Featured Advice on finding antique journals?

Hi everyone! I've been antiquing for close to four years now and mainly collect things like photographs, letters, magazines, and, if I'm lucky, journals. I only have one diary that I've acquired over the years, and that was by mere chance. I was wondering if anyone here would have any advice on where to find antique diaries and journals online or in the real world. I haven't had the chance to go to any estate sales either, so I was also wondering how to find some? Thanks for your help!

 

eBay.

Debora

 

Hi Cara,

I'm a new member here, but I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring on this one.

Ebay is a good place to start looking, you can set up searches to automatically notify you of new journals as it's quite specific - I can't imagine there will be too many of them cropping up, so having a tool to the leg work for you is how I look at it.

Also, car boot sales - look for the sellers who have done house clearances and have piles of old books and documents; rummage through the boxes...all the way to the bottom.

Hard to find stuff, but actively looking in the right places will work out for you in the long run.

 

Good advice above. And I might add... As with any collecting interest, scarcity can make it more worthwhile.

Debora

 

It's a long shot, but maybe post what you're interested in on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace? There could be people storing boxes of old diaries and photos that they would love to get rid of.

 

Hi Cara, just today I put the info about the magazine from 1957 on Soviet propaganda art. If you are intersted please check my thread

 

Hi Cara, this is the thread Natasha mentioned. A really interesting subject.

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/should-i-inform-you-of-such-magazines.61465/

 

You can also try etsy, there may be some there for you perhaps?

 

I'd say the best chance would be estate auctions or estate sales. Diaries & letters are something that people don't let go voluntarily. Sometimes, very rarely, you can purchase boxes of letters. Might try to find an estate where there is no family or family is not local.

 

I have seen at estate sales from time to time. Always seems so sad to me, no one to pass it on to or they didn’t care.

 

Having found them, how a reasonable value arrived at for old diaries, journals, etc.? Obviously, if connected to a historically well known figure, that would put it in the upper tier. But the authors of many are simply ordinary people that history has largely forgotten. What makes one more desirable than another? Since they are all unique, what does scarcity mean in the context of old diaries?

 

I have the last 6 months of the weekly publication, "Scientific American" from 1864. They talk about the Civil War in first person and they have plenty of those old-fashioned drawings that are so beautiful. They used to do them weekly and I have the entire second half of the year of 1864. I purchased it from a small Museum in Canada and had it brought back to the US years ago. Didn't know if that's the kind of thing that interested you or not but I am thinning my collections as of recently. I've acquired too much stuff being a buyer and never a seller over the past 30 Plus years. I have run out of room and my wife's making Space by getting rid of my stuff. Haha.