BYTE Magazines

[Ethan Dicks]

On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 7:15 PM Kevin Parker via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Do BYTE magazines have any collectability (maybe even from a historical
> perspective or something else)?

I know certain ones are sought after based on specific contributors or
specific machines gracing the cover (Amiga, Apple, etc.)  I'd say
"value" fluctuates wildly and is definitely subjective.

In my personal case, I'm fond of the issues before the PC took over
because I started reading it in the early 80s and even though I didn't
have a CP/M machine, I still read those articles with fascination (I
devoured the hardware articles by Steve Ciarcia and others and
anything for the PET or could be adapted to the PET).  Specific ones,
like the launch of the Amiga 3000 aside, I am not as interested in
anything past the end of the 80s.

Other people will have completely different opinions based on what
content tickles them.

Except for, say, the first few issues, it's not like they aren't
somewhat abundant - issues were preserved by a lot of people.  I am on
my second set because I lost most of my originals in a flood 25 years
ago.   I did a rescue and was asked if I wanted 4 bankers boxes of
Byte Magazines going back to the late 70s.  How could I resist.

As mentioned, many of them have been digitized and I do reference the
PDFs a lot, but I still like the paper and being able to flop open to
an ad or schematic and leave it open for reference.

> I have to make some decisions about space (the perennial problem for a
> collector of course) and I have quite a few of these taking up a few
> shelves.

Sure.  That's always the challenge.  I wish I had a better place for
mine, but I'll have to rearrange a few things first.

-ethan