[Leon]

In going to the local show this last weekend with Rich K I got to get caught up on the "new" card hobby quite a bit. My understanding is that only TOPPS has a MLB contract and also that UD might be getting out of the baseball card business altogether, leaving only Topps. Topps is going to produce around 12-15 sets this year, which is down from all mfgs 5-10 yrs ago, when over 90 sets a year were being produced.

We also stopped by a LCS (local card shop) on the way back so Rich could pick up some supplies. We were only in there about 20 minutes and at least 5-8 people came through in that time. There were even a few pre-war collectors that came in and we chatted about T206's for a few minutes. The owner says he has been there about 16 yrs and my understanding is that he has a pretty good following. While we were there a late teen or early 20 yr old guy came in. He brought about 12 new packs up to the counter and was going to buy them. The card store owner, a nice gentleman probably in his early 60's, maybe late 50's, told the lad that he was surprised the young man was buying this much as it was around $53 total, and that was quite a bit more than usual. The young guy said it was a little more than he intended to really buy so, together, they went through the packs and narrowed it to around $20. The guy paid and left. I thought that was pretty cool. I hope more young collectors continue collecting. regards