Why subscribe to Sports Mag Collector?
Sports Mag Collector is a digital publication dedicated to the hobby of collecting the glossy paper ones we grew up with.
We believe sports magazines — intended to be read one week and discarded the next — are worth preserving, from the brittle Sports Illustrated issues found in your attic to the limited edition gold metal SLAMs you can buy on your phone.
Our goal is to cover this hobby as it grows from a very small niche into … maybe a slightly larger niche? We have no delusions of grandeur, and we’re not here to “get in early” on the next collecting fad destined to crash and burn. We just love sports mags — for their memorable covers, their quality writing, their stunning photography, and the nostalgic itch they scratch.
An old issue of Sports Illustrated is a snapshot of the sports world the week it hit newsstands, as much of a historical artifact as any trading card or piece of memorabilia you’ll find on the floor at The National.
What to expect when you subscribe for free:
Weekly newsletter roundup: All the latest news in the niche. Commentary on auction results, vintage discoveries, new releases, graded pop report changes, collector spotlights, and more. Delivered to your (electronic) mailbox with no gluey mailing labels or crunched corners.
Occasional single-topic deep dives: Some aspects of magazine collecting are worth exploring in more detail, such as a review of the new PSA slabs or the confusion surrounding SLAM reprints. Standalone posts will occasionally be available to free subscribers.
Connection to fellow magazine collectors: The SMC subscriber-only chat is the perfect place to show off your latest pickups, discuss cleaning and pressing techniques, and ask questions about sourcing, selling, and everything in between. Everyone here is into what you’re into.
Whether you collect mags to read or stack slabs to sell, we think you’ll find something worthwhile every week at SMC.
P.S. Nothing on this Substack is written with AI. We spent too much time appreciating the human-written words in magazines to put out bland, computer-generated muck about how great they were.
