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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Where Is the PI?

Posted by on Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 10:02 AM

56d4/1237309221-pi.jpg

I've been on a hunt for a copy of the PI's final print edition all morning, but haven't had any luck.

I've checked two different boxes in different parts of the city—and one 7-11—but there are no papers to be found.

Why the hell is it suddenly so hard to find a newspaper in this town? I blame douchebag eBayers.

There are already a handful of copies of the PI on eBay, going for $10 to $50. What a bunch of assholes.

Good luck finding a copy, folks.

 

Comments (51) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
Look harder? IDK, but I found a huge stack at the Starbucks in the Smith Tower and the slot was filled with PI's this morning in the U-District.

Why do the people that woke up earlier than you and paid for the newspapers (regardless of their intended use of the paper) deserve the paper less than you do?
Posted by @ on March 17, 2009 at 10:08 AM
2
There are some in a box next to the bus stop on the S side of N 45th next to Roosevelt.
Posted by Will in Seattle on March 17, 2009 at 10:09 AM
3
I checked three boxes within a block of each other before finally giving up and getting one at the neighborhood Starbucks.
Posted by Aaron Pickus on March 17, 2009 at 10:10 AM
4
All it costs is a couple of cents for a whole stack from a dispenser, and they're going on ebay for $50? Shit, I'll be out swiping all of them too.
Posted by You you you you on March 17, 2009 at 10:10 AM
5
The woman working at the deli by my office was surprised I was only buying one copy, she said everyone was buying at least 2. Who the hell would put it on ebay?
Posted by Little Red Ryan Hood on March 17, 2009 at 10:12 AM
6
@5, the same people that invested in beanie babies back in the 90s.
Posted by @ on March 17, 2009 at 10:13 AM
7
'Why the hell is it suddenly so hard to find a newspaper in this town?'

there's a Times in the box right next to it. If you want a daily paper in this town from now on, the Times is it; what do you care if you have to start a day early?
Posted by stan in Aruba on March 17, 2009 at 10:13 AM
8
I have the final edition of The Rocket if anyone wants to buy it. Make me an offer. Nothing? That's what I thought...
Posted by DOUG. on March 17, 2009 at 10:14 AM
9
How much is the final edition of the Stranger going for?
Posted by Gurldoggie on March 17, 2009 at 10:15 AM
10
I got mine from the box by Pete's Coffee - there was maybe five or six left.

Posted by CommonKnowledge on March 17, 2009 at 10:16 AM
11
why exactly are those selling on ebay assholes? they are putting something up for sale, and the "market" drives the final price. if someone is willing to pay that much for a 50 cent newspaper then i say so what?

Posted by taint on March 17, 2009 at 10:19 AM
12
@2--Thanks for the info. There's one left.
Posted by MyNameIsNobody on March 17, 2009 at 10:21 AM
13
There were a whole pile of them discarded in that bin where you can leave newspapers for other customers at my local Tully's this morning. I thought about grabbing one for posterity's sake, since they were free, but then pictured the old newspaper cluttering up a closet until I finally threw it away in a few years.
Posted by My Name Here on March 17, 2009 at 10:21 AM
14
@11, economic sense doesn't justify an action. goddamn Rand zombies.
Posted by devilsmoke on March 17, 2009 at 10:24 AM
15
Good thing Erica is in court. She'd likely take the entire batch with two quarters, then kick it down and try to get them back.
Posted by garnishing garnished wages on March 17, 2009 at 10:27 AM
16
Wow. A sellout issue. The PI should go out of business more often!
Posted by Jay Andrew Allen on March 17, 2009 at 10:29 AM
17
Look in Rainier Valley. We don't read newspapers down there.
Posted by jackie treehorn on March 17, 2009 at 10:29 AM
18
Plenty at Bulldog News at 10am
Posted by ZPG on March 17, 2009 at 10:31 AM
19
If you go to the Seattle Times office, you can buy one from them for cover price.

If you're nice, you'll even get a commemorative plastic sleeve.
Posted by 8block on March 17, 2009 at 10:37 AM
20
There's a huge stack at Safeway in Ellensburg. I was feeling pretty good about buying one until I read @13 and realize I'm probably going to do that exact thing.
Posted by snargent pepper on March 17, 2009 at 10:42 AM
21
Many out here in the suburbs still. Losers don't read.
Posted by Kirkland Sex Offender on March 17, 2009 at 10:43 AM
22
Bulldog News on the Ave has tons.
Posted by bbilly on March 17, 2009 at 10:44 AM
23
I saved the last copy of the Rocky Mountain News for the same reason. I'm already feeling stupid about it.
Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on March 17, 2009 at 10:55 AM
24
Um, the PI is right there online, where I've been reading it for the past four or five years. Looks pretty much the same as always, except the annoying ".nwsource" sub link has been deleted.

I can't even remember the last time I picked up a print edition.
Posted by It's STILL In The PI on March 17, 2009 at 10:59 AM
25
Maybe you should have asked ECB to steal one for you.
Posted by chris on March 17, 2009 at 11:11 AM
26
They probably didn't even distribute most of them and instead are selling the copies they didn't put out to fund their "severance payment" or their "next exciting online venture." Or at least that's what I'd be doing.
Posted by LogopolisMike on March 17, 2009 at 11:16 AM
27
News stand at Pike Place Market has a huge stack of them.
Posted by very bad homo on March 17, 2009 at 11:36 AM
28
@11: they're assholes because that's fucked up.

