Don't sleep on subscription issues of Sports Illustrated

Subscription issues are the ugly stepchild of magazine collecting. They're the heart and soul of almost any vintage Sports Illustrated collection. But with the advent of grading, pressing and a burgeoning investment-level market for sports magazines, newsstand issues are rightfully king.

And not just because of supply (by most accounts, only about 3% of weekly issues of Sports Illustrated magazines were newsstand issues), but aesthetics. I've collected raw issues of SI since 1975 and subscription labels have never been an issue. But as a graded displayable, collectible and marketable commodity, the subscription label is inherently a turnoff. It detracts from the aesthetic of the magazine cover. It's a bigger detriment to its collectibility than condition. Much bigger.

Or so I thought. Even with the graded-magazine hobby still in its infancy, graded subscription issues with the label still attached are subtly but noticeably gaining traction. It's mostly top-end issues, but not entirely. And even top-tier Jordan subscription-label issues commanding four-figure prices is an upset considering the disdain for subscription issues. But the market is speaking — softly but significantly — providing hope that subscription issues so disdained by some graded-magazine collectors/investors will find their own niche in a growing hobby.

As it turns out, condition matters — and that's the catch. While subscription detractors (and newsstand snobs!) point to the three million subscription issues that Sports Illustrated published each week at Sports Illustrated's peak around 2010, many fewer would get grades of 9.0 or higher. How many fewer? We're still finding that out. All we know right now is that high-grade subscription issues of in-demand Sports Illustrated magazines have real value.

It seems like 9.0 or better is a good rule of thumb for subscription issues with labels, but Holy Grail issues like this one are the obvious exception.

Michael Jordan sells, but it doesn't have to be a Holy Grail issue. This is his 38th cover.

Sometimes, a graded subscription issue with the label attached doesn't have to be Jordan or 9.0+ to be worth pressing.

The anticipation of LeBron James was so great in 2002 that even newsstand copies of his first cover are relatively plentiful. Even more so for the subscription issue. So this is a nice price for an issue that everyone who had one, probably still has it.

There's an additional, tricky facet to the subscription-issue issue: label removal — the bane of the newsstand collector. Professional label-removal services are getting better at fairly cleanly removing labels from subscription issues. The market — and grading companies — seem to already have determined that true newsstand issues stand alone at the top of the graded-magazine totem pole. But subscription issues with cleanly removed labels are a better alternative aesthetically to subscription issues with labels (the definition of "cleanly removed" is an issue in itself and a story for another day).

So the question for the subscription market is this: If you have high-grade subscription issues, do you grade them with the label or without? We might be a long way from a final determination on that, but for now — both versions (with and without labels) are gaining traction in the market. That's a good sign in a growing hobby.

While expert pressing can level the playing field, getting subscription issues in a premium grade could prove difficult. This Jordan first cover has never been read, but still has the typical staple/spine issues that likely prevent a grade of 9.0 or better. Them's the breaks!

These early Jordan issues look to be in pretty good condition — even before pressing. To remove the label or not, that is the question!

Some of these are beautiful covers even with the label. I'm starting to come around to the idea that if you can't remove the label with no evidence to the naked eye — a very low-percentage endeavor — grade it with the label on.

---