Foreign RodMaker Subscriptions

Custom rod building is a worldwide craft/hobby. Many builders call or write and ask why RodMaker Magazine isn’t available on the worldwide market. So I’d like to explain why it’s only available in certain markets, primarily the United States.

The first 4 years that RodMaker was in operation, I offered subscriptions Outside the U.S. for $49.95.  Quality magazines are heavy and the postage required to get a copy around the world ran as much as $6 per single issue. And that was then – it’s a lot more these days.

By 1999, RodMaker already had over 350 subscribers in foreign locales. And about 50% of the issues mailed to those locales never made it to their intended destination. The end result was a constant re-mailing of issues and a postage bill that simply became unsustainable.

Beyond that was the terrorist attack on the U.S. in 2001.  Suddenly anything the size of a magazine required that a customs form be filled out and the item mailed in person from a physical Post Office.  The amount of time I spent filling out customs forms and standing in line at the Post Office simply became more than I could afford.

In 2002, I dropped all foreign subscriptions.

The question I’m asked most often is why are folks in foreign countries able to obtain other U.S. produced magazines by mail? There’s more than meets the eye in this regard. It’s common for large publishing houses to print issues in several locations – those intended for foreign distribution are often published in those locations and mailed from there. RodMaker, on the other hand, is published here in a single location here in the U.S. Please keep in mind that while RodMaker is huge compared to any other rod building periodical, it’s comparatively small, even tiny, when viewed against publications such as Sports Illustrated, National Geographic or Time. It just hasn’t been feasible to continue offering RodMaker subscriptions to foreign locations.

The good news, however, is that a handful of private businessmen in foreign locations do purchase quantities of RodMaker and resell them to builders in their own locales.  Ian Miller in Australia, Timo Keil in Germany and Ian Scott in Canada. If you’re nearby one of them, you can probably obtain RodMaker. Do be aware that any such subscriptions do not come from me, but from these independent businesses. Therefore you must deal directly with them.

I continue to try and source some type of international bulk mailing service that can get the job done efficiently and at a reasonable cost. So far, no luck. But I’ll continue my search until something turns up. In the meantime, please understand that I’m not overlooking those custom builders in countries other than the U.S. – I just haven’t arrived at a feasible way to supply them, yet.

Tom Kirkman

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Foreign RodMaker Magazine subscriptions are available through these independent business persons:

Australia  -  Ian@millerods.com

Canada  -  Ian@pairowoodies.com

Germany  -  sales@rodpro.de