Nineteen year old magazine

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

I went into town this morning and missed the bus home, while waiting for the next one I went in to WH Smith and browsed through the magazines, I purchased a Model Engineer 4721 which was wrapped in a plastic bag with another magazine, couldn’t see the title but never mind I was sure it would be something interesting. Got home and took the magazines out of the wrapper and the free one turned out to be Heritage Railway so made a cuppa and settled down for a read, flicked through to see what delights were in store for me and something didn’t seem right, then I got to an advert for a classic bike show, dated 2004, upon further investigation the date on the front of the magazine is No 62 June 2004. What’s going on, why are nineteen year old magazines being bundled with current magazines, have Morton’s decided its a good way to get rid of a pile of old back numbers or am I missing something?

Edited By Baz on 14/07/2023 21:02:44

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

[ianjParticipant @ians]

Same with my copy purchased today from my local news agents , only my free " Heritage Railway" magazine was November 1999 !

Ian

Edited By ian j on 14/07/2023 22:36:52

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Businesses get charged for industrial waste. Uncertain whether council would accept half a ton of old unsold mags for recycling. Suppose recycling refused because it's from a business which the council could charge for disposal? Could be cheaper to bundle them in with other mags to create interest/desire/action, as the salesmen say. Cheap disposal and cheap scatter – gun type advertising. Possibly more effective than just displaying front covers as customer has hold of a 'strange' mag and natural inquisitiveness would mean it gets opened and even read. Maybe new permanent subscription. Also helps clear space with a steadily increasing backlog of over production clogging valuable space which could be better utilised. Wonder if my speculating is on track? My guess is that only back numbers of certain mags, e.g., ME and MEW, are in 'demand' for reference purposes but not so much for Railway Magazine and even less for some old gardening title. Talking of Railway mag., earlier this year, I saw an offer of £20 for 6 monthly issues which I grabbed. Bear in mind normal WHS cover price is £5.25, this was too good to miss. I will probably take out a permanent subs after the 6 issues.

John

[DiodeDickParticipant @diodedick]

I had a similar experience 2weeks ago when I picked up the then current issue of ME. It came bundled with "The King of the Light Railways" ( The story of Col. Stephens) which I might have been tempted to pay £7.99 for. Pot luck, I suppose…

Dick

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

The cost of warehousing these 20 year old publications can’t have been insignificant – tho the Col Stephen’s publication dated 2020 (which I also received) would, being an excellent account, probably have sold a few issues each year (especially if presented at the Kent + East Sussex site) but surely the 20 year old ‘Heritage Railway’ magazine had little residual value post publication.
Strangely there is a link between the two freebies – the Heritage Railway mentions the finding the the double Fairlie boilers mentioned in Col Stephens story.

Edited By Frances IoM on 15/07/2023 11:16:10

Edited By Frances IoM on 15/07/2023 11:21:48

Edited By Frances IoM on 15/07/2023 11:22:08

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