Art & Inspiration What's up with The Rodders Journal?

I got ripped off years ago when JJ (another “friend” of the HAMB) shit down garage magazine right after cashing my check for a 2 year sub. “Pay up sucker” - yeah right dipshit.

No way I’d ever pay for a lifetime sub. That’s been the end game of several other hobbies mags I used to get when they start circling the drain. Kind of like when a sitcom adds a little kid in the 10th season just to keep things going one more year. You know it’s over at that point.

Also someone hit the nail on the head when he said these guys get a free pass around here. No doubt! Hell you could rip someone off in the classifieds for a $50 water pump and be permabanned and vilified for life, yet take likely thousands in magazine subs and disappear off the face of the earth and everything is all good and people should be “compassionate”. Wtf!?

I get it’s fucking backwards to blame the folks actually responsible these days, but don’t start blaming the actual victims instead. Those posting here have plenty of reason to be pissed off.

 

Will believe it if/when I see it


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Great, USPS just announced their new plan to make money includes Longer Delivery times, Shorter business hours and higher prices! Mull on that!

 

If they cut out Saturday delivery it would save quite a bit by itself. And then there's the union.

 

We haven't had Saturday deliveries here in Canada for several decades, I don't miss it at all.

 

How about raising the price for junk mail...get some every day!

 

@TRJ, Thanks for posting. Hope the box of magazines to your Canadian (and other International) subscribers gets to the logistics company, and we can catch up to the others.
Good luck.

 

TRJ...thanks for the update,...you put out the absolute best magazine (book) on the market.
Good luck !

 

This might not be the correct venue for you.

 

They keep spouting the same tired message over and over again going on 6 months now. Have yet to see them actually do what they said they were going to do. It would be nice if, for once, they actually followed through on their lip service.

 

It certainly helps to see a post from TRJ, I have to wonder why so long but only hope the best the continued publishing of a fine publication. Good luck to you guys.

 

Am I the only one that really liked getting real nerdy about the mail for a minute there? That was pretty interesting. I like learning about systems/ services that I use but never think about the inner workings of.

 

RJ- thank you for posting an update, looking forward to hearing from you again in a couple of days. I am another subscriber who has every issue from #1 to current and am looking forward to adding to my collection.

 

It's a start, I guess. Finally a post with a very generalised explanation - sort of like "some shit has happened". It's none of our business, I know, but there isn't even the hint of an apology to subscribers.....................

Let's see what happens next.......

 

Wasn't that basic explanation posted last fall or so?

 

TRJ, I really hope you are genuine this time. Previous assurances have been long on hope and short ( no, non-existent) on delivery. Just this week I paid ANOTHER forty dollars to get a copy of 84, just like I did for the long promised 83. That's eighty bucks out of pocket that should never have happened under any type of subscription arrangement. And I'm guessing you won't be refunding my eighty bucks!

I sent a number of emails to two of you BEGGING for re-assurances but they fell on deaf ears. No-one wants you to go broke, no -one wants you to lose your livelihood but why, after nearly four months of silence, could you not have given us information today? It would have only taken a few minutes longer, minutes of your time that you owe your loyal customers. What is going to change in the next two or three days? This is like death by a thousand cuts.

Steve, Curtis, please get this right this time.

 

Well if anyone cares, I got my Xmas catalog today!
Hope this all gets sorted out...

Sent from my SM-G960U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

There ya go, straight from the horses' mouth. Now will everyone calm down and let the man get his affairs in order? Sounds like the last year has been hell, cut the man some slack and move on.

 

I for one appreciate hearing from you, I sincerely hope you guys can get back on track and continue publishing TRJ.

This past year has hurt many businesses and a lot have closed the doors never to reopen, I think it takes a big man to post here with all the hate & discontent from subscribers. HRP

 

That horse has said the same thing multiple times over the last 6 months and not once has there been any actual follow through so until they actually live up to their word they deserve no slack.

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Not that what I have to say amounts to much more than a bucket of greasy bolts, but I have been waiting, and hoping, for The Rodder's Journal to make a some statement before I said anything further. Now they have (with hopefully more to come). So... In the last few years I have seen some 20 magazines that I read, cared about, and paid for, unceremoniously killed--with no warning, no excuse, and certainly no refund. Of all the magazines I worked for in my career (including Sunset), I was purely lucky to have left shortly before the formerly individual or family-owned publishing company sold out to some mega-bucks investment consortium that immediately cut and squeezed staff to make more dollars. The Rodder's Journal is the one significant exception. It has been written, published, and produced by individuals who love the subject, treasure its history, and strive to make the highest quality magazine on the subject possible. No-one, from Steve Coonan on down, has ever gotten anywhere close to rich from this endeavor. I know whereof I speak. To say that it has been a labor of love is an understatement. To say that right now it is a labor of frustration, for an amazing number of reasons, is unfortunately pathetic.
But the point is that they haven't quit. They haven't dumped you. They're sincerely striving to keep this vessel afloat, without compromising it. And certainly without selling it to some mega-bucks capital investors.
Given recent print publishing history, I understand the first response is to feel cheated and vindictive. But TRJ is not trying to rip you off.
I am a member of KKOA, WCK, and similar organizations that have had to cancel events, and what I see in their newsletters are many saying, "Don't return my entry fee. Keep it. You need it more than me." I keep reading about these Go-Fund-Me accounts on the Internet that raise tens of thousand of dollars in days, for a wide variety of causes, many serious, some downright silly. The Roddder's Journal is trying to make it on its own. It doesn't need charity. But it does need your support.
That's the bottom line. If you want a high-quality hot rod and custom car print magazine like The Rodder's Journal. If you're a fan and you love it. If you don't want to see this one die (too). Then you have to support it. Especially now.
Pat Ganahl

 

Amen.

 

^^ x2

 

Once again, Pat has it nailed. If TRJ said "We need help. We can't promise you'll ever see another issue but we can try" wouldn't a bunch of us chip in?

 

Thanks for chiming in Pat. Agreed.

 

Yep.Some of you guys were ready to burn Eric at the stake but seem very forgiving towards The Rodders Journal.
This also bothers me.
Also,I hope Rodders Journal pulls thru as there is nothing else of the same caliber out there

 

Thanks Pat, you make some very good points.

 

Everything Pat says is true and correct, apart from the fact that it is not good business practice to bury your head in the sand and ignore your customers, even if you are going through hell at the time. If you don't show your customers the respect they deserve by communicating openly with them, you will find that you end up with none.
No customers ???...................no chance of saving any business. Can't have one without the other.

I sincerely hope TRJ is being open and honest now. Would be a shame to lose them. But they need to be a little more loyal to their income source, no matter how embarrassing it might be. They can't be saved without it........... Sometimes asking for some leeway is the hardest thing to do, but it can be the one thing that saves you.

 

Days are getting sunnier and the world is looking brighter.