'I MAY THE
CASH H IT YOU

E VER FEEL SORRY FOr
GI Joe? Yeah, GI Joe
was there all right:
being hurled off buildings,
drowned and tested for flam-
mability.
If we'd known in the early '80s
that the action figure would be
worth up to $300 today, would we
have gone easier on old Joe? Proba-
bly not. But now we can rummage
through the toys we didn't torch for
some quick cash.

Jim Bernard, a junior at the U.
of Texas, Austin, preserved his
childhood by storing his GI Joe
action figures and putting protec-
tive plastic covers over his old
comic books. "I wanted to save my
Joe toys to give to my kids so they
may enjoy them also," he says.
"But I'm planning to sell the
comic books when I need the
money.
The toys and trinkets we used
and abused as children have found a

niche in the collector's hall of fame,
and it's not just Joe. "Star Wars was
the fire that started the toy-collect-
ing craze," says Bill San, manager of
the Puzzle Zoo in Santa Monica,
Calif. "It was the first line that was
mass marketed."
Some of the high-ticket items at
the collectibles shop include a Sonic
Controlled Land Speeder ($500),
Cloud City play set ($225) and a
light saber replica signed by Mark
Hamill (Luke Skywalker) that sells
for more than $1,000.
View Masters, Pez dispensers,
Swatch watches and lunch boxes
are a few other nostalgic items
that collectors are snapping up in
the '9Os. But before yoo make
plans to pay off next year's
tuition with your Smurf collec-
tion, it's best to check their value
in trade magazines so you don't
get ripped off.
Collector hibles like Warman's
Americana & Collectibles,eAction
Figure News &i Toy Review and
Amazing Figures give prices and
guidelines for would-be collectors
and sellers.
Junk, however, is still junk.
Despite the revival of Daisy Duke
short-shorts, the Dukes of Hazzard
lunch box will net you only $10.
Pac-Man fever, however, is still
raging in collecting circles. The
metal lunch box sporting that
famous ghost chomper is worth
about $40.
So don't plan on striking
gold with every retro-tique in
the attic. The current price
tag of $120 for Remco's
1978, 12-inch energized Bat-
man action figure may be
encouraging, but Mattel's
Masters of the Universe 6-
inch He-Man figure
($10) will barely pay for
a used CD.
Now that it's big
money for little toys,
all we can do is
pray for the day
that vinyl records
and Garfield
books make a
comeback.
Casey Pogue,
U. of Texas,
Austin/Photo
byAudrey
Parsons, U. of
Tennessee,
Knoxville

THE
DOW

lAD

N THE REALM OF COLLEGE NEWSPAPERS, IT'S ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO
download. To date, more than 75 college publications have expanded to
include on-line versions of their newspapers, and the number is growing
rapidly as the information superhighway spins an even bigger Web.
Why the expansion from broad sheet to byte? Cost is one factor: "For
smaller newspapers, the biggest expense is newsprint and distribution," says
Marshall Miller, a junior at Brown U. and executive editor of the Brown
Daily Herald Being on the Web broadens circulation without the added
expense of print.
"College students have the time, the knowledge and the freedom to try
new things, and there are few barriers to their creative freedom," says Jeff
Boulter, a senior at Bucknell U. in Pennsylvania and editor in chief of The
Bucknellian, which jumped on the Web in 1994.
The story of The Bucknellian's on-
line version is fairly typical: Initially,
the newspaper was available through
Gopher, a clumsy Internet tool that
limited the paper to a text-only for-
mat. Then the newspaper was placed on the Web, which, with the addition of
pictures and graphics, made it more user-friendly.
The new audience for college newspapers ranges from students and
alumni to random Web surfers. "It's a little frightening to think that some-
one across the globe can read about what's going on at school just as easily as
one of my classmates can," says Karen Apollo, a senior at Cornell U. "But as
long as I have a paper copy of the Sun to keep me busy during lecture, I
guess there's no harm in going on-line."
For those who fear that their campuses will become just another truck stop
on the information superhighway, some editors have a more positive outlook.
"The college campus as a separate and secluded entity is a prehistoric
notion," says Charles Ratliff, a grad student and editor in chief of The Sum-
mer Wildcat at the U. of Arizona. "The traditional campus will continue to
be replaced by a more global and virtual one.... The move to on-line news-
papers is only part of a much larger trend, and a good one at that."
Good or bad, there remains much room for growth. Currently, most on-line
papers are simply pared-down electronic editions of the original paper versions;
they typically have all text and few or no photos. Unlike print editions, however,
publications on the Web offer the bonus of linked sources, which allow immedi-
ate access to various Web sites, newspaper archives and school homepages.
So what exactly does the future hold? On-line papers will probably
evolve into DIY publishing - Web users will designate, point by point, the
exact content of the news or information they wish to receive rather than
settle for the broad, standardized matter chosen by others.
But whether students and their publications are able to remain the cre-
ative spinners of the Web - or are destined to become entangled in it -
has yet to be decided. Stay logged on.
Brian Salsberg, Harvard U./Illustration by Stacy Holmstedt, Arizona State U.
Check au our list of must-see college papers at: http://www.umagazine.com

14 U. Magazine " August/September 1995