I am not a big magazine lover. In fact I only subscribe to a couple of magazines and hardly have time to read any that I receive. For quite some time I totally switched to online sources for my news. Nevertheless I will get on a good deal once in a while each time hoping I will free up my schedule a little bit to allow for some pleasure reading.
I personally believe printed media, just like music on CD’s, is living out its last years and it will be hard to find any magazines 50 years from now… and this is exactly why right now is a very good time to be in the market of discounted magazines. The publishers keep slashing prices and you offer better and better deals each year, until nothing will be left to offer. ;-)
Magazine-Agent is one of such discounted magazine resellers who make their living by direct magazine sales and through an in-house affiliate program. I am not their affiliate and hence I will not review that part of the business, however judging by the left-side bar ad promising “up to 60%” pay out rates to Magazine-Agent partners, it probably is not too bad.
Here are some things I like
- Convenient website navigation - Magazine-Agent has the best user interface I have seen in a magazine website. You can select magazines by price, popularity, or category. I also appreciate the ability to see all magazines offered by same publisher. I really have just one complain: “Computer & Internet” category shows 26 magazines however half of these are not available. I wouldn’t include unavailable magazines in the total count since it looks very deceiving.
- Nice magazine previews - The cover page preview is just terrific. Sometimes you can see magazine cover pages several years in the past. This somewhat compensates for the lack of magazine reviews in Magazine-Agent database
- 100% refund if not satisfied within 90 days - This could be convenient for some. The terms say:
If you find that within the first three months of placing your order that you are not 100% satisfied - for any reason - let us know and we will gladly give you a full, prompt refund.
- Online subscription management - I have no idea what magazines my family is reading, how much they are costing us, and when the subscriptions expire because they all come from different sources. In addition, unsubscribing from some can be quite a pain. Magazine-Agent is a publisher authorized reseller of all the titles they offer. Managing subscriptions from one place is certainly a convenience.
Things I don’t like
- Prices are not the lowest out there - I have compared a few magazine subscription services and Magazine-Agent is certainly not the cheapest. You usually will be able to find much lower prices especially if you are willing to buy magazines in packages (several subscriptions at a time).
- Free gift card - Huh? Shouldn’t the gift card be in the list of things I like? Well, it would be if I was able to find at least some details on what kind of gift card it is. Instead the promotion looks more like a teaser offering very little information on what exactly I sign up to. The image below is all I see when I click on it. Am I too picky?
What websites do you use when shopping for a magazine? Please share your recommendations in the comments.
This is post is sponsored by Magazine-Agent via ReviewMe
