magazine shopping

When I go shopping price is usually the component of the experience that I find most important.

That's actually how I first found Saveur Magazine.

(The pic to the left is a screen shot of what the magazine currently costs to subscribe to)

You see I wanted to get a magazine about food and cooking about two years ago and at that time Saveur was doing a push for more subscribers. At a site I used to frequent for good online deals, Dealsea.com, there was an offer for a year subscription for 5 bucks. I'd never heard of Saveur but I jumped at the offer. I'm very glad I did too--it's a wonderful magazine.


However after my initial subscription ended, the best price I could find on resubscribing was something like $30 a year and I was far too cheap at the time to pay that kinda money. But I've missed reading it and so we come to my magazine shopping trip.

After doing a Google search on the magazine name, and coming up with a few sites like that one above, that all had Saveur at $19.95 a year, I decided to look on Amazon. As you can see to the left, they also had the same price.

My next step was to go to the source, Saveur itself.


Sometimes the magazine you want to subscribe to will have the best offer out there. Short term promotions, giveaways, you name it.

In this case, the price was the same, $19.95, but Saveur had the bonus of two pamphlet type cookbooks with a paid subscription as well as two bonus issues of the magazine.

The extra issues alone were the equivalent of a 22% discount. But I wanted to see if I could do a little better--but this offer was tempting!




And another web search brought me to Speedy Mags which, as you can see to the left, offered Saveur at $12.99. That was the best price I could find.

But even better was going with a bundle subscription. Speedy Mags, like many of these type sites, offers bundles of magazine subscriptions at a reduced overall price. 3 for $28 and 4 for $35 are the main options which brings the price per subscription to around $9 each.

Not as good as that original teaser rate of $5 that I had a few years back but still not bad. So I bought it--and a few other magazine as well. I do love to get mail. Even if I have to pay for it. :-(

Comments

Good hints, Tenz. I love my Wired magazine, which I initially picked up for $1 a year! (Now I pay about $10, but I still love it.) I believe they offer these great deals so they can show their advertisers how many subscribers they have.

Here from Michele.
Those are great deals.

I imagine that many magazines are coming up with low subscription deals to compete with the Internet. Don't they make most of their money from advertisers anyway?

Michele sent me thusly.
Unknown said…
You certainly know where to get the deals - what were the other magazine subs you bought? Mail is fun (except for bills).
David Edward said…
michele sent me to learn about buying magazines, and about my buddy, Utenzi.
I got a sea Kayak, now I just need some water, to put it in.
Shephard said…
Oh, I have to take a look at them. I love magazines. Great info!
~S :)
Smiler said…
Saveur is a beautiful magazine and at that price you're getting quite the steal. I'm somewhat of a magazine specialist since I've been working in mag publishing for over a decade now. I think people don't appreciate just how much work goes into every issue, and how much it costs to get all those beautiful photos and images, let alone the cost of the paper they're printing on. That being said, I understand you wanting to get the best deal. That's understandable. Michele sent me and it's my first time reading this blog and it's interesting! I'll be back.
rosemary said…
Good bargain magazine shopping....I did the same with Natn'l Geographic. $19 vs $34 and am having it sent to one of the cats.
kenju said…
I get 5-6 magazines and all but one of them is free. I traded airline miles for free subscriptions!
Anonymous said…
You're a good shopper, Utenzi. And I'm going to keep this lesson in mind. Usually I get my magazines from the library because I hate paying the price for most of them.
Sara said…
Hello, Michele sent me to say that I love that magazine...

Usually I don't subscribe to mags except for either a knitting one or quilting one...Quilting Home is the one for this year.

This year though The Special Olympics called and I ordered Martha Stewart Living from them so they would get some bucks...

The rest of mine come from airline miles - or points that I trade. Just got a years subscription to one of my favorites REAL SIMPLE.
Gledwood said…
The deals magazine publishers offer here in England are nowhere near as good as what you get offered Stateside... you know a whole year of Vanity Fair or somesuchlike for $1 an issue... no everything's rippoffsville here... not to mention the $2 to £1 exchange rate. My brother who lives in LA always says 2 things when he comes back home: 1. "Cor blimey" when he hears my accent and 2. "how bloody expensive everything is"...

ho-humm

;-]...
SassyAssy said…
That mag seems to have some really interesting recipes in it. Have you ever made something from one of their recipes?
"....of course she doesn't look the way she did 50 years ago..." LOL! Yes, well, who among us does! I hate to point this out, but....If Betty or any of us looked as we did 50 years ago--well, I think one might surmise either we all had had plastic surgery or a painting in the closet oozing horrible things, as in "THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY"...!

It is funny about Magazines...I use to get sooo very many...for years and years, and then slowly I have either stopped my subscriptions or just did not renew anymore except for maybe three or four....I found I wan't resding them...there were just too many...! Priorities, I guess...Of course I am a lot older than you Dave (Though I don't look it....(joke) and things do change in one's life....In my case, LESS IS MORE!
Hope you enjoy all the magazines you will be getting.
Pat said…
That's very diligent of you Utenzi and you deserve to be Quids in. I'm sure we cold all save loads of money if we could take the trouble to shop around but you have to know what you are doing and usually I take the lazy way- I'm ashamed to say.
Michele ssys hello.

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