So a buddy of mine emailed me that he got a 4-year subscription to Rolling Stone magazine on eBay for $9.95. I look in the Subscription category and see 4-year subscriptions to RS for as low as $4.95! So we’re talkin’ a 98%+ reduction off the cover price…
What is up with this? How can these sellers offer them so cheap? What are the catches to this type of deal?
My biggest concern would be that the seller gets my contact info and gives it to spam-from-hell-ers, but isn’t that a risk with a normal subscription to magazines anyway?
Anyone with experience who can comment would be very much appreciated.
Update: my buddy replied to an email I sent him with this opinion:
“My take is that the publishers are giving away subscriptions in order to
keep their circulation #'s at the levels they need (for ad revenue). I’m
guessing that they use ebay so as not to piss off their other channels that
are trying to sell the mags.”
Whaddya think?
I took advantage of one such auction and ended up getting more e-mail spam and regular junk mail than I would have believed humanly possible. They want your name, e-mail and address. Bidder beware.
Periodically, I get a letter about a ‘special offer’ - you have X thousand airline miles and can use them to get magazines, I’m not sure if the offer is from the airline or from some magazine wholesaler. Also, this is not from my ‘primary’ frequent flyer account, but on a different airline that I flew a few times years ago and earned just a few miles.
The offer is basically to turn in 3,000 miles for 1 year of Time; 2,000 miles for Rolling stone, 1,500 for Better Homes and Gardens, etc.
Although I seem to use up the few miles they say I have, I eventually get another ‘special offer’ a year or so later with, coincidentally, enough miles to sign up for another handful of magazines.
I agree with your theory that it is some effort at getting the circulation numbers up, without having to cut their regular subscription prices. Also, they could be planning on your becoming such a fan of the magazine that you will pay full price in a year when your free subscription runs out.
BCE
I’ve seen lots of free magazine subscriptions offered on deal sites, and I’ve subscribed to Maxim and Rolling Stone for free. So I’m sure it’s someone who sets up the auction, gets your info and then signs you up for the free subscription.
I’ve been lucky with my Maxim and Stuff subscriptions off of eBay, but I got burned last summer when I paid a guy for a subscription to GamePro and never got it. Of course since it takes 8-12 weeks for a subscription to start, the sellers info is no longer listed in my “items I bought” list so I can’t leave negative feedback.
Speaking of the free mags, I’ve yet to receive any of the multitude of free subscriptions I’ve signed up for that I found on passwird.com (not their fault, they just show the link. I LOVE that site)