Both my wife and me recently attended the Show at Southpoint for the 5th year.

We are generally low key, and like to go to the show, shake a few hands, make a few purchases and leave.
Just a few observations, and our personal opinions.

Not a fan of having to sign in, and hand over my drivers license as well as being required to wear a name tag.
Being the somewhat private people that we are, I asked if we had to wear a name tag, answer that it is required but could be first name only.

Then I proceeded to ask why my Drivers License was required, and some woman standing to our right laughed and said every place requires id's.
Number one, why was she even involved in my business listening to my conversation with the person at the front desk, I wasn't talking to her.

Wonder if she gives out her drivers license when she goes to a movie theater, grocery store, or a casino?
It was just really inappropriate of this stranger to be such a busy body, mind your own business, wasn't talking to you.

Two, I not going to mention names, but a vendor (Every year) try's to hand me a pull tab rip off for a potential free prize, I respectfully declined, but he kept pushing and saying it was for fun, I said no thank you again, he kept pushing, I said I don't gamble, he said it's not gambling, I then mentioned I have religious issues with it, and he kept at it, so we just finally walked off.
I might have bought one or two of his chips, It's just a respect thing for me personally.
Once again, we always really enjoy seeing the majority of the dealers, Mike, Gary, miss seeing Steve Cutler, and Joe but for me it just seems like a small dwindling group of people with ego's that feeling like they are losing control hence destroying interest in the hobby.

What a shame, this hobby could be so amazing from a social, collecting and historical perspective but the old farts club seems to not really be open to new ideas and perspectives.
No I'm not going to local meetings at 2pm during the middle of the week, I work all week and generally could not attend.
All of this trademark non-sense is a classic example, you have a picture of a casino chip (Simplified) and getting worked up about that, let that sink in.........
The time and energy wasted about trademark infringement instead of promoting the hobby is astounding.

Best Regards,

Jim Harkins (My real handle)