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Magazine Museum
Categories: Shopping Antiques Shopping Books, Mags, Music and Video Newspapers & Magazines Shopping Books, Mags, Music and Video Bookstores Antiques, Newspapers & Magazines, Bookstores [Edit]
4906 Oakton St(between La Crosse Ave & Lamon Ave)
Skokie, IL 60077
(847) 677-9444
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 10 am - 5 pm
Sat-Sun 10 am - 2 pm
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- By Appointment Only:
- No
$60 for $100 Certificate
Molly O. said: "I don't mind spending a good chunk of change to make a print/photo/painting look extra special in a wonderful frame. You can go to Target and get a…" read more »
6 reviews for Magazine Museum
6 reviews in English
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Review from Will R.
Chicago, IL
10/1/2011
The other comments do a good job of covering the history of Bob and his shop. This is an amazing place. I give it five stars, but I do have some gripes as I'll outline.
This was my first time and it is completely overwhelming! Budget time to explore!
Bob seems to specialize in three things: magazines, flags, and posters. He has flags for every nation and I spied at least one handsome Chicago city flag on the wall, but mostly these are overwhelmed by magazines and posters.
About the store:
I love old magazines and I'm partial to posters, but navigating the store is near impossible. The shelves are overstocked making the majority of the inventory inaccessible. I understand he relocated here from a larger location, but I wish the store was 50% as full. Sometimes less is more.
About the magazines:
Sadly, the magazines aren't setup for browsing. They are in unwieldy horizontal stacks and Bob discourages "self service" of the magazines. (Which makes sense given their orientation, you can't "dig" through the collection without displacing other magazines.) Bob seems to prefer to search for you, which means you have to know approximately what you want when you go in. This is my biggest gripe with the store and I hope this will change.
For instance, Bob has thousands of car magazines - many from the golden age of auto journalism in the 50s and 60s. It would be fun to thumb through the collection were they organized vertically like at a record or comic book store, but that's not possible, so I had to completely skip the collection.
As a collector I found many of the titles I'm interested in priced out of my budget. Bob seems to encourage special event buyers - people shopping for a birthday gifts where budgets aren't as tight rather than people (like me) looking for a bargain. For instance, I like Heavy Metal, but Bob has these priced at $30 and more each. He's quick to point out that he has many other titles which are more affordable. His MAD magazines from the 80s and 90s were discounted. He also seems willing to make deals for multiple purchases or with serious buyers, so its worth bargaining directly with him.
I'd be remiss if didn't mention the gigantic collection of vintage Playboy, Penthouse, and other adult magazines - there is an entire side of the store which isn't kid friendly, but fascinating nonetheless.
As access to the magazines is haphazard, I spent the majority of my time thumbing through posters, so I'll comment on that.
About the posters:
On my visit Bob made it clear that he wants the posters gone. The isles are overflowing and he has drastically slashed prices. Large format movie posters were $10, small reproduction posters were $5. Both were buy five, get the sixth free. This is hands down the cheapest place in the entire region to stock up on posters.
His collection is divided between movie posters and smaller format reproduction prints.
-Small Posters:
The "Recession Room" is actually the most organized section of the store where reproduction prints are sorted by theme. Wonderful little automobile adverts, WWI & II propaganda, fashion and advertising prints. For my significant other, who teaches middle school history, it was a chance to stock up on educational prints she could pass around her class. This is very cheap way to get some interesting prints on your walls.
When I say small, I don't mean tiny - these posters are good sized and suitable for framing. I believe they are mostly 11x15".
-Large Posters:
The vast majority of these are promo movie posters from the 80s, 90s, and 00s. These are very unexciting. If you're looking for a poster for Mrs. Doubtfire or some other mediocre 90s flick, you're in luck. It's like going through the movie poster bin at Blockbuster. Having said this, it's not all bad, there are some real gems here. I spied plenty of real movie theater posters and some first run prints. Bob has lumped in a few high priced items with the $10 stuff, so look carefully! There is also a small collection of Rock-n-Roll posters.
In addition to movie posters there are educational, scientific, and history posters which are more interesting. Here you'll find a map of the solar system, a poster of historic battleships, the Bill of Rights, etc. These are the type of posters you may have had on your wall as a kid or would have encountered in the classroom during the 80s or 90s. These are a great resource for teachers and fans of nerdy info-graphics!
