Early Issues of Magazines Are Sought by Many Hobbyists

A good chunk of our mail is generated by magazine collectors.

This particular breed of collector, it would appear from the letters, is relentless in pursuit of that valuable but always elusive (and expensive!) Vol. 1, No. 1 of everything from Playboy to National Geographic.

With justifiable pride, magazine collectors have reported that after many years of difficult searching, they have acquired every issue of a particular publication.

So it was with great interest that we read a piece in the August issue of Arizona Highways by writer Joseph Stocker on the trials and tribulations of collecting that venerable publication. We know that there is a multitude of collectors of Arizona Highways, because hardly a month passes that we don’t receive letters from them inquiring into the value of a particular issue or an entire collection.

According to Stocker’s article, “a kind of unofficial/official price list was put together by the magazine in collaboration with one or two large-scale dealers. Prices on the list range from $40 to $100 (depending on condition) for an authentic Vol. 1, No. 1, and for other very early issues to a buck or so for recent ones.”

The first two issues of the publication--April and May, 1925--are understandably difficult to locate. Complete collections, according to the piece, are extremely rare.

“I’ve found only two (complete collections),” Stocker writes, “the magazine’s own permanent file and another in the Arizona Department of Library and Archives.” (If any reader of this column has a complete Arizona Highways collection, drop us a note.)

Undeniably, the magazine has a popularity and mystique that has sent its prices soaring. Dealers and collectors have told us that early issues have changed hands for more than $200, a fact confirmed by the August article.

Other issues bring top dollars because they contain works of particular artists or authors.

Who has the biggest collection of Arizona Highways? Stocker says the honor belongs to Carol Caldwell, who claims to have 65,000 issues stored in a barn at her New River, Ariz., home. Caldwell and her husband operate as the Daisy Mountain Trading Co., and say they do business with Arizona Highways collectors worldwide.