Okay, so I’ve been digging into this whole collectible magazine thing lately, and let me tell you, it’s a wild world out there. Today, I wanted to share my little adventure of figuring out the “top 100 most valuable Sports Illustrated magazines”. I mean, who knew old sports magazines could be worth so much, right?
First off, I started by just poking around online. I figured there had to be some kind of list or something out there. And yeah, there’s a ton of info, but it’s all scattered. I found out that Sports Illustrated, or “SI” as the cool kids call it, is a big deal. Over 3 million subscribers and read by 23 million adults each week, It’s a huge magazine and the old copies have a lot of collectible value.
So, I started making a list of the magazines that seemed to pop up a lot in terms of value. One thing that became clear pretty quick was that the first-ever issue from way back in August 1954 is a big one. That’s like the holy grail for SI collectors, it seems.
Then I dove into the whole Michael Jordan thing. Apparently, this guy was on the cover, like, 50 times! I tried to see which of his covers were worth the most, and it turns out his third cover, “A Star Is Born,” is a hot item. That’s his first cover in a Bulls uniform, which is apparently a big deal.
I also learned that sports magazines, in general, are worth a bit less than Sports Illustrated, like 30-35% less, even when they have the same players on the cover. Kind of interesting, huh?
After that, I spent hours, I mean hours, scouring through forums, auction sites, and collector blogs, trying to piece together a list of the top 100. It was tough, man. There’s a lot of opinions out there, and prices are all over the place. It takes a lot of work to put the data together, and even then it’s still hard to pinpoint the exact price.
But I managed to put together a pretty solid list, if I do say so myself. It’s not perfect, and I’m sure some collectors would disagree with some of my picks, but it’s a good starting point. It is still a preliminary list after all, and I might adjust it later.
This whole thing has been a real eye-opener. I never thought I’d get this into collecting sports magazines, but it’s actually pretty fascinating.
Anyway, that’s my little journey into the world of valuable Sports Illustrated magazines. Hope you found it somewhat interesting!
