Archival Search Costs
Search fee.......
We currently have around 50,000 magazines in stock. We have scoured the pages of every issue within our enormous archive and we have detailed so much. An invaluable resource that is already, quite frankly too freely available!
However, as the popularity of the site grows and grows, we are receiving ever more requests to find certain articles. From the very exciting to the rather bizarre!
We have successfully tracked down early shoots for models, young readers experiencing makeovers, people out clubbing and more. In all honesty we are probably unable to locate knitting patterns and recipes from magazines with a ten year window frame!
In some situations, with our extensive knowledge and memory of fashion shoots, and the data that we have spent 20 years collating, it is possible that we can find memorable shoots. Other requests can be more difficult.
Looking through a 3 year window of Just Seventeen magazine at around 150 issues is extremely time consuming. We have lost count over the years of how many times we have done this simply out of kindness, only to never receive a reply, or worse still, see the exact issue immediately sell elsewhere, without even a simple thanks.
We have toughened up. Our time here at Magazine Canteen is extremely valuable. If you follow us on Instagram you will know of our time restraints and how devoted we are to archiving our collection. Our time is no longer free.
We now charge a finders fee for searching through our archive. Let us explain.
Our fee is £50 for a 45 minute search. This will be time spent solely looking for the item you have requested. This involves bringing the collection of inspection and unwrapping and re-wrapping our archival protective wrappers. You can then use this fee towards your purchase, so if you are confident we can find your article, the fee is in affect, waived.
The good news is, we've already done years of this for free! Our knowledge and database is intense, so we have a head start already. Obviously unmentioned articles ( such as casual street encounter interviews with the public, or clubbing images ) can take up this time.
There are two important points to mention regarding this....
1. We will not accept this fee unless we are quite sure that we can find it. We will only spend our time and your money looking through collections which are extensively complete. It would make no sense to accept a challenge for a random issue from a 10 year print run if we only have a handful.
2. There can of course be no certainty that we can find what you have requested. By appointing a search, please be realistic as to whether it can be found. The good news is that if you yourself are certain that the article you require is in one of 12 copies of the face from 1999, then of course, we can locate it, as we have every issue.
We accept this search fee only on this basis.
Once you have purchased your £50 search voucher, we will send you a Voucher Code which you can use to this value towards your chosen magazine. In essence, making the search fee, free. If your magazine is less than £50, you can purchase another or accept that the rest generated the search.
If we are unable to find your magazine, we apologise. But there are around 40'000 magazine still available to purchase, and you could use this voucher for a Birthday Vogue or similar. If you feel that there is nothing within the entire archive that takes your fancy, please think twice about sending us on a search!
Please only purchase a search fee voucher if we have discussed and accepted your request.
Please contact us at infoATmagazinecanteen.com (replace AT with @) - if you wish to request a specific search. We will endeavour to reply as quickly as possible of it is a realistic request to accept.
Thank you. MC