Looking for a fast way to get old issues of magazines

November 10, 2004 2:08 PM

Magazine Filter: How does one get past issues of magazines without going through the publisher? I'm looking for the April 2004 issue of Esquire Magazine. The publisher takes 2-3 weeks to ship past issues... is there a better/faster way I'm missing?
posted by Lizc to media & arts (10 comments total)

There's a store in my town that often carries, and only seems to carry, back issues of magazines. So, you might want to see if such a place exists near you.

Also, how about a library?
posted by szg8 at 2:12 PM on November 10, 2004

There's eBay of course.
posted by smackfu at 2:31 PM on November 10, 2004

Do you just need an article, or the whole issue? To keep or just to look at? Some magazines [possibly Esquire, I'm not sure] have their articles indexed in periodical databases so if you just needed the content I'm sure one of the MeFite librarians here could find it for you. Otherwise there's eBay [premium pricing], freecycle lists [total crapshoot] or a store as szg8 suggests.
posted by jessamyn at 2:31 PM on November 10, 2004

gosh - I forgot all about the library. Just called them - they no longer carry Esquire magazine. A lady from there is going to check with their electoronic library and a few others in diff. cities to see if she can find it. (bah to work)

on preview - I need an article/photoshoot from the April issue that features Adrian van Hooydonk of BMW Group / DesignworksUSA fame as a model. End of the year paper sorting and the magazine was misplaced somewhere along the way.
posted by Lizc at 2:36 PM on November 10, 2004

There's one on ebay right now, and more will probaby show up later. It's the best place I've found for back issues.
posted by frykitty at 2:52 PM on November 10, 2004

Is this your card? [3.5 MB file]
posted by jessamyn at 2:53 PM on November 10, 2004

Jessamyn, you just saved me and the department so much!!! Thank you a hundred-fold!
posted by Lizc at 2:59 PM on November 10, 2004

That was a pretty nice thing to do. Well done jessamyn.
posted by Stan Chin at 3:07 PM on November 10, 2004

I hate to be a nerd here, but I just grabbed it off of one of the online databases that my library has [available to all our patrons]. It's not like I scanned it or anything. I'm not even at work today. You're very welcome Liz.
posted by jessamyn at 3:11 PM on November 10, 2004

Hooray for libraries!
posted by jjg at 3:30 PM on November 10, 2004