Someday, VM's are going to realise that without our services, they don't have a job.  Middlemen don't do very well when they're no longer in the middle.  $26.00 is a big deal, especially when it consists mostly of out of pocket - cash - expenditures that we had to front for you.  I had a client that wanted me to upfront over $3K in certified copy costs.  I responded
quite truthfully that I don't have that kind of spare cash.  Fairly, they
relented and forwarded an advance.  But instead of always looking at the picture from the client's point of view, how about looking at it from the abstractor's point of view once in awhile.  Its a different world out in the dusty trenches.