We often hear of closeout sales, dealers dropping the line, or in some cases, going out of business.

Are there any statistics regarding how many dealers add the HL line to their store offerings as opposed to how many drop the line yearly?

When a dealer is closing or dropping the line, collectors tend to visit the store a little more often looking for deals before the store pulls the plug. When a new dealer takes on the line, collectors are less likely to visit because the new dealer won't have any older pieces or low number pieces that people search for.

Dealers need to sell to survive. Either they can make a good profit on each piece they sell or they can hope volume sales at discounted prices will yield a satisfactory profit.

If the collectible industry as a whole is suffering, I wonder if we will someday see such a decline in retail sales that some collectibles will be directly through the manufacturer by mail-order only.

Any thoughts on this subject?

Bob