You get one chance, damn spammers.

[JCN]

This year, there has been a crazy explosion in my inbox from gun shops.

For the first time ever, I’ve unsubscribed from mailing lists en masse.

Most of the lists are managed by the same few advertising companies. Same formatting on the unsubscribe pages.

I hope it’s a wake up call that they’re turning into the “valupak” crap mailbox coupons.

Unless you have a smoking deal front and center on your email, I’m unsubscribing.

I think I pulled off 50+ sites.

Anyone else? This is the first year it’s happened like this and I think 2-3 advertising companies are to blame.

[Suvorov]

This year, there has been a crazy explosion in my inbox from gun shops.

For the first time ever, I’ve unsubscribed from mailing lists en masse.

Most of the lists are managed by the same few advertising companies. Same formatting on the unsubscribe pages.

I hope it’s a wake up call that they’re turning into the “valupak” crap mailbox coupons.

Unless you have a smoking deal front and center on your email, I’m unsubscribing.

I think I pulled off 50+ sites.

Anyone else? This is the first year it’s happened like this and I think 2-3 advertising companies are to blame.

Yep. For the past 2 years I’m always getting emails from gun/tactical online stores I have never heard of much less ordered from. I will unsubscribe from them but no sooner than I do I start getting emails from another place I’ve never heard of. It is at the very least a racket if not an outright scam.

ETA - I’ve also noticed that the names of these “retailers “ often include profanities like “tacticalshit.com” or have profanity in their adds (no doubt trying to sound hard). The prices are usually no better than reputable retailers and on the off chance the have a good price on something, the shipping quote is outrageous.

[PNWTO]

Same. I noticed it really peaked about February this year.

I don’t think I have any more “tactical” emails rolling in and it’s been that way for about eight months. I just got irritated with the inundation and also realized I don’t care about the latest and greatest gear, as I’m a professional Excel-shepherd that consumes coffee at LD50 amounts.

Derail- As an added perk, the momentum led to me unfollowing most of the tactical/gun pages I had on my social media apps. I noticed an immediate increase in positivity and curiosity just following pages and people I found intriguing.

I figure that’s worth the 5-20% discount I may miss. But I’m odd, as I get all my handgun calibers from four to five different sites(.22 from one, .38 from another, etc), and there are really only about four gun companies I’m interested in keeping an eye on.

[MGW]

This year, there has been a crazy explosion in my inbox from gun shops.

For the first time ever, I’ve unsubscribed from mailing lists en masse.

Most of the lists are managed by the same few advertising companies. Same formatting on the unsubscribe pages.

I hope it’s a wake up call that they’re turning into the “valupak” crap mailbox coupons.

Unless you have a smoking deal front and center on your email, I’m unsubscribing.

I think I pulled off 50+ sites.

Anyone else? This is the first year it’s happened like this and I think 2-3 advertising companies are to blame.

I stopped hitting the unsubscribe button. If I didn’t sign up for it I hit the spam button. I don’t care if it’s gun related or not. I have a suspicion that some companies use the unsubscribe button to verify that they have a live email address.

[RevolverRob]

I have unsubscribed from a large number of emails this year, but none from companies I didn't previously place an order with in some capacity.

I also make it a habit to go through my Instagram "Following" section about once every 3-months and start removing people.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

For me, it's texts.

Trump - they are putting me in Jail - send a check
Biden - Trump is coming - send a text
DeSantis - I want to talk to you.

Repeat, repeat.

Get some charity emails but usually from those I have given to before. I do get a lot of emails about cheese offers from artisanal producers - who would have guessed.

[Borderland]

Yep. Political texts and spam calls are killing me. Not sure how they get my # or email because I've never contributed to any political campaigns. Probably AI generated.

One nice thing about a new phone is it's easy to block the calls but it has to be done everyday like brushing your teeth. It never stops.

[awp_101]

I've started unsubscribing from several that I originally joined during The Great Ammo Drought of 2020. Now that things are semi-normal (or the new normal, however you want to look at it) they don't offer anything of value.

I usually subscribe to gun related vendors starting in early May and unsubscribe after Black Friday. That gets me through most of the holiday sales and cuts down on "I don't need this but it's a really good price!" temptations which helps the fun fund avoid a case of flat wallet syndrome.

[Artemas2]

I learned long ago to just have a semi disposable email addresses or two. I used to have a guerilla mail type of services, but now I just keep a dedicated email for online shopping, forum memberships etc.
It rarely gets checked except for when I need to find a tracking number or do a password recovery. It also helps with those impulse "it's on sale and I need it!" situations.

[DDTSGM]

Success in unsubscribing for me comes from using the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email versus using the unsubscribe notification after the address in the email header.