Best Results Organizing

Do you run out the day after Election Day or immediately following huge Dow-Jones fluctuations to pick up multiple copies of the newspaper? Do you imagine your great, great grandchildren getting rich from the proceeds of your well-planned newspaper acquisitions?Think again!

Some events naturally bring to mind famous newspaper front pages.  For example, on Election Day, the iconic Chicago Daily Tribune headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” provides a superb “nyah nyah” to arrogant pollsters:

Nobody can forget the day that mankind took that giant leap into the future.  In my baby trunk in my parents’ basement in Buffalo, NY, there’s a wrinkled, slightly-yellowed copy of the (then-entitled) Buffalo Evening News reporting on the very same topic shown in The New York Times:

And of course, you music lovers might have kept copies of the papers the day the music died:Even if for you that wasn’t Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valenz and the Big Bopper, but Elvis, or John Lennon or Kurt Cobain, that “bad news on the doorstep” probably made you shiver, whatever time of the year you read the paper. 

And in my own life, I recall my mom painstakingly saving multiple copies of Buffalo Evening News columnist Karen Brady’s piece on my third grade class.  A mini-feminist, I’d ended my letter imploring Ms. Brady to speak to Miss Minklein’s 3rd grade Writer’s Club by saying it had been a campaign promise that I’d get a real writer to speak to our class.  And I’d P.S.ed that I had beaten out boys to attain the presidency.  (How could the hip columnist turn that down?)

In the case of the first three papers, while the stories had (and still have) great historical significance, the newspapers themselves have little financial value.  Our moon landing issue, complete with news stories, cartoons and grocery ads, is quaint, but is likely worth little more than pennies and certainly not in excess of the daily copy price.  It might please future family members to have it, but it’s not going to allow my folks to afford a ride on the Space Shuttle.

The very reason newspaper collecting is a great hobby is that antique newspapers aren’t very expensive.  According to HistoryBuff.com, even original copies of historic newspapers from the early 1800s, in perfect condition, cost around $10, and rarely more than $20.  That’s great news if you like to acquire old newspapers, but hopefully it will dissuade Paper Doll readers from saving tomorrow’s election results, no matter how historical, in hopes of a big collectors’ payday.  (Of course, if you just find elections fascinating, Timothy Hughes of History’s Newsstand Blog, has some advice on which post-Election Day papers might have the most historical, if not financial, significance.)

The truth is, for antique newspapers to be valuable, they must meet very specific criteria:

• Front-page coverage of major historically-significant events in either U.S. or international history. 

The reason the news has more value if it’s on the front page is that the paper can be more easily displayed, and one can view the newspaper’s full name and, with truly historic events, the banner headline.  Papers with local-interest only, like your town’s worst blizzard or wackiest pie-eating contest, would rarely garner interest from anyone other than your community archivists.

• Condition of a newspaper should be pristine. 

My parents’ moon landing paper, all wrinkly and slightly yellowed, is of no use to any collectors.  Crinkled, stained, multi-folded, laminated or just plain worn newspapers have no value. 

But don’t assume that condition indicates age.  Newspapers from prior to 1880 actually look newer than week-old papers due to the high rag/cotton/linen content.  Kept away from sunlight, extreme heat and humidity, those old rag newspapers look new, while new newspapers, conversely, are made from newsprint, which is generally non-archival, and wear out quickly.  In other words, newer papers are only a step or so up from those splinter-filled, wide-ruled sheets on which we learned to write in cursive. 

• Original issues have actual value because they are more rare. 

Back in the days of newsboys on street corners, newspapers put out early editions, mid-day editions, late editions, and so on.  People discarded the older issues as updates came out.  The very first time a publication reported a story, it was called the “First Report”, and according to HistoryBuff.com, the first paper in the United States to report on a story got the bragging reports to “First Report in the Nation”.  Such papers have greater financial (if not informative) value than later editions.  Novice collectors often think they possess original issues, when in fact they have special edition or anniversary reprints of original newspapers, which in fact have little or no monetary value.  So, tomorrow’s city papers you’re tempted to save?  They’re just not rare.  (I’ll leave it to history and journalism critics to say whether they’re well done.)

• Proximity to the original event might matter, too. 

A Hawaiian newspaper reporting on the bombing of Pearl Harbor or a New York City newspaper’s coverage of 9/11 has more impact than a story in a suburban publication halfway across the country of a major event.

Nowadays, newspapers generally print thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of one daily issue.  Further, papers are now printed on highly acidic newsprint, rather than olden days rag that kept its like-new condition.  So, the paper that thuds onto your front step too-early in the morning just won’t have monetary value.

Hopefully, this is enough to convince you that saving entire newspapers isn’t going to make you rich.  Newspaper collecting may be a fun hobby, but not a lucrative one unless you are planning to become one of the world’s pre-eminent collectors.  (Paper Doll readers probably don’t have that kind of spare time.  As Mr. Monk and Paper Mommy both say, I could be wrong.  But I don’t think so.)  So, if paper clutter is your problem, perhaps this something to eliminate from your list of prospective hobby options?

Of course, if your daughter’s engagement photo is in this weekend’s paper, or your spouse’s winning pumpkin-growing entry got full-color treatment, you’re probably not thinking dollar signs but family history.  While sentimental memorabilia has its place, my job as your Paper Doll is to help you save what you love without getting buried in clutter. 

Next week, we’ll be talking about how to (manually and digitally) preserve personally significant newspaper clippings for posterity.  Gather your clippings, and I’ll meet you back here next week.

The Paper Doll Win An Internet Password Organizer™ contest closes Wednesday (11/5/08) at Noon Eastern Time.  If you haven’t already entered for your chance to win, time’s a wastin’, as they might have said in those olden-days papers!  The winner won’t be profiled in any national newspapers, but will be announced right here at Paper Doll by Wednesday evening.  Good luck!