Hi Guys (and Gal or two),
I just want to take the opportunity in this thread to provide a little
Old Cardboard perspective.
First, I want to thank all posters for all of your most favorable comments about the magazine. It is truly gratifying to know that you are enjoying the articles so much. I especially want to thank Jeff Prizner and Brian T. for suggesting that
Old Cardboard is must reading for everyone on this forum. While we recognize that we may be a little biased, we fully agree and cannot imagine why anyone in this hobby could not afford or would not see the benefit of ordering a $17.95 (postpaid via first class mail) subscription to the magazine.
And quite frankly, we need your support.
While we are all for vintage collectors helping other vintage collectors, I'd like to ask you to think for just a moment before you so readily distribute PDFs of our copyrighted articles to those who are not supporting the magazine with a subscription.
With print media in general an endangered species, I look at
Old Cardboard more as a retirement hobby than a viable business venture. We are now in our seventh year of publication and hope to continue for many years to come. We provide a massive website and monthly eNewsletter at no cost to viewers. If you do NOT count the enormous amount of time that Brett and I put into the effort, we are and will continue to be in the black. As soon and you place any value on our time (or that of our authors), we quickly go into the red. I do it because I enjoy it. For us to continue to pay our increasingly high color printing and magazine distribution costs, we must have your continued support.
How you can help:
1) Encourage all of your collecting friends to subscribe without further delay. We offer a substantial discount for our "back pack" of previous issues for those wanting to fill in earlier issues for a complete run.
2) Let our advertisers know that you truly appreciate their support for the magazine and in doing so, the vintage collecting hobby. You may also want to encourage leading companies that do not advertise to do so.
3) For anyone desiring a specific article, please direct them to the
Old Cardboard website at
www.oldcardboard.com/subscriptions.asp. From that page you can order a subscription, back issues or a full "back pack." You can also link to abstracts for every article we have ever published.
Mark T. (Smokey Joe), while I'm sure that you mean well, please realize that an open offer to freely distribute PDFs of previous articles from
Old Cardboard is hurting us...and ulltimately hurting the hobby. It also significantly violates copyright law.
Thanks for taking a minute to hear our perspective,
Lyman