Question about those eBay magazine auctions...
 

I need to get another subscription to Entertainment Weekly.

However, since these never show up in the "Free Magazine" thread (I was going to post this in there), I realize i'm going to have to pay for it and I remember reading on here that some people have gone this route and am wondering how dependable/reliable it is.

Can't speak for everyone but a co-worker uses this method for all of his magazine subscriptions with no problems. I'm sure the same precautions apply though as far as checking feedback, etc...

I have had no problems at all -- Stuff, Maxim, Rolling Stone, etc. What's funny is some sellers either take your address and sign you up OR give you the link to sign yourself up. For the latter -- you can sign up as many times as you want -- you have the link!!! (On a rolling stone subscription, I signed up myself twice and 8 of my friends)!!!

Well, yeah, Stuff, Maxim and RS appear in the Free Mag threads a lot of times, however, i've never seen EW or TV Guide in 'em..

any one have a link for RS subscription. I have never seen it for free. Please post one if you know

Most of my magazines come from the free threads, but I have used ebay a few times. No problems, and almost always the cheapest for the non-free ones.

i paid for those years before they were free....my honest opnion is that you shouldnt be scared to do this

The only downside is your info usually gets mangled and makes the rounds with spammers and such. I doubt it will be that bad though. I think this mainly applies to free subs.

I personally have purchased 5 different subscriptions from one ebay user: subscriptions4less

I had no problems at all, and receive all my magazines with 1-2 months after sending him my information. You simply give name, address, auction number etc. when you make payment then you sit back and relax.

I haven't noticed an increase in junk/spam either and can't complain great prices for multi-year subscriptions.

I have been looking for a cheap Dragon or Dungeon magazine subscription for a while. None of the online magazine places seem to have it as an option. Anyone know of a way to get one cheap ? I even looked on ebay, but they are all selling older copies of the magazine and not a subscription.

I bought a subscription to Guitar World off eBay a few years ago for $7. The guy threw in 4 year subs to Maxim and Stuff which was a nice bonus.

I've had no problems with magazines off of ebay. There were many that seemed too good to be true, but so far, I've gotten all the magazines that I subscribed to, many at over 90% off.

I was skeptical at first but decided to order 2 after checking feedback and getting opinions from others. I received both of them. Wanted ESPN Insider for awhile now, so i'll get ESPN today.

You should be cautious buying from magazine sellers on eBay, in the last few months I have twice not received a subscription I purchased because of hijackers. They steal legitimate sellers accounts and then throw up a bunch of bogus magazine subscriptions usually a few bucks lower than the normal going price. The listings say there will be a month or so wait before your subscription starts and by the time anyone realizes its not coming and starts posting negative feedback it's too late to file a claim with paypal (they only give you 45 days).

Here's a few suggestions:
-Buy from well established magazine sellers
-Check the sellers feedback for customers that have actually received magazine subscriptions (watch out for sellers who have never sold subscriptions in the past and suddenly have a bunch of new listings).
-Ask the seller a question about the listing, if you don't get a response don't buy!

I've bought a few subscriptions off of ebay. Never had a problem there though I've heard stories like the one above. Worst case, you lose a few bucks. Subs aren't generally that expensive on ebay.

About 2 months ago, I renewed my EW sub for 2 years for $36. Typically, they say it takes 60-90 days to see your sub start or renew. The seller had a huge number of reviews, at least 99% positive.

Last week, I got an email stating the seller had been suspended and all the auctions were pulled. I can't even access the link to my completed auction. I'm hoping this isn't the scenario as described above.

Considering they always claim the order is submitted to the magazine immediately, I'm hoping it still works out. But, I have anywhere from 1-5 weeks to find out.

Update to follow. :) (or maybe :( )

I think we ran into the same seller, Chew. 99% positive, etc...

First time I ever ordered a magazine was in January. Ebay sent me a email telling me the user has been suspended for ripping people off, and to file a claim with Paypal within 45 days of payment date.

Of course, ebay sent this on day 52 -ohbfrank-.

I emailed Paypal telling them this and they replied with a canned message stating all the things I had in my email. My email regarding a claim for being ripped off was probably never read by a human. Thanks for nothing, you incompetent pricks. It makes me really want to use them for everything now!

If only ebay and Paypal were owned by the same company and could get their shit together when it came to things like this. Fucking assholes.

Thankfully it was only $7.

chew & nevermind: Same thing happened to us - Wonder if we bought from the same seller.. Sucks that it's outside of the claim period for eBay and PayPal. The seller had over 2000 positive feedbacks, so I thought nothing of it, and bought about $20 worth of subs.

Got the notice from eBay's Trust & Protection division last week, and hit a dead-end there.

chew, nevermind, O Cartman: Count me in. I ordered from cheapest-magzz and got the notice 10 days late.

In fact, I think that's the name too.

I wonder how many complaints Paypal needs to receive to address these types of situations?

Well, they're about to get one more :mad: :mad: :mad:

I placed an order back in January with one of those sellers on ebay selling "discounted" subscriptions. In the past 2 weeks the sellers name changed to "I got hacked" & every auction they had in the past 3 months closed, as well as ebay sent out notices to all buyers. I issued a claim to PayPal for a refund & they closed my case within a day & didn't even issue a refund of any sort.

I only spent $6, but I'd never had a problem in the past with any mag sub sellers or even this one when I had previously ordered. Anycase, I'll just stick to free subscription sites or the actual magazine from here on out.

yup - cheapest-magzz

I'm tempted to let Paypal know that if the parent company eBay cannot notify its customers in a timely matter (or extend the 45 day period in these cases), then maybe I'll just never use them again. Again, it's only $7, but what if it was a lot more? They just proved to me they don't "protect" anything.

That information alone is worth $7 IMO.

KFelon - same seller I'm sure.

My recent one was cheapest-magzz too, if they got this many people on this message board just think how many others got scammed.