i’ve bought every issue of fsm since about summer 1993. subscription offers some nice perks but it won’t help my friendly newsagent (hello raj and baljit!) stay in business; seeing what the internet has done to local model shops i’d like to do my small part in keeping my local newsagent open- i lke the little ritual of picking up my magazine, maybe a beer and having a chat. so, much as subscribers help you out, f.s.m., i’ll stick with my friendly cornershop for as long as it’s there. what do my fellow readers think?
I think I’ve never seen a news-stand that serves beer…are there dancing girls as well?
A lot depends on how many issues of FSM your newstand sells per month. FSM may have a minimum order requirement - say 10 copies - that your news stand has to pay for. If you’re the only person purchasing that magazine, the news stand has to ship the extras back for credit. After a while, it may just become economically un-feasible for the news stand to continue to carry a particular magazine.
But, if every copy sells out, then go for it. FSM gets your money one way or the other.
-Fred
There are variants of this topic around the forums. Personally, I to get my stuff from my LHS, For a random example, they have the Academy 1/48 F86-F for $29.00. If I order thru the internet, I’ll be saving around 3 to 4 bucks since I have to pay shipping plus the wait time. With the LHS I have what I want now. I’m lucky my LHS carry paints like Pactra, Tamiya (2 size jars), Badger, Acyl, Vallejo, Humbrol, Floquil, MM Enamel, Alclad 2, etc. So that’s another plus. When it comes to 1/32 aircraft kits and Model Ships, their prices can’t or they don’t want to compete with the net prices. Did I mention it would be hard to carry today’s plethora of AM parts?
I don’t think the web has made a big hole on the brick and mortar stores. There are a few factors for the demise of a LHS, but in my honest personal opinion, the web is not necessarily behind it 100%. I came across this interesting article over at Hawkeye’s site.
I don’t recall the last time i saw FSM in a newsagents, i don’t even recall seeing it in my LHS. I will have a proper look next time.
But while i support what your saying about supporting the little guy, for me it just isn’t practical. I spend alot of time away from home, often for months at a time, so the only way i can be sure not to miss a copy is to subscribe. And then of course it works out better value as well.
As for the hobby shops, well i am afraid if they don’t have what i want, then of course i can go elswhere. I mainly order from hannants. One order i can get all the kits, AM, paints books and anything else i want. Its free shipping and is with me in a few days. I have been in my LHS twice in the last couple of weeks, and all i picked up was a set of fugures and a few tins of paint.
ha! i knew there had to be one way the uk was better than america!
ha! i knew there had to be at least one way that the uk was better than america!!
plenty of valid points here but things are obviously different for you over there (apart from the newsagent/beer interface!). the nice thing i would like about subscribing is the nice feeling that mail gives, especially as most of mine is threatening letters…
I think the resolution centers on geography, psychological geography. Before I retired, I used to buy FSM at the Walden bookstore in the mall under my office. It was convenient, mere yards from the konditorei where I bought my coffee. Then Walden crapped out (bought by Borders).
Now I COULD have switched to my LHS, 10 miles round-trip, but I was already buying eight out of ten issues per year, so it just made sense to subscribe.
I aggree to subscribing. My LHS is about 1 hour away one way so i dont get up their much probably once a month. And mine subscription usually allways comes earlier then i can buy it at the hobby shop.
It was always upon return from deployments that I would kick myself in the pants for not subscribing. But the lesson never sunk in as work-ups rarely allowed forethought of hobbies or leisurely activities. Now that my days of deploying are all but behind me I have no intention to subscribe for reasons similar to skater-x’s and others. Nowadays I have few opportunities to escape the confines of home, shackled by deadlines of work and homework that rob quality time away from the hobby desk. I place my errand to the bookstore to collect my monthly issues of FineScale Modeler and various other magazines as important for my sanity as the grocery store is for my sustenance.
I suppose it would make some sense in my part to buy off the newsstand. This way I could select only issues that are important to me. However, I usually like them all. The sad news is that most of the inside updates are really “out-of-date”. Still, I like saving with subscriptions and it comes to my mailbox.
I’m with goodness- the LHS is an hour away, and it’s more convenient and cost effective for me to subscribe. I’d love to support the brick-and-mortar, but hobby shops are hard to come by in my area.
