How To Tel If Your Playboy Is Worth Any Money

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This was published vi years ago

Hot tip for selling former Playboys

Collectors could exist more interested in erstwhile problems of Hugh Hefner's girlie magazine at present that it has announced it volition stop publishing pictures of fully naked women.

Last month the publishers of Playboy magazine announced that they had decided to stop publishing pictures of fully naked women.

This was news to me, as I thought the magazine had long ceased to exist. What is more than interesting is that vintage copies of Playboy, those published in the 1950s and 1960s with unimposing nudity, have been steadily increasing in value over the past 10 years.

Vintage <i>Playboy</i> magazines are hot property for collectors. — Vintage *Playboy* magazines are hot property for collectors.

The very early copies, those from around 1955, are at present worth around $100 each, upwardly to a few hundred for the first 10 or so editions. A copy of the beginning edition, published in Dec 1953 with Marilyn Monroe on the cover (she'south besides featured inside as 'Sweetheart of the Month'), can be worth up to $US10,000 ($14,000) depending on its status.

This edition didn't take a date on the comprehend because Hugh Hefner, then just 27, wasn't sure if there would exist a 2d edition. In January 2011, a rare surviving re-create – with some foxing (age stains) on the comprehend – sold for $US7040 at a Julien's 'Icons and Idols' auction in California. At fourth dimension of writing, a "used" copy was listed for $3000-plus on the Amazon website.

August 1957 edition with beach scene. On sale for $130. — August 1957 edition with embankment scene. On sale for $130.

One of the few places in Australia to observe vintage copies of Playboy is at the Nostalgia Factory in the picturesque village of Kangaroo Valley, midway between the Due south Coast and the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

Here David Gazzard and his married woman Amanda sell the ephemera that David has been hoarding since the tardily '60s. A few years David gear up a kind of retro emporium in the renovated shed behind their main shop, with admission through a fragrant rose garden.

He began picking up early on copies of Playboy in the belatedly '60s when he was a regular visitor to the US. After he responded to an advertizing in an American magazine and scored a box of around 50 from i pioneer collector. He's found that quite a few sixty-something adults have kept the stack of magazines they hid under the bed every bit teenagers.

Early on editions are hard to find here considering they were prohibited by Customs, although quite a few copies were brought into the country by the crew of international airlines, who found that Australians were happy to pay two or three times the comprehend cost for a "bootleg" edition.

Marilyn Monroe graced the cover and centerfold of the first edition of <i>Playboy</i> magazine in December 1953. — Marilyn Monroe graced the cover and centerfold of the first edition of *Playboy* magazine in December 1953.

Gazzard says that those published before 1968-69 are the nigh in demand today, which fits with Playboy'due south decision concluding month. This was before the introduction of total nudity. He stocks just copies published before 1975, with some exceptions. He has a few copies of the first Australian edition (Feb 1979) published by Kerry Packer's ACP. He says these are not in need.

Current prices depend largely on condition and the talent featured, both male and female person. For example, the December 1959 edition, worth $60 these days, includes stories past Jack Kerouac, Alberto Moravia, Roald Dahl and Max Schulman, all listed prominently on the cover. Yep, people really did purchase the magazine for the articles.

November 1958 edition featuring Brigitte Bardot on a ski lift. On sale for $100.

For those of us who only looked at the pictures, copies with female person celebrities are worth more. The October 1959 features Kim Novak on the cover, worth $80 to a collector. Jayne Mansfield appeared regularly every bit a centrefold, even after she became an established Hollywood star. Ones with her inside are about $100.

Copies from 1954, the kickoff full year of publication, are worth around $200 to $300 each in Australia. Ones from the 1960s and early 1970s are around $30 to $35. To sell they have to exist in good condition and very few are. If the centrefold has been removed, they are worth 50 per cent less.

February 1979 (first Australian edition). On sale for $65.

At time of writing, a "used" copy was listed for $3000-plus on the Amazon website.

David Gazzard says he'southward never seen a re-create of the commencement Marilyn edition for sale in Commonwealth of australia but warns that reproduction copies accept been printed recently and these are sometimes offered as the real thing online. He doesn't buy or sell online.

He welcomes the contempo announcement by Playboy, which he predicts should boost interest in the magazine's early period. At the moment he only sells around xxx copies a year, a minor part of his overall turnover, just is predicting greater involvement – and higher prices – from now on.