My first attempt at a blog of any sort so please be patient.

A bit about myself. My name is Robert, I'm 43 and live in Alabama. I began collecting cards back in 1970 and collected football, basketball and a bit of hockey on and off for the next 10 years or so until girls and cars- in that order- took over.

I got back into the hobby in 1989, collecting mainly football and basketball then and also trying to finish some of the old sets I had begun in my early collecting days. I also began collecting autographs through the mail then and still manage to send out a batch or two a month even now. I've changed my sport of preference back to hockey over the last few years, though I'll still buy some baseball (mainly to do the TTM thing) and maybe something else that catches my eye.

What I want to do in this blog is to look at the portion of our hobby with which I am directly involved. I have had the great fortune to be a service representative for trading card product for over six years, first with the company that worked WalMart in the '90s, then a year or so with the company that worked Target stores and for the last 2.5 years with the company that works KMart and Toys R Us. I've written several editorials and even an article that were published in major trade publications giving my view of how the retail portion of collecting can live happily (and profitably) alongside hobby stores and, now, auction sites.

I want to make it clear that any opinions I offer here on any subject are MINE and MINE ALONE. I do NOT represent the company I work for here on this blog. I'm speaking as a hobbyist first and as someone whose livelihood comes from the hobby second.

What I'd like to receive from you, the readers, are observations, questions, comments and the like concerning the retail portion of the hobby. If you have any questions about retail product, retail pricing, box information (# packs, #cards per pack) I hope that I am in the unique position to give at least a semi-informed answer to them. I'll also be posting opinions on product I have bought and/or seen in my stores and product I've bought at shops and online as well. I'll also offer opinions on autographs and how I've collected them through the years and I might shamelessly use this space to let you all know what sets I'm working on and ask for possible trades and sales.

I hope that I can spark some good discussions here and I'm grateful to Trading Card Central for affording me this forum to do so.

Thanks and hope to hear from some of you soon.