“Collecting Newspapers – The Basics” (Part V) – Reprints…

April 5, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

While “fakes” in collectibles, depending upon the item being sought (stamps, coins, Hummels, etc.), can be common, thankfully such is not the case with Rare and Early Newspapers. Furthermore, the common “fakes” (called “reprints”) are well documented and were rarely done with nefarious motives. Part of the reason for the rarity of reprints is likely the price-point of most collectible newspapers (still quite low) in comparison to the cost of creating a fake which would be good enough to pass as authentic to someone who is familiar with the collectible. Printing methods, ink, paper, era-specific (“tell-tale”) environmental impact, and more have varied so significantly over time, the cost and effort it would take to create profitable forgeries cost/effort prohibitive. Still, there are exceptions – and being “in the know” can save one from being duped out of their hard-earned savings.

The issue-specific attributes which help to distinguish a reprint from an authentic issue would fill a book to rival Tolstoy’s War and Peace – making an attempt to do so within a single post absurd. However, over the past decade we have created over a dozen posts in an effort to cover as much as possible – specifically targeting the most common. Hopefully you will find them helpful:

POSTS REGARDING COMMON REPRINTS

“Collecting Newspapers – The Basics” (Part IV) – Setting Values…

March 25, 2024 by · 532 Comments 

We are often asked “What’s my newspaper worth?” in phone calls and email messages. As one might suspect, there are many factors which determine value and much like a jeweler cannot give a value of a diamond by an email or telephone inquiry, our ethics do not permit us to place values on newspapers without seeing the issues in hand.

Many factors determine value. The more important include condition, desirability among collectors, extent of coverage, completeness of the issue, proximity of the city of publication to where the event happened, time lag between the event date and the reporting date, dramatic appeal (more so with 20th century issues), and location of the report within the issue (front page? page 3?). Other factors come into play with more significant events but those noted are the prime determinants of value.

From a personal perspective setting values has been an interesting process, as no guide book of values existed 30+ years ago when I started the business. I priced an item in my catalog for $10 and if I had twenty orders for it I knew the price was too low.  If no one ordered it the price was too high. Through the years, and by data basing sold prices (on index cards prior to the computer!), I’ve honed my own “price guide” based on actual sales, and it is this now-sophisticated database which we use to set values for new inventory as it arrives.

Do values continue to rise? In general, yes, but we are careful to never recommend the purchase of early newspapers for investment purposes. As is true of most collectibles, rarity and desirability determine where prices will be for the future.

But providing an historical perspective from our own files, back in October of 1981 we sold in our catalog #26 the NEW YORK HERALD of March 5, 1865 reporting the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, very nice condition, for $70. In 2018 we sold another issue of the NEW YORK HERALD of March 5, 1865, also in very nice condition, for $745. If we had a similar issue today, it would likely go for around $1,000 – and even more if offered through a prominent auction house.

So, what do you do if you have a newspaper and would like to know its approximate value? One resource is this Blog – not for posting questions, but for exploring. We have many posts which provide specific examples of issues and their prices. Perhaps a better resource is the Rare & Early Newspapers website which provides 10,000+ examples (best to search by date and look for a comparable – see image below). Once you’ve explored these avenues, you are always welcome to contact us directly by email (guy@rarenewspapers.com). We would need the exact title and exact date of each issue to get started. Sending only photos does not work for us.

What two resources are not helpful?

1) Ebay. Why? Just because someone is asking for an amazing price doesn’t mean they’ll ever sell it at that price. “Previous Sales” are what matters.

2) Posting a question on this Blog. Why? We rarely monitor it.

Feel free to send any additional questions concerning the valuation of newspaper to us at the same email shown above. We’ll do our best to answer any that come our way… and who knows, perhaps they show up in a future post. 🙂

Q & A – Did older newspapers published on the same day vary in content?

January 8, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

In our opinion…

We recently received the following question regarding “different copies of the same newspaper of the same day” from a fellow collector:

Do you by any chance know of any scholarly articles dealing with the possibility of there being variants between different copies of the same early newspaper of the same date?

I ask because in the 1970s (before computers) I found an entry in the Morning Chronicle of London of 29 May 1816 and I published the text of that entry in a book which I published in 1977. I’m pretty sure that I found that entry in an actual copy of the Morning Chronicle at the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale in London. But now a colleague tells me that he has hunted the text down on the various online archives of newspapers and that he doesn’t find it.

