Growing up during the 1980s, before the existence of the Internet and smartphones, I consumed media the old-fashioned way: by reading printed newspapers and magazines. My parents subscribed to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, The Economist, and Time.
Since news wasn’t yet available with the simple tap of a fingertip on a screen, I loved seeing the newspaper each morning on our driveway, or waiting for the mailman to leaving one of our many weekly periodicals in our mailbox. Before banner notifications and newsfeeds, this (along with Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and Tom Brokaw in the evenings) was how the world came to our house.
To me, at the time, Time was the periodical of record. Everyone knew who was on the cover of that week's issue and I can vividly remember adults debating whether Time selected the right celebrity or politician to be "Person of the Year."
At its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Time reached millions of readers weekly.
While the magazine is no longer the cultural touchstone it once was, vintage copies of Time have become sought after collectibles. The very first issue of Time, which featured the then-Speaker of the House, Joseph Gannon, and published in 1923, is extremely hard to find and rarely for sale. There are only seven universal blue label copies on the CGC Census and only one graded copy has ever sold at public auction. This near top-of-the-census CGC 5.5 copy of the first issue of Time sold for $18,300 at Goldin Auctions in July 2024:
Other notable and valuable issues that sell for higher prices among collectors tend to be both rare and historically significant. For example, the first issue of Time featuring Albert Einstein on its cover is especially valuable. This CGC 7.5 copy of Time vol. #13, issue #7 (1929), which features Einstein on the cover for the first time, sold for $4,880 on eBay in December 2024:
A year later, Time made the bold decision to feature a criminal for the first (but not the last) time on its cover: the Chicago crime boss, Al Capone. This 1930 issue with "Scarface" on its cover is popular among collectors with this CGC 6.5 copy selling for an impressive $5,000 Best Offer back in May 2025:
Depending on who is gracing the cover, modern issues of Time magazine can sell for well above cover price almost immediately after leaving the newsstand. For instance, during the past year, four of GoCollect’s Top 10 Hottest Magazines were recent issues of Time. The #1 Hottest Magazine of the year was Time #v204 #21 which featured Donald Trump as Person of the Year. That position was solely based on volume of sales, not value. Earlier in 2025, a CGC 9.8 copy of this issue could sell in the $300 to $400 range, but now typically sells for $110.
Perhaps the greatest draw towards this historic publication is that even if you are not a collector of anything and simply want to take a journey back through the ages, Time Magazine offers a rare and remarkable escape from the everyday nuances of this hobby. Instead of approaching as a collector or an investor, feel free to sit back and leaf through the back issues we have saved to our database, complete with accurate dates, images, and historic key information for every issue in our records.
It is very important to note that for the majority of its tenure, Time was assembled and released every week no matter where the social, political, or economic climate was at. Time would never pause and wait for the smoke to clear, or dust to settle; not once in over 100 years. Everything worth mentioning that transpired in the last 102 years is presented in vivid reality on the cover, or preserved in a well-written article for your personal reflection.
