Old Catalogs-Any Value?
 

In the process of getting life's stuff pared down to a reasonable level, I have come across various old product brochures, QBP dealer catalogs, Campy product brochures from the 90's and early 2000, Rivendell catalogs, VAR tool product catalog, etc, etc. Is there any demand for stuff like this? Any value to collectors?

Might be for someone with the time and inclination to scan them and host the catalogs and brochures online for future reference. If I'm recalling correctly, Google still maintains free Blogspot/Blogger accounts indefinitely, so those are possibilities for archives, along with the Internet Archive site.

Just depends on time and inclination. I always intended to scan and covert some hobbyist literature to PDF but never got around to it.

If there were a serious bicycle museum, that is where this stuff would go. Most of it is in excellent condition. Anyone know of a cycling museum that may have interest in archiving stuff like this?

You could ask Charlie Kelly aka Repackrider here on the forums. He runs the archives of the Marin museum but not sure if he'd be interested or if he has the time.

Value in catalogs
 

The Bicycle Museum of America is located in New Bremen Ohio.
Was fortunate to visit there on a cross country drive.
If the catalogs contain images of logos from manufacturers they could be used to reproduce decals for restoration projects.

I don't know how much "value" one might attribute to the old catalogs, but they can at least be useful.

A decade or so ago Sheldon Brown and I collaborated on putting a 1980s vintage VAR catalog on line on Sheldons's web site, and since then it has seemed to be a useful contribution to our community. I suspect other catalogs could prove to be similarly useful.

I would buy catalogs from any of the manufacturers of bikes in my sig line, assuming the years were close to the bikes I own (at least the pre-1990 bikes)

I have the most comprehensive archive of mountain bike material anywhere. It is currently housed at the Marin Museum of Bicycling/Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. My "Mountain Bike Legacy Project" is an attempt to catalog and scan this immense trove.

Yep that's a great idea.

Bicycle Museum of America

@TiHabanero

Anything from Ten Speed Drive Imports?

Digitization is the best way to preserve them and make them accessible to people. Of course there's no money in it though. People usually only buy catalogs if they have a dream bike they can't afford, or they want a matching catalog for their dream bike.

I would also vote for digitization or sending them to an appropriate archive. Old catalogs are like old newspapers, as objects they may not have any resale value but if preserved they have a value as a source of information about the past.

There is a market for old brochures and catalogs. Just look for eBay listings of the stuff you have. As noted above Campy catalogs from the early 90’s and before will sell. I like the old catalogs, etc and have bought stuff for parts and bikes that I own. I like using my own catalogs for reference rather than sifting through online stuff.

Definitely don’t throw it away. If you have Campy catalogs no 17 or lower, I’ll buy it!

If you want to sell them...

Most things have value, to somebody. The question is how much value, and how easy/profitable is it for the seller to extract that value. If you do an ebay search for completed auctions for the items in your stash, you'll get an idea which are common, which are rare, and which may have value.

There's always the issue of how much value you place on your time. Doing an ebay listing for a catalog that only nets $4-$5 may not make sense, especially if you're employed and making more than minimum wage. If you're retired, have lots of spare time, etc, maybe your time/$$$ threshold is lower.

Maybe you do some triage. Sell the 10pcs that may gross $10-$20+, forget about the many more that barely bring $5.

If you can be bothered scanning them, Mark Bulgier at bulgier.net is usually happy to put them up on his catalogs page: http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/ (it isn't working at the moment.) At least, he's put up catalog scans that I've sent him in the past. Check what he has before you start scanning though, there are a fair few there.

Velobase also has a scanned catalogs page, but you would have to sign up to contribute: http://velobase.com/Resource_Tools/CatalogScans.aspx

Also lots of scanned catalogs at Welcome to Velo-Pages..... No use duplicating if you go the scanning route.

Value, yes. Financial value...IDK

I like having the tear sheets of bikes I own., and pass them along to new owner when I sell the bike. But I'm happy enough with a downloaded image. Amazing the amount of gaps in brochures, data, specs... from less than 50 years ago.

Saarf is a commercial site, but has lots of vintage bike catalog scans.

This site buys and sells vintage stuff, including catalogs and memorabilia.

Do you have a Supergo/Bikepro catalog from about 93 or 94? I'm looking for one of those.