Every mail order dealer goes through a routine purging of their mailing list. There is no sense sending mail to a customer who doesn’t order. In many cases, I think it’s because the dealer doesn’t offer what the customer is looking for. OK, that can’t be helped. But there are a few people who like to get on mailing lists and then they build their collection from the used stamps gleaned from the mailings.

I have one collector who sends me a request for my pricelist every six months. I can set my watch by it. I had them on my mailing list for over 4 years and they never ordered. They sent subsequent requests and I sent another copy of my pricelist. Still nothing. I once sent a friendly letter explaining that I mailed multiple lists and they didn’t order anything. Was there something specific they are looking for that I might be able to find? They never replied. This person is never going to order from me. If they haven’t found anything in almost 20 pricelists over many years, it just isn’t going to happen. Now I put their repeated requests in the trash.

Sometimes I remove people from my list even sooner. If I get a request for my pricelist and it’s from someone who has been getting my list for a while and they have never ordered, then they are off my list right away. Again, I don’t want to be mean. But in my experience, it’s rare when someone who has never ordered suddenly becomes an active customer. If these people can’t even track which dealers they are getting lists from, that tells me that they aren’t even looking at my list or they would recognize my name.

I don’t like removing people from my mailing list. But I also realize that there are a few who will never order. Like every dealer, to keep my expenses down, I must remove people who repeatedly ask for a copy of my list when they’ve been getting it for some time and they have never placed an order.