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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.

Jonah Spangenthal-Lee: Proving you wrong since 1983.

51 replies on “Where Is the PI?”

  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?

  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.

  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?

  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?

  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?

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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?

  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).

  33. The eBay thing only helps to demonstrate that capitalism does nothing more than reward the greediest and most selfish among us. Pitiful.

  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.

  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?

  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.

  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?

  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.

  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?

  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.

  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!

  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.

  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.

  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?

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