So I’m wondering whether one copy of that newspaper of that day might have had the item and another not. It was a review of a concert “last night”, so it might in theory have been the case that the newspaper office received the review only let’s say in the late morning and put it into only late runs of the newspaper.

Tim Hughes, founder

Tim Hughes’ response was:

To be brief, yes, we have encountered, several times over the past 48 years, issues of the same title and date with slightly different content. And my suspicions are the same as yours: if notable news arrives at the printing office later in the day’s press run I think they did reset some type to accommodate the news. 
There are some titles from the 19th century that are relatively common, so over the years we have had multiples of the same title and date, and upon occasion–yet rarely–we have encountered different content within like issues.
In more modern times the paper would have put out an “Extra” edition with the changed text, but when issues were handset and quite labor intensive, I think they just changed a portion of the paper to those issues late in the press run.
Hope this helps.
If anyone has insight concerning the above, feel free to send your thoughts to me at Guy@RareNewspapers.com

“Collecting Newspapers – The Basics” (Part III) – Newspaper Care…

December 11, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

We, (Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers), have been collecting and offering old and historic newspapers to the collecting community since 1976 (Tim’s first purchase was in 1975). For those who are either unfamiliar with or new to this amazing hobby, today we are kicking off a series of posts, “Collecting Newspapers – The Basics”, to serve en masse as a Primer for those interested in learning more about the collectible. This is the 3rd installment. Enjoy.

Additional information about the hobby can be found through this Blog and on the Rare Newspapers’ website.

“Collecting Newspapers – The Basics” (Part II) – What to Expect…

December 4, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

We, (Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers), have been collecting and offering old and historic newspapers to the collecting community since 1976 (Tim’s first purchase was in 1975). For those who are either unfamiliar with or new to this amazing hobby, today we are kicking off a series of posts, “Collecting Newspapers – The Basics”, to serve en masse as a Primer for those interested in learning more about the collectible. This is the 2nd installment. Enjoy.

Additional information about the hobby can be found through this Blog and on the Rare Newspapers’ website.

“Collecting Newspapers – The Basics” (Part I) – Eras, Topics, and Titles…

November 27, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

We, (Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers), have been collecting and offering old and historic newspapers to the collecting community since 1976 (Tim’s first purchase was in 1975). For those who are either unfamiliar with or new to this amazing hobby, today we are kicking off a series of posts, “Collecting Newspapers – The Basics”, to serve en masse as a Primer for those interested in learning more about the collectible. The first installment (below) may appear to be a bit self-serving, but the heart behind it is simply to let seekers know the span of topics and types of newspapers which can be found. Enjoy.

Additional collecting themes can be found through this Blog and on the Rare Newspapers’ website.

Reprinted Newspapers – Identified as of 1931…

November 10, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

In 1931, Joseph Gavit, the senior librarian at the New York Public Library, published a list of known newspaper reprints: “A List Of American Newspaper Reprints”. This well-known but seldom found 16 page booklet begins: “This is an attempt to bring together, in one list, notes on all the complete separate reproductions of early or historic issues of American newspapers…”, with more to follow. At the time the list included nearly 150 reprint editions. Although the list has grown to more than 500 editions, most of the more common reprints were identified by Gavit.

We’ve created a listing “For Information Purposes Only” on the Rare & Early Newspapers website which includes photos of his work. We hope you find it useful.

An expanded list of newspaper reprints can be explored at Common Reprints – several which can be explored through this Blog by searching for “reprint“.

Exploring “This Day in History” through Rare & Early Newspapers… Updated!

October 6, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

Who among us isn’t a bit curious as to what occurred on our birthday (or today’s date) through time? The concept of exploring a specific day (month/day) through history has always been intriguing, but before the internet, such knowledge was not easy to obtain. However, in the present world of data explosion, websites which explore “This Day in History” do the job quite nicely and have become very popular. One of my favorites is HISTORY.COM maintained by The History Channel.

Of course, as a collector and reseller of old newspapers, this trek is amplified by the capability of holding authentic newspapers containing contemporary reporting of these events – to not only read the articles themselves, but to explore the context of what else was going on as the events unfolded.

