My point about the Gold Club was only intended to stimulate thought and I also have to admit I thought it had merit.
Anyway, I've been criticized about my new found enthusiasm for becoming a Gold Member. I previously was a Gold Member in the past, but only for a quarter (3 months). I let my Gold Membership lapse and frankly, never gave it a 2nd thought it expired. I'm not the most active AZer when it comes to buying or selling items through the Forum.There are a lot more AZers doing business here than I have conducted but I've been a member for a few years and have enjoyed the availability of the Forum and other AZers.
Then last month I read Jerry's thread which was the first time I'd ever seen the owner/operatorof AZ do anything like that. I read his thread and agreed with everything he wrote and even worse, I felt some measure of guilt over not renewing my original Gold membership. And in between, I had bought and sold items on the Forum. And only because of the Forum and the environment it offers, I located a great cue-maker, made some new acquaintences, increased my knowledge about cue-makers, pool cues, and just really have enjoyed the availability of having a great website like azbilliards.
Anyway, I reflected back on Jerry's thread and thought about how many times do I piss ten cents away every day. I mean I throw any pennies change into the cash register cup at a check-out stand. I give a couple dollars to a homeless person when I encounter them outside a store or pan handling at a traffic light corner. I never even give "ANY" thought at all as to how I could have saved ten cents today.....what could I have not done which would have saved me ten cents.....I'm sure there must have been something I could have not done or done differently.
Hmn.....now everyone think real hard like I did......what could you have done yesterday, today, or maybe over this weekend that will save you ten cents.....I mean I'd be great to have an extra thirty (30) whole cents......almost 1/3 of a dollar.......extra to spend on Monday morning if I needed or wanted something or maybe pay it on my credit card balance.......I mean ten (10) cents a day for today (Fri) and ten cents for tomorrow (Sat.) and let's not forget Sunday.....that's 30 cents I didn't give to the AZ website for a Gold Membership...$34.95 annually....> 10 cents / day.
So I can afford the price of a Gold Membership and I do so willingly. I enjoy AZ and want to see it continue to improve and grow. I think AZ should start a Cue Escrow Agency Service......I mean there's a lot that can be accomplished when there's additional monies available that do not have to be borrowed. So people may misconstrue my motives for campaigning for new Gold Members.....thank you ceodynamo.....or react to me as the poster because I've pissed some folks off and have seemed\indifferent about it...,,,but can you......every reader of this post.....can't you really afford.....
Now people have their reasons for not paying AZ for a Gold Membership when memberships are free to everyone. That's perfectly fine but when that individual has been conducting business on the Forum for years and are not a paying member, I object to that.....again, it's just my opinion. Because I have an issue over someone doing this doesn't mean anyone else does but I also I know some other AZers agree with me, or vice versa, I stand with them. Anything we can do to help the Forum financially, like nineballsafety8 mentioned, or the sale of merchandise like another AZer posted on my thread on Gold Exclusivity, let's get it done.
And it's because of posts like this one (the OP) that I just signed up for the annual Gold membership - so thanks for the reminder