Re: “SFBC shutting down”

On 4 Jan 2025 17:46:32 GMT, ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
wrote:

In article <vlbrvk$ibja$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/3/25 5:36 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <vl9mo7$3fsk$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

“SFBC shutting downâ€?
    https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/1hsnqmd/sfbc_shutting_down/
>
“Reported in Ansible 450.â€?
    https://news.ansible.uk/a450.html#14
>
"The "How it works" page now says this:"
    https://www.sfbc.com/how-it-works
>
"How Your Membership Works<br>Cancel anytime."
>
"After 2/1/2025, orders will no longer be processed at Science Fiction
Book Club."
>
"You can still redeem your existing credits on the site as normal until
2/1/2025."
>
"You can also still purchase books using a credit card on the site as
normal until 2/1/2025."
>
I am surprised SFBC lasted this long.  I have not ordered a book from it
since the early 1970s.  I think that “Duneâ€? was the last book I bought
from it.
>
Lynn
>

 
I can still tell you what my membership number was for many years, until
they sold I guess.  (I won't, but I can).  In the post-Amazon years,
I would pretty much buy only the omnibi or art/comic offerings, but
still many fond memories.

>
Same here. When I first started reading this group in the mid-1990s, i
quickly learned that I'd had a non-standard intro to written SF, and
that I had missed a lot of the common classics most others had read.
>
SFBC was my primary way of "catching up", including their awesome
introductory deal at the time. I also greatly appreciated Andrew
Wheeler's contributions and insights here in rasfw over the many years
he was here.
>
I haven't been a member for years, but I'm sad to see it go,
Tony
>

>
Interestingly, I never dropped out -- they just eventually stopped sending
me packets.  I guess I wasn't profitable enough at the end.  Somewhere
I have a stack of their booklets from the 70s onward when they still did
their own art.

After the Davis refunds, I had so many books backed up that I limited
my purchases to two books a year (at least as a goal). I eventually
got a letter complaining of that. That may (in addition to the S&H
cost) have helped prompt me to resign, as an act of mercy toward an
old friend.

I wonder if Columbia House is still around -- they chased me for years trying
to get me to renew.

Or MHS, from which I built a large collection of very good (if very
old) music.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"