Why does nobody want paper maps anymore?

[pete75]

Had a clear out and as a result getting rid of about 125 OS 1:50000 maps. Was collecting the whole country at one time but now I've got them all on Memory Map. Put on Ebay no takers, put on Freecycle no takers so now they're for burning. A shame really - you'd think someone would have a use for 'em.

[Oldjohnw]

According to Mountain Rescue, anyone going into the hills without a paper map and compass and he ability to use them is asking for trouble. It is one of the main causes of MRT call-outs.

Depending on electronic guidance alone in the hills is foolish.

[Jdsk]

Anyone who's going to rely on them for navigation is likely to want current versions.

That leaves alternative uses: wallpaper, book covers?

Jonathan

[Traction_man]

Had a clear out and as a result getting rid of about 125 OS 1:50000 maps. Was collecting the whole country at one time but now I've got them all on Memory Map. Put on Ebay no takers, put on Freecycle no takers so now they're for burning. A shame really - you'd think someone would have a use for 'em.

Please don't burn them!

Might be worth contacting the Charles Close Society, and offering FoC and someone is bound to take them--https://www.charlesclosesociety.org/

CCS has a small ads https://www.charlesclosesociety.org/smallads to use for this.

I would have thought Oxfam bookshop might take them too.

cheers,

Keith

[Jdsk]

I'd never heard of The Charles Close Society.

Thanks for posting that.

Jonathan

[Tangled Metal]

Just keep them!?!?

Why the need to get rid just because right now you've taken the electronic mapping route? Belt and braces surely better than relying on one system with enough cases of failure to worry me enough not to rely on it.

Of course I'm guilty of rarely taking any mapping when out walking. I rarely need to know where I am by using a map. Decades of walking my area and further away means I just use my inbuilt memory maps in new routes I just use natural navigation and sense of direction. We're capable of being more instinctive than you'd expect with navigation. Does take experience I think though.

It's a shame to burn the maps though. Feels like a mistake on the part of the op but his choice.

[hamster]

I still use paper maps and prefer them to electronic. The exception is in town centres, where I use a phone with a single earpiece giving directions. IN particular the French IGN 1:100,000 maps are superb.

My main bugbear with electronic maps is that it's hard to get a helicopter view of the route and to find sites of interest which (when threaded together) make a day's ride interesting. Likewise it allows easy re-routing and flexble planning. The idea of slavish route-following is not for me. I am also minded of issues with battery life and device failure - there is far less to go wrong with paper maps.

However I generally don't buy maps secondhand as I would want the newest edition. The only exception is my downstairs loo, which is wallpapered with Admiralty charts. While ruminating there, it allows the opportunity to study the chart intensely and even perhaps make a passage plan, generally from Handfast Point westwards past Portland Bill.
Maybe wallpaper with some of the best-loved ones?

[simonhill]

What vintage are they? Ten, twenty, forty years

If they are 1:50,000 then they are post early '70s. I've got some going back to then and still use, but carefully. Not unheard of to find small road truncated by a new bypass. A lot has happened in 50 years.

[pete75]

I still use paper maps and prefer them to electronic. The exception is in town centres, where I use a phone with a single earpiece giving directions. IN particular the French IGN 1:100,000 maps are superb.

My main bugbear with electronic maps is that it's hard to get a helicopter view of the route and to find sites of interest which (when threaded together) make a day's ride interesting. Likewise it allows easy re-routing and flexble planning. The idea of slavish route-following is not for me. I am also minded of issues with battery life and device failure - there is far less to go wrong with paper maps.

However I generally don't buy maps secondhand as I would want the newest edition. The only exception is my downstairs loo, which is wallpapered with Admiralty charts. While ruminating there, it allows the opportunity to study the chart intensely and even perhaps make a passage plan, generally from Handfast Point westwards past Portland Bill.
Maybe wallpaper with some of the best-loved ones?

I'm keeping the ones of areas I like best, have got about 100 more. I surprised you say it's hard to get a helicopter view of a route with an electronic map as you can get exactly that - well satellite but it's the same thing.
I find it odd that those who don't use them thing those who do only ever slavishly follow a route on the map.

[PDQ Mobile]

The only exception is my downstairs loo, which is wallpapered with Admiralty charts. While ruminating there, it allows the opportunity to study the chart intensely and even perhaps make a passage plan, generally from Handfast Point westwards past Portland Bill.

While ruminating always a tricky section!
A passage plan!!
Handfast point and Portland Bill!!!

[Greystoke]

Us road rallying chaps still use os 1:50000 landranger maps

[Traction_man]

I still use paper maps and prefer them to electronic. The exception is in town centres, where I use a phone with a single earpiece giving directions. IN particular the French IGN 1:100,000 maps are superb.

My main bugbear with electronic maps is that it's hard to get a helicopter view of the route and to find sites of interest which (when threaded together) make a day's ride interesting. Likewise it allows easy re-routing and flexble planning. The idea of slavish route-following is not for me. I am also minded of issues with battery life and device failure - there is far less to go wrong with paper maps.

However I generally don't buy maps secondhand as I would want the newest edition. The only exception is my downstairs loo, which is wallpapered with Admiralty charts. While ruminating there, it allows the opportunity to study the chart intensely and even perhaps make a passage plan, generally from Handfast Point westwards past Portland Bill.
Maybe wallpaper with some of the best-loved ones?

I'm keeping the ones of areas I like best, have got about 100 more. I surprised you say it's hard to get a helicopter view of a route with an electronic map as you can get exactly that - well satellite but it's the same thing.
I find it odd that those who don't use them thing those who do only ever slavishly follow a route on the map.

I prefer paper maps and always take them on rides and walks, even though I have all the OS on my phone--the small screen means an overall view of the map/landscape is limited, and also the online OS maps (and Google etc) lose visible detail when zooming out (ie reducing scale), so again this limited the overall view of the landscape--laying out a paper map on the table and standing a foot or two away from it we can 'take in' a wide area while at the same time still see the map 'at scale' and the smaller details.

For me it is not either or with paper and digital maps but a combination of both, each has advantages and disadvantages, and OSGB still sees a healthy sale of paper / printed maps. For the older editions there is still a market for collectors of OS maps (accessible through CCS as above), as well as those who want a cheap paper 1:50k map for 'the field', as I do, any local changes to roads and built up areas don't render an older map edition unusable as I use the digital editions for this, but then again I am a map nerd...

all the best,

Keith

[cyclop]

Essential bedtime reading surely.....what else.

[hamster]

I surprised you say it's hard to get a helicopter view of a route with an electronic map as you can get exactly that - well satellite but it's the same thing.
I find it odd that those who don't use them thing those who do only ever slavishly follow a route on the map.

OK, the bit I really like is being able to plan say a 20-30 mile stretch with it all spread out in front of me. It's easy to see options. If it's an electronic map at home on my big desktop monitor, it's no problem. On a 5" smartphone screen it's not easy: either it's like watching TV by looking through my letterbox or it's so zoomed out that there is no detail.

[pete75]

I surprised you say it's hard to get a helicopter view of a route with an electronic map as you can get exactly that - well satellite but it's the same thing.
I find it odd that those who don't use them thing those who do only ever slavishly follow a route on the map.

OK, the bit I really like is being able to plan say a 20-30 mile stretch with it all spread out in front of me. It's easy to see options. If it's an electronic map at home on my big desktop monitor, it's no problem. On a 5" smartphone screen it's not easy: either it's like watching TV by looking through my letterbox or it's so zoomed out that there is no detail.

Having never watched TV looking through a letterbox I'll just have to take your word for that.