The answer is simple:  Companies that sell discount magazines, buy them in bulk from the original publishers after negotiating the best pricing.  This way, the magazine publishers sell more subscriptions, the discount magazine sites buy in bulk and sell to consumers while taking a cut, and consumers get discount pricing.  It works out for all three parties.

There’s just one thing you have to be careful about:  Some of these so-called discount magazines websites are just fly-by-night operations that will promise to start shipping your magazines in 3 months, charge your credit card, and then disappear with everyone’s money before the 3 months are up.  To keep from falling into this type of trap, I did some research into each company I listed (in my previous post) to make sure they were reliable sellers that have been in business for a while.  Magazines.com has been online since 1996 (I checked the year of their domain registration), and MagazineDiscountCenter.com and SurplusMags.com have both been online since 2004.

So you’ll do well to keep this in mind when ordering discount magazines from places you’ve never previously ordered from.  Due diligence in the form of a little bit of research before ordering online can save you from the many scams that are rampant in the online world.