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Posted By: JimCrandell

This is just absolutely incredible to me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that a few fellow collectors from the premeir vintage message board in the hobby would be the biggest impediment to try to clean up the hobby. Here I undertake something which is clearly against my economic self interest and risk a number of my long term dealer friends being mad at me to do something for the good of the hobby...and I get attacked by people for doing it--amazing.

This is no inquisition. I asked a few simple questions of some major dealers. You would think the sky was falling. Maybe people like Colt and Wonka like a sloppy hobby where card alteration and restoration run rampant--you must because you have never done anything to combat it and any suggestions you have are frankly lame. Or maybe its driven by that they have consignments out and are afraid of a lower price or that the value of their collection will go down.

Once again a lot has been accomplished already--the knowledge base of most collectors of what is going on out there has increased geometrically because of this. Certain dealers may start to say they will stop taking creases out of cards, dealers may start disclosing which lots they own, collectors may understand microtrimming/reworking of cards and what heroes like Dave Forman are doing to combat it, and we have raised dealer awareness that collectors are unhappy and there are some major hobby issues they need to face.

But this is still only the beginning. Much more needs to be done on all these measures. There needs to be a collectors organization to help police the dealers. Dealers can be rated on how well they are responding to collector concerns.

As I have said to the board and I have said to Leon, if the majority want me to stop I will--but it really would be a shame, right when we are on the brink of something historic.

Jim