you say that "Pam and a number of others know." Makes it sound like there's a big conspiracy and I know all about it. Not true.

Here's exactly what Pam knows:

1. There were some fake ashtrays offered on ebay, maybe a year ago . We were suspicious, but still bought one from the "Mint". I don't THINK the seller actually intended people to be fooled by them, as he sent Mint matchbooks with them...and the matchbooks had a website address printed on them. Another collector contacted the seller, who acknowledged the trays were "retro" and offered full refunds if anyone wanted them. The ashtrays were offered on eBay again, and they were described as "retro" and "new"

2. The shop next to the HOF museum sold some fake/fantasy/retro ashtrays. Here's a link to Rich Burgel's explanation:

http://www.ccgtcc.com/cgi-bin/mbarc01/webbbs_config.pl?read=14083

3. Two days ago we got an email from you with the name of a person we'd never heard of, and the mention of two possibly/probably fake trays we'd never seen.

That's ALL that Pam knows.

As for quitting the hobby, that's up to you, of course. Personally, I think the best thing you could do for the hobby is to add one more page to the wonderful website that you and Lynn are working so hard on.....a page for fake, fantasy and retro trays, and how to tell the difference between the real ones and the fakes (e.g. the number of notches, in the FS that you told us about).

Also, I don't know the person whose name you mentioned. Is he a club member? If so, and he's selling fakes (without disclosing that they're fake), he's in violation of the clubs code of ethics. File a complaint with the Board of Directors and the matter will be investigated.

We saw an ashtray on ebay tonight that MAY be one of the ones that you mentioned. If it is, I think you should contact the high bidder and tell him your suspicions.

I don't care what hobby it is, there's always going to be someone trying to make a buck, and not caring how they do it or who they hurt. The best defense against this is KNOWLEDGE. Mark, you have a tremendous amount of knowledge...you can use it to help protect those who are less
knowledgable.