In most any area anymore. [:(]
Another bonus for me about subscribing is that all my mail is set to my barracks address. This means my mail is then forwarded on to me. Its always nice to recieve my FSM while on deployment. Helps me catch up on things and see whats new in the hobby, especially as i can’t always get on line. Its like my little fix of the hobby, just to keep me ticking over.
I’ve always subscribed, even when I was deployed… Nothin’ like reading about the latest stuff back home while kicked back on the track… Heh… Couldn’t get any Penthouse or Playboy anyway… Heck, back in the first war, couldn’t even get certain issues of Sports Illustrated because the Saw-OO-dies deemed it and some other sports-rags pornography too, lol… Even boxing…
The closest place to buy FSM, or anything else like it ,is an hour or so away, the LHS (which is closed up now, just Hobby Lobby remains) didn’t carry ANY modeling rags (Although I bought up about every old copy of Scale Modeler, Military Modeler, and Wings/Airpower he had there, at .50 cents a copy)…
He quit carrying them for the same reasons most do, didn’t sell enough… Heck, he had the same Squadron/Signal Walk-Around books there for so long, many of the covers were sun-faded, lol… 'Course, this is a college town, so there’re probably not a lot of readers…
Before he closed up shop though, I used to hang out there for a couple hours every time I went in, which was at least twice a week, like it was “Floyd’s Barber Shop”, talking models and modeling, or anything else that was interesting… Doug was always working a RR model of one thing or another (he did commission work custom painting locos) at the bench behind the counter… He was always watching the tracks too, since they ran right by his shop about 100 feet away… It was his equivilant of my having a good view of the ramp at my local airpatch…
It was a good way to kill time… He liked it when I was around and a nugget walked in asking about scale planes and armor, what kit is a good one for this, what’s the best kit of that… Since he was a railroader and didn’t do scale kits, he didn’t have t quit what he was doing when I was there, lol… I sold a lot of Revellogram kits for him…[whstl]
However, I digress…
I also prefer the sub-price over the newsstand price, and I’m too lazy to go out and hunt down a mag at a bookstore, which is also an hour away…
I even subscribe to my local bird-cage liner… It ain’t really worth reading past the fold, but the Police Blotter is always fun after the weekend, and the kid that delivers it is a “small businessman”, too…
no porn when you were in the forces? thats harsh. reminds me of what walter kurtz said about what they weren’t allowed to paint on aeroplanes.
Interesting & valid fors’ & againsts’ here, & I agree with all of them [*-)]
Leaving aside any controversy about not buying the mags because they lack content I want to read, (not FSM obviously)
Cost is an issue, in the UK, the average street price for a mag is GBP£4.00/USD$6.50, & I’d rather spend that on books or kits, & every time I subscribe to anything the content gets really really dull. I still buy the armour specials though, IF there is enough that interests me.
I don’t pickup FSM or any other titles from my LHS, 40 minutes drive away, even though it was the sponsor local club Annual Show… because we ‘plastic heads’ didn’t BUY enough kits, or paint, so he doesn’t order them… & BECAUSE he didn’t order them… we didn’t buy them… eh? [8-)] The shop now do 95% r/c & mostly on-line.
The other issue is logistics, how far are they, Fuel in the UK is over USD$9.00/US.imp.gallon.
Local parking restrictions now make it prohibitive, I’m not going to give HINCKLEY council any of my hard-earned since they doubled parking fees, & the privatised [6] Red-Top [6] Parking-Trolls [6] are on Commission. (insert epithet of choice here!) [:@] That means I don’t shop there at all now for anything.
I now work in the nearby metropolis, (huh!) the nearest we got to a LHS is ANTICS, who carry a good range of r/c, floaty, railroady, wingy & plastic things, & can order-in if asked.
The UK sounds like a swell place to live…if you are a Royal, that is…
Nah, there was plenty of that, DoD-Wide… it was “No porn in Saudi Arabia” during the build-up in Desert Shield… And “porn” to the Saw-OOO-Dees was anything that showed skin from the ankles-up… Male OR Female… That’s why mags like “Sports Illustrated” and “Boxing” were on the "No "list, lol…
As for painting anything pornographic on aircraft, the Air Force got anal about that back during the Korean War…
I recall one AH-1 Cobra unit that caught hell from the SA’s over the shark’s-mouths on their Snakes…