I was never a paid subscriber to either mag, but I bought them frequently. Discoveries mag I had almost every issue (it started in late 1988). I've since discarded almost all of them, except for the Discoveries issues where my column was featured, and a Goldmine issue or two (the one with the Garage Sale contest band profiles, the Seeds, the Music Machine...).
The issues that would be of interest to me are pre-1979 Goldmine mags, just to peruse the auction listings. When I became aware of the mag in 1977, I bought a few issues, but never kept them. In 1979, Goldmine tried to make a smaller mag without auction listings available for newsstand buyers, while the regular paid subscribers would also receive the pull-out newsprint auction / set sale listings. This change did not catch on, so the mag eventually reverted back to the normal format.
As George noted, the Rick Whitesell editor era Goldmine has some neat articles, but it was heavily into doo-wop and mainstream 50s / 60s stars. Feature articles in general were not too interesting, as most were penned by fans who did not write well enough to venture beyond basic encyclopedia type generalities. When Jeff Tamarkin took over after Whitesell's death, the quality of the articles improved 1000%. Discoveries magazine adopted the old Goldmine era philosophy as old timers whined complained that Goldmine was getting "too modern" by including post Beatles era musicians and performers. Greg Shaw was an original founder of Discoveries, and wrote some interesting columns until he bailed (he told me it was too much work to keep up with a monthly schedule).
Some of the regular sellers of odd / obscure 45s from those days: William P Davis, originally from Missouri, had access to lots of unplayed radio station stock from the 1960s. I bid on and won the Five Canadians "Writing On The Wall", the Primates "Don't Press Your Luck" from him among others.
Charlotte Tucson, from Michigan, also had cool rock & soul 45s, mostly from old warehouse stock. She often had quantity. Hemp's Hits (Aris Hampers, from the Soulbenders) ran lists with his old radio station inventory, he continues to sell the remnants on ebay. George beat me on a copy of the Vikings 45 ""I Need Your Lovin'" from long-time Ohio based dealer Dale Marshund. Paul Grenyo, from Arizona, also had cool stuff - he broke down each auction list by genre. I think he still sells in Goldmine, but I've not seen an issue in years.
Some of the best garage 45s were often buried in lists of dreck; you had to carefully go thru every one, or you'd miss out. The tedious ads were the handwritten ones, or the ones where the person was a lousy typist (the late John Hilliyard from Los Angeles comes to mind).
