I do like this one - it's the only one I subscribe to now.

Oops, was supposed to copy the comment about subscribing to American Patchwork. sorry...

Why do they do it? I was buying magazine quite frequently but have stopped because I am not paying $7.00 for a mag I may not get any use out of.

And now we know why they wrap in plastic --to keep all those annoying subscription cards in the magazine --why they need more than one is beyond me!

I wonder how many people open the plastic, neatly or not, and then buy the unopened one. If you open it you should buy the one you opened if you are going to purchase. At the price of these magazines these days I appreciate not having to worry about missing pages --some people think that because they are buying something else they can just tear out articles and put the mag back on the shelf.

you know, all this kvetching on the board is accomplishing nothing.
If everyone emailed the magazines in question (they all must have websites with contact info) and simply said

"I wanted to buy your magazine this month but I did NOT, because I could not see what was in it."

you might reach someone who can DO something about it. And if you mentioned, I bought soandso magazine instead, because it WAS available to browse through, it would really drive the point home.

with the internet, it is so easy to contact large companies - and they DO pay attention. They will figure, for everyone who bothered to contact us, there are lots more who did not.

Thanks for the heads up on BH&G, Dee............

I do buy the one I have opened, I only open if I am fairly sure but not certain I want to buy.

I point blank refuse to buy a magazine in a plastic bag. Based on what I've seen lately particularly from Fons & Porter the plastic bag is usually hiding a severe lack of contents.
If I remember I send an e-mail to customer service to say they lost a sale.
I think if they read all the threads on this board on this very subject they'd stop doing it.
And I agree with those who say if they really wanted to see it, they would open it. But since it just annoys the dickens out of me it's a long time since I was tempted to open one!

Yup, I'm annoyed by the plastic wrap. Really don't want the cd that they include - I get way better tips here! So I may well end up with a magazine that doesn't really interest me, plus the wrapper and cd go in the trash...

If the cover looks really interesting, I'll go home & check their website to see if I can see any more info to make the decision as to whether or not to get the magazine next time I'm in the store. Usually, I just forget about it & don't buy it!

I stopped my quilt mag subscriptions a couple of years ago.
The last quilting mag that came I looked through it page by page with the intent of seeing just how much value it held for me. I used the little sticky markers for something of interest.
When I was finished there were 2 sticky markers. They were for 2 paid for ads. They were the only 2 things of interest to me in that whole mag. That done it for me.
The rest of my non-quilting magazines will not be renewed either.
Pretty much feel the same about most quilting books as well. I could never use all the patterns I have accumulated, no matter how long I might live.