Magazine Subscriptions : eBay

I'm not sure everyone knows this, but you can get suprisingly cheap magazine subscriptions on eBay (full disclosure: I work for eBay). The selection isn't that great, which is suprising because that is what ebay is known for, but they prices are as close to free as I've found.

The reason they are so cheap is that magazines sell adverts based on circulation, so if they numbers are higher, they make more money. They basically give free subscriptions to these folks, who turn around and sell them to you for $1 or $2.

I was able to purchase a 4 yr subscription to GQ for my brother for just $4, a 2 yr subscription to Esquire for my brother-in-law for just $3, and a 2 yr subscription to Men's Health for my friend for just $1.99. Magazine subscriptions are usually pretty cheap, but these prices are so cheap it's almost nothing, and they provide something current to read in the loo.

What's really cool is that I got a one-year subscription to the Wall Street Journal for just 99¢, which is something like $.0032 or .32¢ an issue (there are 306 issues per year in the subscription). That is really cheap.

I did lose an auction for the Economist at $40. The subscription eventually went to $53. But with all the other magazines and newspapers to read, what do I need that for?

Cell Phones : Amazon.com

This may be extremely obvious, but amazon is close to the cheapest place to get a phone. Of course, you have to wait for shipping, but if you don't need the phone right away, amazon is quite a bit cheaper than most stores you can go to. I bought this Motorola Q phone for $50, plus a $100 rebate, so in all it was $-50 with only a one-year contract. You should check it out, they carry all the major carriers and I think they have more free phones than any other site I've seen, most with no (or cheap) activation and only one year contracts.