Spam Question: Or A Former (one-time only) Spammer Explains Himself

Hello All,

I am a reporter in a little town most of you have probably never heard of,
or if you have all you likely know is that we are home to Bass Pro. Anyway,
I am a freelance writer working for the Springfield Business Journal in
Springfield, Mo. and doing an on-spec article.
Now, my question involves spam. Recently I made a little experiment to test
a pet theory of mine. My theory goes something like this:

In all the years I have had an email account, going on 10 now at least, I
have probably had thousands and thousands (maybe millions) of spam emails,
and not once in all that time have I ever responded to the advertisement,
followed their links and I have most especially never bought a product from
a spam email. My theory is that spam, in addition to being annoying, is also
totally ineffective because nearly everybody else treats it just like I do.
They delete it out of hand.

Now, for the question part.

1. As book collectors--and/or dealers--have you ever responded to a spam
email or made a purchase because of one?

2. Also have you ever used spam of any kind, even directed at newsgroups
that one would expect to find book lovers in?

For the little article I've been working on, I made a little spam ad for two
items I had on eBay. One not only didn't get even one bid, I don't think
anybody even bothered to visit it. So, from my experiment, I have to
conclude that my theory is correct. Now for another more general question:

3. If this spam doesn't work, and it only annoys people (you should see the
nasty grams from the Internet police and flames I got) why then do you
suppose these professional spammers bother with it? I know it's cheap, but
even the infinitesimal fraction of nothing it may cost can't possibly be
worth even that much if nobody responds to it.

4. Or, am I wrong, and it does generate sales? (Does anyone happen to have
any statistics on this?)

I look forward to the responses.

Please feel free to post this thing on other book related newsgroups. I
spammed quite a number of them, and I have forgotten which ones. All replies
are welcome. Please reply to the group if you don't mind, although if you
have something to say that had best be said in private that's okay. I cant
quote anonymous sources in my article, unless your life is literally at
stake, but an internet handle or first name only is acceptable if you insist
on anonymity.

Take your time with the replies if you're the sort that likes to think
things out, I have only recently pitched this story to them and I haven't
received a deadline.

Thank you all.

---Mark R. Fletcher

P.S. My apologies for my annoying spam. (There's something you'll never hear
from a professional spammer)

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:42:12 GMT, "Mark"
declared:

1. As book collectors--and/or dealers--have you ever responded to a spam
email or made a purchase because of one?

nope, but then i've never gotten an unsolicitated book related email.


robert

"I've been long, a long way from here
Put on a poncho, played for mosquitos,
And drank til I was thirsty again
We went searching through thrift store jungles
Found Geronimo's rifle, Marilyn's shampoo
And Benny Goodman's corset and pen"