Thanks to ongoing requests from collectors, we’ve created an interface on our website which enables the seeker to explore what is available at any given moment for any month/day. Even if you are not looking to add to your collection, perusing through the issues can be fascinating. If you have interest in giving this a try, the steps below are provided to help you get started.

This feature is available at: Explore: “THIS DAY IN HISTORY”

– – –

I tried own birthday and came up with the following: January 2nd Through Time

Don’t forget the “Sort” feature which will give you multiple ways to arrange your search results. Have Fun!

 

From the Vault – What is the best way to preserve & store newspapers?

June 5, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

A long-time collector, Morris Brill, is always asking great questions concerning the rare newspaper hobby. I’ll address several over the next few months, beginning with his first:

“What is the best way to preserve and store newspapers?”

I’ve considered several methods through the years. At first I was using large plastic bags and opening the four page papers and slipping them within, then taping & cutting the bag to the size of the newspaper. This way all pages could be read while being protected by the plastic.  But this obviously didn’t work if the newspaper had more than four pages.

I’ve considered encapsulation but it is relatively expensive and doesn’t provide the tactile experience so important in this hobby: one needs to touch & feel the paper to better “experience its history”.

After a few other failed experiments at proper storage I decided to customize a product I saw for storage of maps and documents. Since appropriate sizes for newspapers were not available we started making them in-house using archival material, now available on our website in eight sizes. These folders also allows the collection to label and make comment on the front of the folder. The newspapers slip in and out of the folders very easily to allow examination of all pages and that important “tactile experience”. I believe University Products offers a similar product but the sizes are not necessarily proportioned for newspapers.

I also like the newspaper storage boxes which University Products offers, and I categorize the newspapers, in folders, by era, one era per box. I find these boxes to be very nice for storing a personal collection and are advertised as being made of archival materials. They are quite strong as well.

If the desire is to show the newspapers to others or for display at a show or convention I might recommend presentation cases which we use for display. We received so much call for this product that we become distributors, now available on our website.

Best also to keep newspapers our of sunlight and high humidity. Newspapers can be professionally matted & framed quite safely, and UV glass is available if the newspaper will be displayed where the sun will hit it at some point in the day. But I would still avoid contact with the sun as much as possible.

More later!

Note: The History’s Newsstand Blog went live for the first time in 2008. Since then our goal has been to provide informative of interest to both novice and well-oiled collectors of Rare & Early Newspapers. The focus of the “From the Vault” series is to introduce the current generation of collectors to posts from the past (with occasional updates as appropriate). The original post shown above can be viewed at:

What is the best way to preserve & store newspapers?

The April (2023) Newsletter from Rare & Early Newspapers…

April 15, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

Monthly Newsletter ~ Rare & Early Newspapers

Welcome to the April Newsletter from Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers. This month we are featuring an additional 100+ items added to our previous offering of discounted issues (at 50% off), another two-dozen issues added within the past few days to the online version of our April catalog, a video showing highlights from Catalog #329, a request regarding future posts for the History’s Newsstand blog, and links to a handful of our most recent blog posts.. Please enjoy.

Catalog 329 – Newly Added

(24 more added just this week)

Catalog 329 – Complete List

(great issues still available)

Video Showing Highlights from Catalog 329

(watch video)

Newly Discounted Issues (over 300 at 50% off)

(100+ added to last month’s set)

We’re Looking for Ideas

If you have any ideas for topics related to the hobby of collecting Rare & Early Newspapers that you would either like us to have covered for yourself, or if you can think of a hobby-related topic you think might be helpful to collectors in general (including newcomers to the hobby), please send us your ideas to me at guy@rarenewspapers.com. Include whether or not it would be ok to give you credit for the suggestion if we use it. Thanks!

Recent Posts to the History’s Newsstand Blog

From the Vault: Best of the 20th century?

Snapshot 1665 – The Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper is Born…

Dramatic Headlines Speak for Themselves… The Assassination of JFK…

Finding little gems within volumes of old newspapers (updated)…

The State of the Union… Did you know…?

 

We thoroughly enjoy historic newspapers and greatly appreciate those who have a similar passion. Thanks for collecting with us!

Sincerely,

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team
RareNewspapers.com
570-326-1045

Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers . . .
           . . . History’s Newsstand
“…desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.” Hebrews 13:18b

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