a significant, if not major, impact on our membership numbers. It was LE that increased our membership to the 3,000 level. But when the economic hit of 2008, many of those collectors looked to 'cash in' on their collections and found out that LEs, basically, had not appreciated in value, and so, they got out. Either selling off their collections at face value or less, or just putting the collections into a closet.

Add to this, to some degree, here in Nevada, Gaming Control started to approve fewer and fewer LEs. They limited approvals to GO's, casino anniversaries, Chinese Lunar New Years, Halloween, New Years and residencies, but not much else. This tended to kill the New Issue Service businesses, which I believe drove up, way up, the new membership sign-ups.

As with all the other elements of Michael's comments, this too was not the lone ranger, but it was a significant factor in our decline in numbers.

Jim