I, personally, have experienced mixed results with Absolute
Backorder.  However, both United States Book Exchange [
www.usbe.com/index.html ] and Periodicals Service Company & Schmidt
Periodicals GmbH [ www.periodicals.com/index.html ] have been a boon to
me in the past when ordering replacement/backset serials.  Both
companies get back to me within 24 hours of placing an order (often
within eight hours), and delivery times for both are quite good, often
taking less than five business days.
   A special note regarding USBE:  members can purchase back/replacement
issues for a flat fee of ten or twenty dollars each (depending on which
level of membership your library has).  With that level of discount, the
Membership pays for itself fairly quickly.

-Jonathan Howell
Library Assistant/Acquisitions Department
NC State University Library
2205 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
Phone: (919) 513-3356
Fax: (919) 515-7292

SERIALST automatic digest system wrote:

>Date:    Fri, 7 Apr 2006 16:24:35 -0400
>From:    "van Sickle, Jennifer" <Jennifer.Vansickle@TRINCOLL.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Buying single issues
>
>What about Absolute Backorder, or even EBSCO's missing copy bank?  There
>used to be e-mail lists for the exchange of duplicates; maybe someone
>has more information.
>
>We have asked our subscription agents to buy single issues when it was
>deemed necessary to do so.  Maybe there could be a price limit, after
>which it would be charged to the department.
>
>-Jennifer
>
>Jennifer van Sickle MLS
>Serials Librarian/Sciences Coordinator
>Trinity College Library
>300 Summit St.
>Hartford, CT USA 06106
>
>Phone: 860-297-2250
>Fax: 860-297-2251
>
>jennifer.vansickle@trincoll.edu
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Fri, 7 Apr 2006 17:00:03 -0400
>From:    Heidi Fisher <fisher@PRINCETON.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Buying single issues
>
>I highly recommend the services of Absolute Backorder Service, Inc.
>www.absolute-inc.com  We just had a faculty request today for 2 copies
>of the most current issue of a science journal, needed rush for course
>reserves.  Our staff person e-mailed Absolute this morning, and already
>has confirmation for the order.  We've been using Absolute for the last
>couple of years for almost all of our back issue needs and they are
>terrific.  Before that, we used to go to the individual publishers or
>other back issue dealers and it was a incredibly labor intensive.  Good
>luck.
>
>Heidi Fisher
>Princeton University Library
>Order Division-Periodicals, Continuations
>One Washington Road
>Princeton, NJ  08544
>
>
>