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Posted By: Rich Klein

Bruce has an excellent idea in what he'd like to do. Frankly, any professional group of card people is long overdue that compared to some other hobbies such as coins and stamps we are still in our infancy.
(My dad was a vest-pocket stamp dealer back in the day and I knew enough coin dealers -- and one reason both hobbies still survive is the professional organizations which exist)

Now there are several questions/issues

1) Is this group JUST for collectors, or for collectors/dealers/auction houses/grading companies/card companies/licensors.

And then is it just for the small but financially important group of pre-war collectors, etc. Or is everyone going to be invited to join

2) What benefits does someone get from joining this group. I know that if I spent $100 to join a group, I'd expect to recieve some immediate benefits in addition to planting a seed for longer term growth and long-term benefits

3) One of the major issues with the hobby has always been that everyone has their own entrepenureal (Sic, barry please fix my spelling) streak. How do you make everyone convinced that they need to join for the common good.

4) Bruce, who originally posted this, has probably read in his vast hobby publication collection, that this has been tried, sometimes by some of the major players of the hobby, for more than 30 years.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great idea and one that we as a hobby need to see come to fruition. And if we start with just the vintage community and move from there that is fine by me; but I'd be interested to see just how far we all get