Rory LaitilaA Hobby Everyone can Afford
Collecting vintage advertising is an affordable and accessible hobby that almost anyone can do! There are a number of unique aspects to vintage ads that make it such a great collectable.
Collectable Home Décor
Many vintage ads make great additions to your home and room décor. The ads can be large, striking, artful, playful, funny, thoughtful and colorful. Displaying your collection throughout your home is great for yourself and guests. Vintage ads are often a great conversation piece. People almost always comment on the unique ads that I have displayed. Home décor uses for ads include:
- Playful art for kids rooms
- Art for your home bar
- Art for your garage and tool shed
- Kitschy art for your guest bath and living room
- Masculine art for the man cave
- Interesting images for scrapbooks and projects
Readily Accessible
Billions of copies of print media were produced for decades, spanning all manner of topics and uses. This means that on every hunt you are likely to come across some print media. And almost all print media has ads. If you haven’t been looking out for vintage ads before, start looking. You’ll notice that they are everywhere!
Affordable
A lot of the major publications produced millions of copies per week in their heyday. This means that whole vintage magazines can be had for $1-10 if bought in bulk. And then there can be dozens of ads within each magazine. Even famous publications with commonly sought after ads like Life, Look, Esquire & The Saturday Evening Post are very affordable. There are also dozens of smaller publications that have interesting ads that no one has ever looked for. Often you can take vintage magazines off people's hands for free.
A Variety of Topics
Whether you are into cars, soda, alcohol, gadgets, machines, clothing, fishing, or any conceivable topic of human interest, there is something for you in vintage ads. Even if you collect something else, like Beanie Babies, there are ads about them! The challenge, and the fun, is trying to find your interest in the sea of publications. Every page turn of a magazine is another chance that you will find something unique that you can add to your collection.
Growing Interest in Vintage Ads
I believe that vintage advertising will continue to be a growing collectible. Particularly in our totally captured digital and AI driven world, the comfort and appreciation of vintage print media will continue to climb.
How to Start your Collection
It’s simply impossible to collect all of the vintage ads, there are probably millions! To start your collection, you want to narrow down your topic of interest, and then search for publications that are more likely to have those advertisements. For example, if you are interested in major national soda brands, you are likely to find their ads everywhere, and in major national publications. If however you are interested in local obscura, then you will want to look for vintage regional publications.
For topic interests like boating, sports, and fitness there are publications that catered to all of them and will have ads around those topics.
To Rip or Not to Rip
Ripping is removing the ad from its original magazine or cutting it out of the page. Whether to rip the ads is a personal decision and depends on your use case. If you intend to display the ad as art, rip it! If however you simply want to have the ad in your private collection, I recommend keeping it with the original publication for context. I have a bias towards original preservation even if there are many copies. Also, keeping the ad in the original magazine keeps it more protected. Generally, this is how I decide to rip:
- Do I want to display the ad? Rip it.
- Is the ad from a major publication with readily available copies? Rip it.
- Do I want to sell a Loosie? Rip it.
- Do I need to cut down on my magazine storage space? Rip out all the keepers and throw out the rest. (A totally cut up magazine is not going to be worth anything)
Definitely do not rip:
- One of a kind publications, extremely old, or rare high quality copies. These are best preserved and enjoyed as the complete original work.
The Mission at AdRetro
I want to make collecting vintage ads easier by cataloging my collection and curating the best ads I can find. This way you can search out the publications that are going to have what you’re looking for.
A catalog and collection of vintage, quirky, gay, tech, gaming and rare advertisements from famous and not so famous magazines.
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