Ideas

Would one save all that much with the postage costs?

In the netherlands you can subscribe to a range of magazines and decide wether you want them the first week they appear or later.
The idea: the later you get them the less you pay.
And the en of the week the whole bunch of magazines goesto the next person with a subscription which in his/her turn gives them back and they go to the next person.

rjarvis, what if we could make it like prepaid?

prepaid envelopes just like netflix.

In addition to individuals, this might work for doctors offices and other waiting rooms that go through a lot of magazines, or even some offices if they supply reading material for the lunch room (one place I worked at did this, and it was really appreciated ).

Another tie in might be literacy organizations - this might be an idea for them to receive low-cost reading material that they could give away.

I think the biggest logistical issue with this idea would be organizing the swapping - in order to keep in the 48 hour window, you're going to have some fairly large shipping costs, even if its only within a single country.

As well, how do you deal with damaged magazines? If someone has a magazine that is missing a page, has a torn cover, or has a coupon or ad cut out, is it still valid for the system? Some people may not care, while others may expect to only receive near mint magazines.

You may want to check out http://www.bookcrossing.com which has a similar concept.

lol please discuss.

"prepaid envelopes just like netflix." Most magazines weigh a lot more then just a cd's.

hmm.. I use to work at a newsstand and we had to cut the front page and then send the magazines back. I know you are talking about individuals but if it can somehow be tweaked to service newsstands and distribution companies, you may be onto something.

You mean Back Orders. Yes, but they are all going to the same place and in one package.

I think the best implementation of this idea is the public library.

This works already for DVDs and books, but the difference with magazines is that many/most are very time-dependent. Popular magazines are all about getting the latest gossip, the latest reviews, the latest industry news, etc, and that makes mags that are even a week old far less valuable. In addition, mags are lower-priced to start with so the cost saving by posting an old mag is smaller.

However, there are of course magazines that are much less time-specific and the idea might apply to these better.

Magazines seem relatively inexpensive compared to the postage. I'm sure some people would go for it. Me, I just bought a years worth of the Economist on ebay for dirt cheap. But hey, get enough people on board, and go for it. There are book sites like this, and people put up their requests, etc.

I'm happy to give up all my mags when I'm done reading them (except Wired) but I think except for specialty magazines (like MAKE) the simplest approach is the best. A coffee shop where people can drop off their mags when they're done, and new customers are free to pilfer from the pile.

Anything involving postage, or trying to collect some $ as a middle man probably won't work because the value of any given used mag is so small.

Also, another approach is to leave the mags very visible at a recycling center. I'd prefer if city recycling bins were designed so magazines could be deposited in a still browsable manner.

It may work with a website, but I think a solution will involve people spending as little effort as possible. Actually sticking a mag in an envelope, putting postage on it, and mailing it is WAY WAY too much effort for me.

Agree with GordonMcDowell on that!