Rich,
First, nothing in life surprises me. Unless I find out that Gene is slabbing chips!

Don't mistake my sadness for lack of anger. I said I was sad for many reasons, not because Mel and I were close friends. We weren't, we knew each other. But because a long time and active member (regardless of who it was)of our organization took advantage of another member for money! It damages the integrity of the hobby and makes people have second thoughts about what they are buying and the people they buy from. The trust in the transaction has been damaged.

10-12 yrs ago when you could trade a stack of chips for a stack of chips (regardless of what was in the stack) greed had not entered into picture. For all the "newbies", yes we use to trade stacks with relative disregard for value! Unless you were Bill Borland and hot stamping your own chips!! No one would have gone to the trouble of melting down brass cores to sell for $5-10. The greed saddens me.

The fact that many good people that have served this hobby well, with integrity and honesty in all of their dealings will, at least for awhile, be looked at with a skeptical eye by some. That saddens me.

The fact that this has gone from an affordable and fun hobby into a business, with greed, counterfiets, deception and outright lies about quanities and values saddens me. And don't tell me that paying $10,000-15,000 for a single chip isn't business. But that's another debate for another thread.

There are a lot of things that have been positive about this hobby and this club. I am extremely proud of the very small part I may have played in it's growth and success. There are hundreds of exceptional people involved in this hobby and that we must not loose sight of. The trust in the transaction must be restored for the good of the Club and the hobby, by whatever actions must be taken to insure that.

And yes Rich, I can be angry and sad at the same time!