CompuServe Messages

Peter, Your newspaper dealer has the advantage of dealing with a distributor, which receives magaznies in bulk. This costs MUCH less to ship for 12 copies (out of what, a hundred? a thousand? More?) than does a single magazine, 12 times. That's where the extra ten bucks comes from. Also, mailing isn't the only issue. Handling for single issues is more costly than for bulk issues. Somewhere in there is (no doubt) some profit for the magazine, too. Hopefully. That *is* the point, after all. As for "Orders must be prepaid in US finds drawn on a US bank", Well, of course. If we (a US company) deposit a check from another country, we get charged somewhere betwen 5$ and $25, depending on just where the check came from. Ditto wire transfers, and so on. It costs money to do international transactions – if you pay by check, by the time AW cashes it, they are missing a significat percentage of the dollars they require in order to get you your subscription and make a profit – neccessary to get the job done. It's not AW's fault, if anything, it's a problem with nationalistic and protectionistic attitudes that the US (and much of the rest of the world) has been guilty of collectively for years. Those attitudes cost bucks – I never did think that "national pride" (ours, yous, theirs) was worth diddly, but hey – I've never been mainstream, anyway. :^) The external funds issue only has three possible resolutions: (1) – you get charged a fee, plus the sub cost, in your funds. This would be administratively a nightmare, because since transactions to different regions cost different amounts, the bookkeeping would be expensive (and guess who would get to pey? Right – you). (2) – The way it works now: That is, YOU get to find out about the extra costs by converting the funds to US dollars. This removes the bookkeeping issue from the magazine's hands and puts it in yours. It also gives you a decent change to "bargain shop" for the best money conversion. It costs you time, it saves the magazine time. (3) – They "just do it" and swallow the costs. They lose money, and they (naturally) eventually stop offering out of country subs. —————— It's simple (relatively) economics. America, or more to the point, Amiga World, is awake – you're not allowing for reality, and that's the problem here. –Ben …via AutoPilot