How do I get a lifetime subscription to Harper's?

January 29, 2006 9:00 PM

When I was a (very) broke college student, I somehow scrounged enough money together to pay for a one year subscription to Harper's magazine. At one point they offered me a lifetime subscription for a few hundred dollars, but I did not even have enough money to pay the rent... much less a lifetime sub to a magazine. Many years have now passed, and I have tried to no avail to get them to make the "lifetime sub" offer again, now that I can afford it. How do I get them to offer me a lifetime sub again?

While we are on the topic, how do magazines like Rolling Stone, Readers Digest, etc., even choose when to make these once-in-a-lifetime offers? Is there a way I can can trigger Harper's (or anyone else outside of 2600) to offer me a lifetime sub? Do I need to move back into a school dorm or something?

yes, before anyone asks, I have inquired directly to Harper's about this, but the customer service rep didn't know how to sell anything longer than 36 month subscriptions.

posted by crazyray to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (10 answers total)

I lived in a graduate student dorm last year and received a lifetime sub. offer from Harpers (even though I'd already been a subscriber for five years at that point!) by way of a cold-call. It was for $350 or some larger sum, and I politely refused.

I pay $26 every year to renew+1 year. So in Nov 2004 I paid $26 and the sub. was renewed until Nov 2006. In Nov 2005 I paid $26 and the sub. was renewed until Nov 2008, etc.
posted by vkxmai at 9:21 PM on January 29, 2006

From anecdotal evidence, I've noticed that lifetime subscription offers don't recur very often, if at all. (Livejournal, for example, has a few lifetime paid accounts, but you can't get those anymore). I'm afraid you might be out of luck.
posted by danb at 9:35 PM on January 29, 2006

No offense, do you expect reading it for the next 25+ years? Because you can find yearly subscriptions at $12, if you google it a little. ;)
posted by Ervin at 9:46 PM on January 29, 2006

If you don't have any luck getting the lifetime subscription, oddly enough, I've found Ebay to be the best place to get subscriptions cheap. They have a 2 year subscription to Harper's for only $19.98.
posted by banished at 9:55 PM on January 29, 2006

I think you can still get a lifetime subsciption to Playboy, fwiw. McSweeney's no longer offers theirs, sadly.

Also, are you sure the offer came from Harper's directly? Someone who gets & sells subscriptions for cheap would probably be delighted to get a couple hundred dollars from you up front in exchange re-signing you to the magazine year after year at a low cost to them.
posted by neda at 10:11 PM on January 29, 2006

I definitely second banished's recommendation of eBay for subscriptions. I've used vendors there for numerous subs, and have never had a problem.
posted by willmize at 3:47 AM on January 30, 2006

Ditto. I got the New Yorker for about 10 bucks. Ebay subscriptions take more time to initially arrive, but you can't beat the prices with a stick.
posted by CunningLinguist at 5:07 AM on January 30, 2006

I don't understand why you would think that because years ago they offered a lifetime subscription they must therefore continue doing so indefinitely, and if the customer service rep didn't offer you one it's because they "didn't know how." You missed your chance; get the cheapest one- or two-year subscriptions you can find. Who knows, Harper's could go out of business before you'd gotten your money's worth anyway!
posted by languagehat at 6:54 AM on January 30, 2006

You might just try calling them. If they're willing to do this through middle-men, then may well be willing to do it directly.
posted by tiamat at 2:40 PM on January 30, 2006

Walmart (!) has a year for $10.99 I used Froogle to find this, which does surprisingly well for magazines, and even displays the ebay offers if you want to go that route. Overstock has it for $10.99 as well, if Walmart makes you feel polluted.

The magazine subscription search engines sometimes work well. I've had good results with this one:

Magazine Price Search

You can usually find 10-20% coupons for many of the online magazine subscription sellers through any search engine. I'd love to find a site that aggregated these "lifetime" deals.
posted by meehawl at 6:26 PM on February 5, 2006