Don,

I disagree. I see new names here all the time. Look back at the archives with a pencil a paper in hand and count all the new names that have shown up since this board started. Many of them have become so active that they don't seem new anymore.

There are also lots of lurkers out there who read the board consistently for a month or two before they venture to post a message themselves. If they don't get blasted right away they continue to participate. Look at the "views" count on some of these messages. I've seen the number as high as 90.

Take a look at my Chip Links pages. (http://www.chipguide.com/chiplink.htm) Sometimes I have as many as 15 people or more per month sign up to be listed. These people are the newbies that we need to be trading with. If all of us "oldies" would check the list for "newbies" on a regular basis and invite them to participate on The Chip Board they would be much more likely to get involved. Many times these newbies are the source of some of my best new finds.

As for the auctions, I don't think you can look to the new collectors to stimulate them. At least in my experience, a new collector is much more likely to trade than buy. The new collector still needs "everything" and has no reason to buy chips yet. They can usually get all the trades they need to satisfy their need for new chips. It is the person whos collection has matured that needs to buy chips because the rarer and harder to find chips are the only ones that they are lacking.

Greg Susong