Summing Up:
Bob is a warm character. Kind, knowledgeable and clearly in love with his trade. My hope is his store evolves into a browser friendly environment. -
Review from Andrea H.
Chicago, IL
7/29/2011
Bob's Magazine Museum is an has an incredible collection of magazines, posters, flags and more. Not only is the store incredible in it's depth and selection, but you will get to meet Bob, one of the most interesting and intelligent people you'll ever meet. He will be able to pinpoint any periodical, even any article, available in his selection within seconds.
My husband and I are both teachers and I love knowing that Bob's Magazine Museum exists for both myself and students. Any type of educational assignment will only be enriched by a visit to Bob's Magazine Museum. -
Review from Les I.
Cupertino, CA
9/25/2011
Bob's newsstand in Harper's Court was the closest thing we had to the World Wide Web. Being able to choose from thousands of news sources from around the world within a few feet of where you were standing. The latest information at your fingertips.
You could easily find what you were looking for as well as discover magazines you would have been looking for but you did not know they existed. I have since moved 1800 miles away but would go out of my way to see his shop when in the Chicago area. -
Review from Emily H.
Chicago, IL
6/28/2010
Wow! That other review was quite the exhaustive biography.
I love stumbling (and/or staggering) into places like Bob's Newsstand. Bob himself was an interesting, dashing character behind the counter, his store was filled with the most incredible collection of vintage magazines I've ever seen, and everything was organized well.
The theatre-sized movie posters were reasonably priced and the vintage print collection in back was amazing and quite random.
If you want WW2 era propaganda posters, Bob has them. If you want dreamy-eyed starlets from the Silver Screen, Bob has them. If you want hilariously inappropriate beer and cigarette ads from the first half of the 20th century, Bob has them.
But most importantly, Bob has stories. If you are a story buff, or at all interested in the tumultuous local history of Chicago, Bob is the man to talk to. He's written several books about his experiences and talks about times gone by freely.
Go visit him, or sit in on one of the poetry nights he hosts every week. -
Review from Monica L.
Chicago, IL
4/8/2010 3 photos
You know that feeling when you meet a complete stranger and have the most intellectual, life-changing conversation that leaves you with an inexplicable urge to turn around the millisecond you walk away? Bob's Newsstand DEFINES that.
Originally opened in 1965 in Hyde Park when Robert Katzman was only 15 (formerly known as Magazine Memories), Bob's is a little shop packed with thousands, LITERALLY THOUSANDS of vintage magazines, posters, periodicals and even flags from every nation and boxes of buttoms that read: "Kiss me, I'm (insert country here)". From Life, Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker all the way to Rolling Stone, Playboy, Sports Illustrated...take a little adventure traveling through time---I promise that you won't regret it.
Small posters = $5 or buy 5 get the 6th free
Large posters = $10
Magazines prices vary...depending on the decade and type of magazine.
Walked out of this shop with 6 small posters (3 of them were 1920s-30s ads of Budweiser, PBR and Shlutz while the other 3 were vintage posters from Europe) and 2 larger ones (Mrs. Doubtfire and Pulp Fiction).
Mr. Katzman also sells all 5 of his non-fiction books about Chicago from a street-level point of view...exploring violence, crime, love, grit, determination, friendship, carpentry, Judaism and revenge. Read his Chicago stories at no charge at http://www.differentsl....
Be aware that the magazines are old and WILL fall apart if you just casually flip through them...which is why you're not allowed to. And he doesn't have an electronic inventory of them either but the place is VERY well organized so prepare to treasure hunt!
If you're one to appreciate vintage print, this place is a MUST!!! You'd be surprised by just how many hours go by rummaging through print galore.Listed in: Thrifty Treasures, Made in Skokie
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Review from jordan b.
Skokie, IL
4/15/2010
Well what can I say. As soon as I stepped foot into Bons Newsstand, I was blown away. I am 22 years old and most of the stuff was printed way before I was born. Every nook and cranny is something compared to a walk in time machine. They have magazines, news articles, editorials rom as far back as one could imagine. So if you are looking for old magazines, or maybe dont know what you are looking for, I gurantee Bob will have it.
