Joined Jul 2009
Filthy Assistant
Forum Thread
Getting the Sunday Inserts: How to buy in bulk?
October 16, 2009 at
06:56 AM
in
Question
Thread Details
Well, I've just been on the phone with the local paper's circulation department, letting them know that this weekend I'm looking at purchasing 2 dozen papers and want to know if I can get an ongoing subscription discount if I have something like a dozen or so papers delivered every Sunday. After putting me on hold and talking with his manager, I was completely stonewalled - there are no discounts available, I'm SOL, and no they won't put me in touch with my local carrier to discuss one on one.
Annoying.
It seems to me that paying $1.50 per paper (PLUS TAX!!) is just silly when all I want is the inserts. It seems to me that the newspaper business is hurting enough that I should be able to get bulk discounts, but I've been smacked down.
For those of you who are buying 20, 30, 40 papers at a time, you're not really paying full price for these things, are you? I do realize that $1.50 is a small price to pay when you're using Qs worth hundreds, but still - paying full price for an in bulk item just seems silly.
Any tips for the newbs here on how to get a good price on these things? Where can I look for a source of either just the inserts (on Sunday - no mailing off for them), or for cheaper papers in bulk?
Annoying.
It seems to me that paying $1.50 per paper (PLUS TAX!!) is just silly when all I want is the inserts. It seems to me that the newspaper business is hurting enough that I should be able to get bulk discounts, but I've been smacked down.
For those of you who are buying 20, 30, 40 papers at a time, you're not really paying full price for these things, are you? I do realize that $1.50 is a small price to pay when you're using Qs worth hundreds, but still - paying full price for an in bulk item just seems silly.
Any tips for the newbs here on how to get a good price on these things? Where can I look for a source of either just the inserts (on Sunday - no mailing off for them), or for cheaper papers in bulk?
Add a Comment
Sorry, this thread is closed.
About the OP
Community Wiki
Last Edited by AlanChiras
October 17, 2009
at
03:59 AM
The Miami Hearld has what is called the Early Sunday edition on Saturday for 50 cents with ALL the Sunday inserts!! It's great. Check to see if your paper does the same.
91 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I'm also eager to hear how people get cheap inserts. I mean, I would pay $1.50 for them without blinking an eye but $3.50 makes it seldom worth it.
What I do is just buy coupons on ebay. When there is a coupon I use a lot, I buy 20 of it for $1 or so on ebay and that makes more sense to me than buying the whole insert since there are usually only 1 or 2 coupons I would want multiples of. However, there are lots of times when I could use 2 or 3 of a coupon and then, I would rather buy an insert for 1.50
5 papers x $1/each = $5 X 50 weeks (excludes some more due to holidays) $250/YR on average - good weeks I buy 6-8.
Seriously, $250/yr for papers? Some would tell me I'm nuts but even if I use 1 coupon from each paper.... I got my money back. And, we all know you use more than 1!
I also make my mom, F-M-I-L, landlord of my work building & her neighbor friend, and BF (work paper) save the inserts they get. So, atleast 10 per week.
The regular Sunday paper is only $1.50 here and has really good coupons, but I rarely buy extra anymore, since I can get as many free ones as I want.
I always get 10 and try to buy them at CVS and work them with $/$$ coupons, funny thing is that two or three stores still sell them at old price $1.99
When there is only one insert in the paper, then is not worthy to buy the whole paper and I buy them from somebody at AFC, usually .25 per insert plus shipping.
PM me if you need more info from AFC.
.
First they found out who their local newspaper delivery person was, asked them what do they do with the extra inserts they received and then found out around what time and which dumpster they recycle them....
Some people have found sucess going to School recycling bins?
I'm not really sure, I would like to know as well.
I tried emailing my local newspaper and no one responded to my requests.
Cookie, you have a PM from me. Thank you!
fitnessfan, we do have two free papers in the area. I'll check them out, but I have never seen inserts in them. We'll see how that goes!!
Thank you all for your help!
Also, neighbors (who don't remember or have time for coupons), family co-workers, or friends. They are good sources for the inserts.
My local recycling always collects the coupons from people that actual take the time to bring them in. But, it sounds like they give them all to just one family that is in really big need of them. I think few people bring them in. I though of volunteering there just to score some inserts.
During a garage sale last year, in my web listings. I posted to bring in coupons for some free items. But, there were 0 takers on the deal.
I've heard some papers have free Spanish version that have the same exact inserts and the English version. I've heard of people going to their local newspaper office and they have the inserts from time to time.
I will have to check out the local dollar stores to see if they sell papers on the cheap.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
In the worst case, you could wake up at 5:00 AM or whenever they throw the paper and just flag them down.
Our newspaper offers a "twofer" (2 for $2.89) and I usually buy between 6 to 10 papers at that price every week. Most of the time I get them for "free" with RRs accumulated the previous week. I usually do not have time to do more than 10 of any coupon deal, so getting more is just wasting money. If I need more than 10 copies of a coupon, I'll get them off of eBay.
I have heard that the Dollar Tree sells the Sunday paper for a dollar, but there is not one near enough to me to justify the 0.89 cents saved.
I know there are places out there a la thecouponclippers.com where you can buy whole inserts, but I've never checked that out.
...but we have a Dollar Tree!!!! Dollar Tree marks the $1.50 Sunday papers down to $1.00 apiece. They open at 10 on Sunday and are very close to my closest Wags. Most likely, I'll be heading there on Sunday mornings and then hitting Wags immediately after.
I'd still like to be able to buy just the inserts, so I'll keep looking for better deals, but this helps a lot.
The regular Sunday paper is only $1.50 here and has really good coupons, but I rarely buy extra anymore, since I can get as many free ones as I want.
I couldn't begin to list the names of all the different free papers that carry the inserts, as they vary by region. For example, friends in Fairfax City get different free papers than I do here in Alexandria, even though we're in the same county.
I tried tipping my delivery person extra money to bring me an extra paper, but that didn't work for long - I think the delivery person changed.
I also have networked with family, friends and co-workers to get their inserts when they're finished with them. One of my co-workers buys about 4 papers each week. And some of the co-workers collect from their families.
I get an extra paper (Sun Plus) delivered to my house once a week that carries the Smartsource inserts. Some of my neighbors in my townhouse community don't pick up the one in front of their house (some of the houses are vacant) - more inserts for me!
And the local paper (Booster, Times, etc.) is left in piles at my mom's retirement village so I ask her to pick up as many as she feels comfortable getting. If I'm over there, I pick up more!
I get most of my qs at a local q swap. Some of the ladies bring in stacks of untouched inserts. One gets them from the post office. She lives in an area where they send out the good Red Plums. A few of the others have pooled their resources and buy uncut inserts from a seller on the East Coast. One lady gets hers from what's left over at the local convenience store. I tried that, but they told me they have to give the unsold papers back with the inserts.