During this long and bumpy road collecting and dealing on vintage drums I have had my fair share of scuffles with forum members, dealers, collectors and so on…You people, Know. Everybody wants that deal on Craigslist. 5 guys driving there to snatch it. Some offering more money, some badmouthing the others, etc…

However despite the occasional bad blood that appears at times I've also been blessed to get back to talk to some people who I wanted to kill or they wanted to kill me at a certain time and then realize they're just great people.

It surely did look and sound terrible at the moment: "He did this to me!" "He wasn't fair" "He lied" "He arrased me"…Sounds familiar? I've witnessed actual feuds here at the VDF! But let me tell you people: We had a huge argument with Mariosdrums. HUGE. It blowed out of proportion! It went from bad to worst till a couple of weeks ago when he graciously send me text wishing me a good year. I though it was a joke but then I realized it was serious when he said: "I'm extending an olive branch to you". I ignored him for a day but later that night I realized that It takes guts to do what he was doing. It takes guts to say Im sorry. I thought: Why not to try to be civilized? Why to keep the bad blood? I recalled swearing I will never sell any of my stuff to him… and now he is a good client! Backbeatkepper! Another former enemy,now a good friend…

Go ahead guys! Extend the olive branch like Mario did with me…The other guy might still ignore you or insult you or whatever…But, Hey! At least you tried! Life is too short to keep grudges over what's plenty out there for all of us: Drums!