Hee hee.
Last year the North Face Endurance Challenge had a virtual goody bag that included a free magazine subscription. Schweet! I had just acquired my first road bike, so I chose a subscription to Bicycling magazine, and it turned out being something that both Steven and I enjoyed reading!
So it’s almost a year later now and my subscription is over. I got a few emails, and a few mailers reminding me of this. But the emails and mailers had such higher pricing compared to the mail-in offers you get in the actual magazine. I was offered a great deal of $20 for a 11 issues, OR:
Counter clockwise from top left (and just looking at the cost for most issues offered): 33 issues for $22, 22 issues for $22, or 22 issues for $18. So I can pay what they offered to start with – $1.81 an issue, or, respectively, $.66, $1.00, or $.81 an issue.
When I write it out in cost per issue, it really isn’t THAT big of a difference, but you can see that I chose the “cheapest” one. BUT! I am paying the most upfront! So… did they get me? Or did I get them?
Ha ha. I do this with all of my magazine subscriptions – let them expire, then sign up again, with the lowest cost per issue. I usually don’t miss any issues by doing this, because they send me an older issue first, anyway. And it seems most magazines have their pricing set up this way! I saw inserts in Runner’s World offering 24 issues for $24, $20 and $14… all in one issue. Ha ha. Make sure you grab the right one!
Does anyone else do this with magazine subscriptions? Or at least notice how much the prices vary?
I wonder if many people subscribe to magazines anymore. You can read a lot of these articles online, for free, a few weeks after the publish date (or even earlier, sometimes!). But I am pretty old school – I still like reading paper copies! When I see a long article online I can’t focus to read it (or really, put it down when I fall asleep and pick it back up the next day).
I noticed the same thing with the magazines I subscribe to! I let my Real Simple subscription lapse thinking I’d re-subscribe via a cheaper option but then never got around to it, though 🙂
And, I agree. Reading a real, paper magazine in bed before I fall asleep is way better than trying to read on a computer, laptop or tablet.
I just can’t pay attention, as well, to something on a screen! So bizarre!
I honestly usually get my mag subscriptions from my daughter’s school sales etc…:-) I love magazines!
I play that game, too…and I get a sick sort of satisfaction when Wired and Runner’s World come crawling back to me, begging me to subscribe for $10/year. Hah! I win. 🙂
I’ve definitely held out for better deals on subscribing to magazines that I like but don’t find totally essential. I think for something like Runner’s World I don’t want to miss an issue so I don’t mess around with that. (Also I get a free Runner’s World subscription with my CARA membership now so I don’t really care how much they’re charging.) Awesome job with comparison shopping! I think they bank on people not caring enough to do that much research.
The thing is… they did the comparison shopping FOR me! All of those fliers were in one magazine! Bizarro!
I’ve never compared the inserts before. I usually “de bone” the magazine before I read it…
Next time I get my running times, I’ll see if their pricing varies too. After canceling RW last year for a Myriad of reasons I got an email for running times for $10 for 12 issues or something like that… Couldn’t resist. 🙂 so I guess that goes along with your cancel subscription, wait for super low offer, then resuscribe plan 😉
Yeah, I do that too, which means I had to go get these fliers out of the recycling bin to actually use one to re-subscribe! LOL!
Running Times does it too. I pulled some of their inserts for Gina last spring and that is when I realized all the inserts had different pricing!
I hope they offer that subscription for this year….I feel like they do? But I’m the same way…I love to shop around or wait it out till their “final offer” and then take advantage. Makes me wonder how they stay in business when they offer it so dang cheap but I guess it’s a quantity thing right?
You’ll find out when you get the virtual goody bag! 🙂 I hope they offer it for you too!
Yeah, quantity and they charge a TON for advertising.
I definitely do this! How do you like the bicycling magazine? I’ve been thinking about subscribing.
We like it a lot! 🙂
I’ve let all of my magazine subscriptions lapse except for Runner’s World. My mom used to get, like at least a renewal notice a month at their house, and she just paid it. So I’m good until like 2020, lol.
I used to really enjoy magazines and kept subscriptions to a few, but after a while the high cost (to be sent to Europe) just became too much and I stopped. I missed them for a while but not anymore.
Do you read the stuff online, instead?
I still read print magazines. I don’t seem to make the time to locate and read the articles online. I have noticed the huge range of pricing on subscriptions though and try my best to get the best offer available!
Crazy! I never resubscribe through the official renewal notices. I always find better deals online.
Since I get Runner’s World (and, apparently, Running Times? I think that must’ve been a clerical error, but whatever!) through CARA, I don’t pay for my subscription (except in the roundabout, paying-for-my-membership way), but it’s the only magazine I care to subscribe to. I love reading my physical copy of Runner’s World, but I have to say that I appreciate they put all their articles online. I used to hoard magazines like my life depended on it (“But what if I need this information some day?!?!”), but with pretty much all of RW’s content available for free online, I feel much less panicky about throwing it away 🙂
I went through a purge with all of my magazines awhile ago, and now I recycle them or donate them after I read them. I just… can’t have all those around the house! I realized I could get rid of them after a few years and I only referenced an article or two 😉
It’s a joke! I stopped subscribing to all my magazines a few years ago because of this. But my niece was selling them for her Girl Scout troop, so I resubscribed to a few. Of course, now I’m getting bombarded with renewal notices, almost on a daily basis….
They waste so much dang paper asking you to renew, and they ask SO MUCH. So much in advance, and way too much! Grrr. LOL.
I did not even realize this! I mean, I thought it was always the same price and renewed whenever I received the renewal notice. However, I did cancel my subscriptions to Runner’s World and Women’s Running Magazine for various reasons. 😉
Be careful with renewal notices! They start to send them WAY in advance. Like, years, sometimes. LOL.
This reminds me that I received an offer from Shape magazine (I used to subscribe well over a year ago) for 3 years for, like, $15. SIGN. ME. UP.
I always wait for those THIS IS YOUR VERY LAST CHANCE! offers (which are bogus, ha!) because that’s when I get the best deals and they basically give me the subscription for next to nothing.
I don’t really subscribe to too many magazines, but I won’t pass up a super good offer!