Years ago I wanted to go to a Tool concert. I woke up hella early, went and stood in line and when the tickets went on sale TWO people were able to buy tickets and then they were sold out. All because some assholes bought up all the tickets and then put them on ebay for $600. Wouldn't you be pissed?
Posted by c to the andice on March 17, 2009 at 11:38 AM
29
you can have mine but I already cleaned my ass with it. hope you like shit on the globe
Posted by see ya fuckers on March 17, 2009 at 11:40 AM
30
Now that they're empty, are the boxes free for the taking?
Posted by NapoleonXIV on March 17, 2009 at 11:40 AM
31
I got it delivered to my house today.
Posted by me on March 17, 2009 at 11:47 AM
32
I know of an out-of-the-way area that still had copies of the post-election issues of the PI and Times on the afternoon of 11/5 (when many other places were long sold out).

Today the PIs were gone before 8:30am. I think there's a 90% chance that someone drove around the area in the middle of the night and scooped them all up (at 50 cents/box for the entire stack).

Posted by stinkbug on March 17, 2009 at 11:48 AM
33
The eBay thing only helps to demonstrate that capitalism does nothing more than reward the greediest and most selfish among us. Pitiful.
Posted by Urgutha Forka on March 17, 2009 at 11:56 AM
34
It's not new or unique to eBay. I remember when the Philadelphia Bulletin went under in 1982, and copies vanished that time too. Copies immediately turned up in plastic sleeves in local flea markets. A couple years later the same thing happened with "old" coke when the New Coke came out -- people hoarding it and then selling cases through classified ads.

eBay just amplifies an old practice.
Posted by psc on March 17, 2009 at 12:32 PM
35
Walgreens on 15th Ave E. had a pile at 9AM
Posted by Andrew Taylor on March 17, 2009 at 12:41 PM
36
first, apologies to eli. i thought you wrote this post, and emailed you that i had an extra copy. i should have known you didn't use 'douchebag' that liberally.

second, did you find one, jonah?
Posted by scary tyler moore on March 17, 2009 at 12:53 PM
37
Just call the newspaper and request re-delivery because someone stole your copy.

What's that? You're not a subscriber? OH. Well, fuck you.

Guess I'd assumed that all these Stranger writers who were so distressed about the PI closing, and so sentimental about the print edition, would be ACTUAL SUBSCRIBERS. So, as a paying subscriber to another dying paper (SF Chronicle), I say go to hell.
Posted by anarchy burger on March 17, 2009 at 1:05 PM
38
Get your sorry hipster ass up earlier. There were plenty around at 7:30.
Posted by Good Grief on March 17, 2009 at 1:20 PM
39
Bulldog News still had some at 1 pm.
Posted by Will in Seattle on March 17, 2009 at 1:50 PM
40
So, you woke up late, got coffee, and then checked a few boxes around Broadway and, surprise, no papers. There were plenty this morning at 6:15. What were you doing?
Posted by seattle bike guy on March 17, 2009 at 1:55 PM
41
Like @31, I got the last P-I delivered to my house this morning, leaning right up against my front door. No sympathy for you.
Posted by mynameiskate on March 17, 2009 at 2:34 PM
42
I'd be surprised if the PI doesn't print a second run after all the demand today and offer them for sale down the line. Didn't the Times (and maybe the PI too?) do that with the Obama issue, for example?
Posted by Jane on March 17, 2009 at 2:49 PM
43
I just read this now and skipped past all the comments, so sorry if someone already said this... But when the Rocky Mtn News went belly up last month, they did a second run of papers. I ended up getting mine the following day.
Posted by Matt from Denver on March 17, 2009 at 3:20 PM
44
Bailey/Coy had a stack at 2:30.
Posted by Paul Constant on March 17, 2009 at 4:31 PM
45
"Get your sorry hipster ass up earlier. There were plenty around at 7:30."

Or stay up later! I got mine at 5:00 AM -- before going to bed!
Posted by litlnemo on March 17, 2009 at 4:58 PM
46
Every box on University Way between 41st and 45th was cleaned out by 3 PM. Didn't think to check Bulldog News, but it's probably out by now.

A friend of mine found a complete copy by dumpster-diving (well, recycle-bin-diving, technically) in Lander Hall. Some idiot freshman must not have recognized the value of what he or she was holding.
Posted by Terry Nguyen on March 17, 2009 at 5:44 PM
47
I guess to elaborate on 46, both the Times and the PI deliver free newspapers to the dorms.

I've been tired from finals and stress. I forgot to stay up for the delivery.

Hopefully they print a second run. Guess I'll be paying for that.

Oh well. Happy St. Pat's.
Posted by my earplugs are green, & i wore them for the better part of on March 17, 2009 at 7:07 PM
48
the day.

(Except in the PI's case, they did, past tense.)
Posted by see 47 on March 17, 2009 at 7:08 PM
49
At the airport this afternoon there wasn't a copy to be found anywhere in concourse C.
Posted by Ryan on March 17, 2009 at 9:17 PM
50
Well, apparently you didn't buy the paper when it was only being serialized - like from 1863 'til now - and then you want a copy of the last one - WTF?
Posted by Rhett Oracle on March 17, 2009 at 9:24 PM
51
Win one of three copies of the final P-I at www.SeattleBlogger.com!
Posted by SEABlogger on March 19, 2009 at 10:26 PM

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