Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Act of Selling Letters

Spurred by a very insightful post over at The Missive Maven, I wanted to comment on the act of selling letters (Maven had seen several on Etsy).

I don't know what drives people to offer something for money that you can get for free (and without a doubt more sincerely, love and friendship) throughout the internet on various website, zines, blogs and so on. You like mail art? Fine. Make a friend who likes it too and exchange original mail art with each other. I guess I just can't wrap my mind around something like that. I mean...I'm on a fixed income. I am on disability and I don't get a whole lot of money monthly, but it has never crossed my mind to sell "letters". Selling art, yes. Selling various crafts I've made, yes. But never selling friendship, which is what this act seems like to me.

I did, for a while, jump on the band wagon of asking for donations to buy stamps (due to my being on a fixed income), but I have since removed it. I don't get to send out much in the way of letters these days, but it seems to be a very sore topic these days, so its best I not have the link up - I didn't mean to offend anyone.

If you want a pen pal, while I may not be in the market - I can push you whole-heartedly in the direction of many people, websites, etc. that are looking to make friends via the mail and who want to [willingly and gladly] swap mail art and other lovely things. Don't pay for it. Make a true friend - I have faith in you!

If you want to see some amazing mail art - check out swap-bot and swap for it! Can't find a swap for it currently? Start your own. Take that first leap into checking out something you're interested in, without monetary compensation.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

1 comment:

ohjoana said...

What about people who ask for money to buy stamps? I think it is perfectly similar. One sell letters, the other ask someone to "buy them". One looks not to be able to look for himself for someone to share good letters with, the other probably has so many pen friends that isn't able to deal with that. Something is wrong here.


 

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