that I've gathered over the past few months, but haven't found a chance to list. Store sales have been fantastic as of late, so don't be surprised if I send some titles directly to the store and never actually list them in auction format. For a nightly summarized update of new auction listings be sure to head over to my blog.

NOTE: I want to make this newsletter special for subscribers, who deserve preference over those who just go to the site to read back issues. What I did with last issue was black-out the collecting/selling tip that I included. I'm going to do this again with the tips that follow for this issue. What I want to do, and this is only if I can figure out how to do so, is remove the entire introductory portions of the newsletter from the site, so that it can only be read by subscribers. If I can do this I would leave the latest issue online as sample material for new subscribers, but black-out the tips area (which ought to give them a tease). I'm only mentioning this here in case you refer back to issues from the site itself. If you only look at the e-mailed version any change would have no effect on you.

OTHER VENUES: I recently blogged about spending a good portion of the afternoon over at GoAntiques.com. I was surprised that I actually bought a few items. Even better, I've made a purchase from one of the sellers over there after completing my initial purchases because something new was listed that caught my eye. That will keep me going back for awhile because as of right now I tend to think that there will be worthwhile fresh listings. Other spots to scour for vintage magazines are similar online malls at Ruby Lane and TIAS, plus you can try searching the excellent bookselling site, Abebooks.

I haven't had any luck at Abe lately, but I had quite a score there a few years ago when I made a deal with a bookseller who was unloading 1930's & 40's issues of The New Yorker and other literary titles such as The Partisan Review, Poetry and the latter Evergreen Review. The seller sold primarily books, was moving, and wanted to unload some bulk. I got a very good deal on quite a large amount of magazines and made quite a bit of money on them. Now I'm not saying you'll come across anything like that buy, but you certainly won't find it if you don't look for it!

PRELUDE TO OUR FOCUS: So far in this newsletter I've taken a look at issues of TIME, Newsweek and Collier's, so you may be wondering why the heck this issue's focus is Focus. The reason for this is that I want to mix it up as much as possible. I want to look at different types of magazines, I want to look at them in different ways. Will there ever be another issue of TIME for example? Sure, and probably sooner than later though definitely from a different era. I've already told you that next month's focus will be on a 1927 issue of the Atlantic Monthly and I mentioned last issue that I've already done a lot of work on a 1942 issue of LOOK that will appear in a future issue. But there are plenty of other titles you can look for in the future: I'll certainly want to do an issue of Quick because I think it will be a nice contrast this issue's Focus. Sports Illustrated and even Playboy are on my short list of titles to (tastefully) go over sometime soon. I've pretty much decided to stay in the 20th Century, because that's mainly what I sell and what I personally find most interesting cover to cover. The one thing that I know for sure is that I will never have any trouble coming up with material, there's no chance of running out!
 

WRAP-UP: And so I leave the bars of 1954 after seeking out widows, open my mailbox before going inside and am transported back to 1927 as I receive my copy of the Atlantic Monthly. Next time around we'll get into a little more intellectual content with that issue.

This was a fun one to write, hope it reads well! Til next time, thank you and take care!