Recently, it seemed that I was being inundated with people coming to my door to sell me magazine subscriptions. It all started a few months back when a young man engaged me in a conversation and I almost bought a subscription to magazine. I knew the guy was working me and most, if not everything he said was just to get me to buy from him, but I thought what the heck, I will buy a magazine and get the guy a small commission. That is until he said the price for said magazine, there is no way that was a small commission. Needless to say the sale fell through.

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Shortly after that visit, it seemed that every time I was home someone was knocking at my door trying to sell me magazines. Sometimes, I would watch a vehicle I did not recognize drive down my road, stop at my house to try to sell me magazines, and then continue on without stopping at any of my neighbors' houses. I couldn't figure out why they were only stopping at my house.

It finally got so bad that I went and got a "No Soliciting" sign and posted in my front yard right by the sidewalk to my door. After I posted that sign, I had one more visit from the magazine sales people. After answering the door, I asked if they had seen the "No Soliciting" sign. The person at the door got a little huffy and then left. Miraculously after that visit, I have not had another person trying to sell magazines knock on my door.

After this "last" visit I think I figured out why the sales people kept stopping at my house and not at my neighbors. I had noticed that mailbox, which sits on the road in front of my house, had a little round reflector on it (I didn't put the reflector on the mailbox, nor was it part of the mailbox). I saw a bunch of different colored ones on all the mail boxes in the area so I didn't pay it much mind. The night after the "last" visit I had to run some errands, when I came home after dark and noticed that the little round reflector was missing.

I think it is unlikely that the sales folks not stopping by anymore and the reflector being gone are unrelated. So, if you are being bothered by magazine sales people, you might want to check your mailbox for a little reflector that you didn't put there.