One of the things I’ve always loved best about collecting old magazines is that outstanding content is often found under the front cover. This presents some bargains if you know what you’re looking for. This quick post focuses on a couple of early articles about Jackie Robinson that are hidden under the cover. The first example shows how you can score a bargain if you know what you’re looking for, while the second example is a rare case where what you’re hunting just might have value for completely unrelated reasons!
This one can usually be found pretty cheap, here’s the cover:
The November 26, 1945 issue of Life Magazine has a Champion Afghan on the cover. You can usually find them priced about the same as other issues of Life from that period.
But if you take the time to page through the issue you’ll find this:
The second magazine we’re going to look at is no bargain because of more obvious content which we’ll get to in a second, but tucked under the covers of the April 23, 1947 issue of The Sporting News is an article about Robinson’s major league debut, which happened 62 years ago today:
Unfortunately, you’re not going to find this one on the cheap as the cover of this issue looks like so:
Book value on this issue, inside the Standard Catalog of Sports Memorabilia, 3rd Edition
But if you’re hunting down Jackie Robinson magazine appearances for your collection, the high value here isn’t going to matter. I just wanted to give you a couple of other places to look for historic Jackie Robinson articles that were less obvious than cover appearances.