Magazine Values has great prices and service - if you don't mind spam
Written: Oct 4, 2003 (Updated Dec 20, 2004)
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If there was a magazines anonymous, I would have to join. After all, I usually have at least 20 subscriptions per year. So, I am always searching for cheap ways to fund my habit. I had seen other epinionators recommend Magazinevalues.com as having low prices and good service. I agree that the site does have good values. Their subscription prices are the cheapest I have seen. However, there is a price. You have to agree to receive some spam. The site indicates that it will be no more than 1 email a week. Of course, I get a flood of spam every day so it hard to know which email to attribute to Magazine Values. In my case, an additional email a week, if that is what it turned out to be, would be a drop in the bucket.
THE WEB SITE
The web site is not the most beautiful you will ever see. However, it does a good job of organizing the choices of subscriptions and it is generally easy to browse and find what you are looking for.
MEMBERSHIP
You have to agree to be a member of the site before you can make a purchase. This is basically a way of saying that you have to agree to receive spam before you can make a purchase. Becoming a member is easy. You just type in your basic information: name, email, address and phone number. Then you pick a username and password. The whole process took under 3 minutes.
THE SELECTION
The magazine selection was pretty good and there were many common magazines as well as some unique ones. Magazines are grouped into price ranges which start as low as $4.97 per year. They are also grouped by category. I found it easy to shop by category but I also picked up a couple of $4.97 subscriptions because, as I mentioned before, I can't help myself when it comes to magazines.
This site has an interesting feature in that you can get a "magazine of the month" subscription. With these subscriptions, you get a different magazine each month grouped around a theme such as home and garden, parenting, health and so on. The only problem for me is that, for any category I am interested in, I already receive one or two subscriptions and I would receive duplicated under the "magazine of the month" program. However, if you like variety and don't have many subscriptions, this is a great program. These subscriptions run about $25 per year for 12 issues which is a good value.
My only gripe is that some magazines I really wanted were absent. Most obvious (to me) was Metropolitan Home.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
I got one email that thanked me for becoming a member of the site. I got a second email that indicated the site had received my order.
You can check the Account Information part of the site to view all of your processed order details and expected delivery times.
There does not appear to be live customer service. If you have questions, you have to log on to the site and send an email questions.
DELIVERY
According to the site, delivery times are:
Weekly Magazine Subscription: 6 to 10 weeks
Monthly Magazine Subscription: 8 to 12 weeks
Bi-Monthly or Quarterly Magazine Subscription: 10 to 16 weeks.
I ordered 4 magazine subscriptions. I received all of them but I did get them toward the outer limited of the above time frames. It may be faster to get subscriptions through other sources.
ONE THING TO KNOW ABOUT WEB SITES SELLING MAGAZINES:
Some sites selling magazines take your credit card information and offer you the "service" of renewing your magazine. This means they will charge your credit card again when your subscription runs out. Magazine Values does not automatically renew your subscriptions.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
Magazine Values is definitely the cheapest site I have found for many subscriptions. I haven't found any downsides to this site and definitely recommend it.
DO YOU LIKE TO SHOP ON THE INTERNET? HERE ARE SOME MORE REVIEWS OF WEB STORES:
Clothing and Accessories: Talbots; The Gap; CWD Kids; Hanna Andersson; J. Jill; Tote Le Monde ; Blu Pyxie ; Miniboden; One Hanes Place; Nordstrom; Gymboree; Simple Shoes; Sierra Blue; Ebags.
Clothing and Home Goods: Lands End; Bluefly; Soft Surroundings; Garnet Hill; Sundance; L.L. Bean.
Home and Garden: Smith & Noble; Restoration Hardware; Gardeners Supply Company; Unicahome; Homeclick; FaucetDirect; Gardens Alive; West Elm; Crate & Barrel; MyKnobs; CB2.
Books and Magazines: Amazon.com; ValueMags; Dover Publications.
Office Supplies, Furniture and Services: Staples; Officemax; Topdeq; Efax.
Electronics: HP Shopping; Buy.com; ABT Electronics.
Travel: Amtrak; Hotwire; Orbitz; Hotels.com.
Discount: Overstock.com; Target.
Photo Developing: Shutterfly; Snapfish.
Baby Stuff: Babystyle; Babys Here Birth Announcements; Baby Universe; SoZo; Baby Center; Baby Age.
Miscellaneous: 1-800 contacts; Movie Tickets.com; Drugstore.com.
Rebate Sites: Upromise; Ebates.
Before you start shopping, check out my tips on how to save money by shopping on the internet . I have also included some coupon codes and plan to add more as I find them.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? 4 magazine subscriptions
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About the Author
Location: Basking in the Sun
Reviews written: 504
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