Computer Shopper Ceases Print Magazine

It’s the end of an era. Computer Shopper, the venerable computer sales magazine, will no longer have a print edition as of the April 2009 issue. Sure, it was inevitable and I was actually surprised to see it still in print in this age of instant notification, but it’s still noteworthy, especially for us old school tech guys who read the mag in the 80’s and 90’s.

To say that Computer Shopper evolved over 30 years' time is to say human civilization is susceptible to change, or that oceans are prone to undulation. It never sounded like it could be the driving force in information technology publishing, with a name that never changed from the days it was printed on cheap, yellow recycled newsprint and handed out for next-to-nothing in Florida's convenience stores.

One of the places I used to work kept a fairly large collection of their old issues when they still printed the giant versions. We always liked looking back and seeing prices from years ago.

Thank god the Internet replaced magazines with 6 month old printed pricing information though!

I miss the giant old issues. Dad had a subscription, and I agree, its fun to look back and see what hardware prices were years ago.

you guys realize we are showing our age here. I can remember the same.

Yep, I remember the big ol' black n' white booklets lol!

I just received an issue & I'll agree that people have gravitated towards the internet for their decisions, but it was a good bathroom reader

Oppps, meant black n' yellow lol!

You could kill a man with those older issues. Definitely the end of an era.

I would LOVE to have a issue from the late 80s and early 90s. I used to subscribe to those and spent hours pawning through them.

OMG.. the days of 33.3 and Wildcat BBS.. That magazine was like 2 inches thick..

Those were the days... ::sigh::

I remember the HUGE issues, too. It's been a long, happy run. I kinda miss the old days of BBS's, Computer Shopper magazine had to be carried with both hands, and a 9.6 modem was the bomb (I only had a 2400 )

omg?!! now how am i going to find the best deal among 200 computer builders for that 386DX system and the 14" CRT monitor i am coveting so much?

sigh...bought many of my earliest systems off that magazine

I bought a PC from Computer Shopper around 92 or 93. It was $1,300 dollars and I think it was a AMD DX4 100. I can't be sure. I might even have the year wrong. BUT, let me tell you, the quality of the PC was horrible. It looked nice, but as soon as you pickup the mid-tower case, you could feel it was somewhat un-sturdy and flimsy. Also, the motherboard was not was not very layered in that it was also flimsy. The motherboard also had patch wires soldered all over the motherboard.

Needless to say, it was returned.

I would also get a Computer Shopper back in the day and do a lot of dreaming.

There was a magazine in there? I always thought it was an ad magazine.

I never bought it for the articles.

Only 1/8" thick, and 50 of the 90-100 pages are all ads.
I still have the subscription with only two issues left.

Originally Posted by Valset

you guys realize we are showing our age here. I can remember the same.

I remember looking up 286's in there

Wow, truly the end of an era... if you're interested in finding old issues, try thrift stores like Goodwill, Savers, etc. You'd be amazed what you can find in those places sometimes. Also, libraries, but that's a given.

And yeah, I have fond memories of lugging around those super huge issues way back in the very early 80s in a backpack at school. At lunch everyone would scour over the stuff we all dreamed of having but couldn't possibly afford.

I looked forward to picking up that phone book every month... was disappointed when they went to glossy pages.

I can remember using this to select where to buy my first dot matrix printer from.

That was 19 years ago...

Given Newegg/Amazon/Pricewatch/etc etc etc, how have they stayed in print this long?

If you have the internet, isn't it worthless?

Man... the end of another era.