Here’s a strange one: buying magazine subscriptions on eBay is surprisingly inexpensive, and it seems to really work. New subs or renewals, there’s a lot of money to be saved.
I had always used sites like magazines.com for my subscriptions; they’re generally much cheaper than going directly through the magazine’s renewal service, and generally easier too, since you can go online, do four different renewals in one transaction, pay by credit card, and be totally done.
But my cousin heard about a better way: eBay.
We’ve been speculating as to why this occurs, but like many oddities on eBay, we couldn’t really explain it. His theory is that since magazines basically don’t make their money on subscriptions but on ads, they want to raise their paid subscriber counts, thus getting more in ad revenue. So this is another way to get new subscribers (that’s the older term for “eyeballs” apparently).
Here’s an example: at magazines.com, The New Yorker is $47/year. On eBay, I can find that for about $24 (here’s a link, but it’s a live search, so you may find different prices when you try it). And here’s the worst par: on newyorker.com, the one year costs $39.95, which makes me feel like a real dolt for ever using magazines.com.
I took the plunge and set up a renewal. The company I selected had tens of thousands of good feedback - all from mag subscriptions, at least as far as I could tell. Saved some money . . .
1Boxheim on Mar 11, 2008 at 6:46 pm:
Tens of thousands sounds legit.
I remember, back in my eBay days, this as being one of the scams.
People would set up a bunch of accounts selling those $0.01 ebooks and when an account hit a high number of positive ratings they would offer magazine subscriptions. The terms would always say “10-12 weeks for delivery” which is past the point to ask for a refund and by the time 12 weeks rolls around, they made off with thousands in sales.
2admin on Mar 11, 2008 at 6:56 pm:
Good point there, Sir Boxheim. It definitely has the makings of a good scam.
I just went back and checked into my seller’s eBay account a bit more ( superior_subscriptions is the eBay screen name) and they seem pretty legit. The account actually hasn’t been open for even a year, which isn’t good, but the feedback is from other magazine subscriptions, and it’s all being left two months after the end of the auctions, so I think I’m OK. But on eBay, you’ve always got to be wary, definitely.
3Taed on Apr 20, 2008 at 7:56 am:
It looks like “superior_subscriptions” scammed us. I ordered 2 magazines from them late last year, and the magazines do not have a record of the orders. The eBay user has been suspended. Emails are not responded to. Calls to what is apparently their phone number have not been returned.
You might be lucky — try to open a case with eBay and PayPal, you might still be within time to get your $$$ back. Unfortunately, I’m outside that window.
In general, though, I have gotten great prices on eBay for magazines, and after about 25 prior purchases, I’d only been scammed once before.
4carl on May 6, 2008 at 4:58 am:
Ebay does not allow magazine subscriptions to be sold anymore due to the new delivery policy. I also sold magazines on ebay but shifted to a conventional website.
The publishers set a fixed price for magazine subscriptions and by our agent agreement we are not allowed to go below that.
Many sellers on ebay ignored this and got suspended by the publishers, others got away with it. The playing field is level now and those who did not play by the rules are out of business or looking for other methods.
If you want to get magazines from a trusted source visit my website at:
http://www.magazineoverstock.com
Thanks
Carl