I started subscribing to Thunder Am back when I was in college. At the time I had a 1967 Firebird 400 4-spd that I had made lots of modifications to. I parked it around 1979 due to the cost of gas, it was definitely a gas guzzler. I had swapped in a 455HO w/M22 and a 12-bolt 3.73 limited slip a few years earlier. My Firebird was inoperable for several months when I learned the hard way that D-port headers won't fit a round port engine. I needed transportation, so I bought a motorcycle (a Suzuki GT550), which became my full-time transportation for a couple of years.
When Thunder Am became HPP, I continued my subscription until just a few years before HPP shut down. HPP delivery had become very erratic in the last few years before shutting down, but missing issues were mailed out by the publisher initially. I missed one magazine and called the publisher, who told me they had no replacements. I was able to find the missing issue at a book store, so the streak continued. A few months later, another issue of HP never arrived. Unfortunately, I was really busy and didn't immediately notice it had not arrived. When I called the publisher, they said they had no replacements, but by this time I couldn't find one in the store. My subscription renewal date was only a few months away, so I didn't bother to renew.
I would think if you had a continuous subscriber for close to 35 years that usually renewed for three years at a time, you'd make an effort to keep them happy. That wasn't the case. I would love to know why they didn't keep enough magazines on hand to fulfill all of their subscribers, but I could only assume they felt it more important to get the magazines to the bookstores.
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