Intro To Magazine Collecting and Grading

More so than most other sports collectibles, magazines uniquely capture special moments as they happen. Their impactful and timely visuals evoke strong emotions in sports fans and collectors.

Like trading cards, magazine grading is a process used to assess the condition and quality of collectible magazines.

However, grading magazines is a bit more complex than grading trading cards. Attributes of magazines considered in the grading process include cover gloss, spine condition, and page quality, as well as any defects such as scratches, tears, color loss, stains, or creases.

Who are the Graders?

CGC is the clear market leader in the magazine grading category. Their history goes back to 2000, when it transformed the graded comic book collecting world. Then four years later, CGC made its move into magazine grading, launching with two iconic publications that couldn’t be more different: Sports Illustrated and Playboy. From these unlikely beginnings, CGC quickly built the magazine grading standard, bringing their trusted certification process to virtually every major publication you can think of, from newsstand staples to collector favorites.

CGC has had very little competition since 2004… until now.

Card-grading leader PSA announced in 2024 that they will enter the magazine and comic book grading space sometime in 2025. That time has come, PSA will begin grading magazines and comics on July 14, 2025.

Source: PSAcard.com

What to Grade

The most popular magazines are those featuring prominent athletes and/or moments on the cover. The “first appearance” or “first cover” of an athlete is especially coveted. Other notable moments that enhance a magazine’s desirability and collectibility include meaningful records, debuts, championships, trades, or other significant news or events. Additionally, the “first issue” of a long-running magazine, such as Sports Illustrated #1 from August 16, 1954, is highly attractive to collectors.

Without much debate, the most desired title in sports magazine collecting is Sports Illustrated. Other popular titles include Sports Illustrated for Kids (often featuring a sheet of perforated cards inside), Baseball Digest, ESPN The Magazine, Beckett Media, SLAM, Sport magazine, World Soccer, Golf Digest, and Tennis magazine, to name a few.

With magazines, it’s important to distinguish between newsstand and subscription editions. The key difference is that subscription editions often include a white address label on the front (usually in the bottom-left corner). Many collectors feel that the address label detracts from the magazine’s overall appeal. As a result, newsstand editions are generally more desirable and valuable on the secondary market. Newsstand versions can command between a 3x to 9x premium.

It’s also important to consider that regional variations and variant covers often exist. These differences can include photo variations, price tag differences, and language or text changes. Such variations can attract more interest than the original version.

Population Reports

Like with trading card grading, magazine grading population reports are specialized analytical documents produced by the third-party grading services that provide detailed statistical breakdowns of how many magazines have been submitted for grading at each grade level.

These reports serve multiple important functions in the collectibles market: they help collectors and dealers assess the relative scarcity and market value of specific issues by showing how many copies exist at each grade level, enable informed purchasing decisions by revealing whether a particular grade is common or rare for that item, assist in insurance valuations and estate planning, and provide market transparency that helps prevent artificial price manipulation.

Pressing

Another unique aspect of this market segment is the acceptance of ‘pressing’ by grading companies. Pressing is a process used to enhance the condition and appearance of magazines. It aims to remove or reduce defects that can occur from handling, storage, or aging, such as:

• bends,
• finger bends,
• corner crunches,
• dirt (or other foreign substances),
• dents,
• spine ticks,
• spine rolls,
• minor stress lines (that don’t break color),
• ripples,
• pencil writing.

This process involves applying even pressure and sometimes heat to the magazine. This helps to flatten out imperfections and restore the magazine to its original shape.

Pressing will not remove or repair:

• tears,
• paper loss,
• creases that break color,
• stress lines that break color.

The following example demonstrates the detailed steps involved in the evaluation and pressing process before grading. This walkthrough features James Kehoe, a renowned magazine collector and leading authority in the field, who shares his expertise through his ‘CGC Sports Illustrated’ channel on YouTube and other social media platforms:

CGC also offers pressing as a service to collectors before certification. Here are more details on pressing, directly from CGC.

Preparing Your Shipment

Before submitting your magazine collection for professional pressing and grading services, proper preparation and packaging are essential to ensure your valuable items arrive safely and maintain their condition. In this segment, Kehoe provides a comprehensive breakdown of the critical steps and best practices collectors should follow to prevent damage during shipping and handling, protecting your investment throughout the entire process:

More Resources

Here are some valuable resources to help you deepen your knowledge and continue learning about collecting sports magazines:

• Card Talk: “Most Expensive Sports Illustrated Magazines Ever Sold”
• PSA: Magazine Collecting 101
• cllct: “Who has appeared on the most SI covers?”

In this engaging segment, Kehoe hosts an insightful roundtable discussion that delves deep into the world of magazine collecting and professional grading. This comprehensive conversation brings together expert perspectives on key topics including market trends, grading standards, collecting strategies, and the evolving landscape of sports magazine collecting:

UPDATE: The GradeX Market Report price guide will be adding pricing and data for key graded magazines in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Conclusion

Magazine collecting offers a unique way to capture and preserve iconic moments in sports history, with publications like Sports Illustrated standing out for their cultural significance and collectible value. Grading plays a crucial role in this hobby, assessing factors such as cover gloss, spine condition, and page quality to determine a magazine’s condition and worth. Collectors often seek out newsstand editions over subscription versions due to their cleaner covers, and the process of pressing is commonly used to enhance a magazine’s appearance before grading. As the hobby continues to evolve, understanding these nuances helps collectors make informed decisions and appreciate the depth of magazine collecting.

NOTE: This story has been updated with new information.