How to Collect Vintage Advertising

If you love to collect advertising and old advertisements, then turn to the internet and the re-use centers, and your local newspaper.

A great place to start, is the re-use centers, flea markets, second hand stores, and garage sales. Make sure to be dressed comfortable, in older clothes, because you will be doing some digging, through old boxes etc!

Most of the re-use centers will have old magazines in boxes, that you will have to dig through. This is a good place to start because many people who are clearing out aging relatives homes, don’t know what to do with the collections of older magazines, books etc that may have been accumulating in some basements for years, so they will dump them off at these re-use centers. Many are pack rats, which of course is good for you, if you are looking for older advertising.

Another way, is to place an ad in your local paper, that you are looking for older magazines and newspapers (as an example) and you are willing to come and pick them up. There are people who will take you up on that offer just to get boxes of old magazines out of their basement.

Once you have located some great ads, or magazines, or labels, take your treasures home and put them in al album right away, somewhere flat and away from sunlight, and try to find out as much information about the ad that you can, don’t leave them laying around the house like clutter either!.. make sure to do something with them right away, take out the ad and discard the parts you don’t want, and do that right away, or you will end up with the same clutter as the houses you took them from!

With magazines, pull or carefully cut out the entire page of the ad, this way there should be a date on the page (hopefully) and then place it carefully in a album with plastic sheeting to protect it.

If vintage magazine advertisements are your passion, then why not have themed albums, showing ads for “fishing” or “hunting” or “household” that type of thing.

You can also start a business with this collection of vintage advertising, as this has become a popular hobby.

If you have exhausted your local re-use centers, garage sales, etc, then why not try shopping online?.. This way you can get advertisements from all over the world and expand your collection. You don’t even need to leave your house. Just make sure to catalogue and label your albums. Collecting vintage magazine ads, will take up less space in your home, as you place the albums on shelves etc… now if you are collecting large vintage restaurant signs, then you may need a bigger house

vintage advertising

How to Collect Vintage Advertising