The type of ephemera a person decides to collect is a very personal choice. Even within a type of collectible, such as magazines, there may be different reasons each person collects that particular type of magazine. One person may collect them for the photos (or earlier magazines, the illustrations), another may collect them to see the changes to the culture over the years, i.e., the change is clothing, furniture and decorating styles. And still, another may be purely interested in the articles and style of writing, seeing how people’s views changed over the years about religion, money, education, politics, etc. And magazines are only one type of ephemeral collectible. It is a fantastic hobby spearheaded by multitudes of reasons. There is a side of ephemera collecting that can be profitable, but this type of collecting requires investment money on the part of the collector. These will usually be items that are unique to a person or place and not mass produced. The importance of the individual or place in history will also increase the likelihood of value.
Abe Books compiled this list of various types of ephemera that people collect along with a few key thoughts about each type. Enjoy!
AbeBooks: Book Collecting Guide – Ephemera
Ephemera is a very broad category of collecting. It is anything that is transitory and not intended to be retained or preserved. It comes from the Greek and Latin words. Epi means “on” or “for” and hemera means “day”.
