I’ve mentioned a few stories over time where I removed a customer from my mailing list for various reasons. The door swings both ways though. Sometimes I’m the one getting the axe.

A customer wrote to me some time ago about some stamps he wanted to trade. They were all common and inexpensive stamps and there were only several hundred of them. I wrote back and explained that I don’t trade stamps. If I traded stamps, I would never make a profit and I would be out of business in no time. All of my time would be spent swapping stamps and never taking in money. Without money, there is no business.

He then wanted to sell these stamps. I explained that I was not interested because I had a bountiful supply of those kinds of stamps already. My demand for them was zero. He later wrote me a letter saying that he tried to sell his stamps to another dealer. They too wouldn’t offer him anything for his stamps. He decried that dealers are crooked because we don’t pay for stamps, but we charge customers an arm and a leg for them. I guess he didn’t read my piece in the summer 2013 pricelist about the price of common stamps.

A day after his tirade about crooked dealers making a 100% profit, I got another letter. It was short and to the point. “Please remove me from your mailing list.” Yep, I got the axe.

Sometimes people ask me to remove them from my mailing list due to health or economic issues. Sometimes people just stop collecting. I hate to lose a customer, but I understand their situation. When I get the terse message, “Remove me from your mailing list” and nothing more, I just got fired. They may as well write it on pink paper too so that I can say I officially was handed a pink slip.

I feel bad that I wasn’t able to convince this gentleman what the market is for common and inexpensive stamps. I can’t win them all.

When you go to multiple dealers and they all tell you the same thing, is it the reality of the market or is it a unified conspiracy? I assure you that there is no unified conspiracy among all stamp dealers. If there was, it would only take one “outsider” to come along and start paying big bucks for stamps when all other dealers have been cheating customers. The conspiracy would collapse in a heartbeat.

This gentleman will search until the end of time to find an “honest” dealer who will pay top dollar for his material. I’m willing to bet that he will go to his grave and never sell those stamps to a dealer.

I feel bad when customers fire me. There is a missed opportunity there. It happens and I need to move on. I can’t save the world. Sometimes people put up huge barriers that I just can’t break through.