Gentlemen,

I talked to Bob about this at the RPM meet in St.
Louis this past weekend. I don't like speaking for
Bob, but since he doesn't have e-mail I'll pass along
a few things he told me about the business, FYI.

He said he was doing a lot of mail order business but
in the last few years a large number of people were
ordering photos and then returning them. He suspected
they were scanning them or using them for a modeling
project and returning the photos when the project was
completed. He also said it's very difficult and
time-consuming for him to re-stock photos since he has
an entire warehouse full of photos, and is getting
away from offering refunds, period. Frankly--in my
opinion--people in this niche business should really
know what they're buying anyway. He said he's only
providing photos by mail to people he knows, or people
he can trust.

Bob is a great asset for us modelers and historians,
and we need to take care of him. He's a great guy and
goes out of his way--literally, to dozens of
meets/shows a year--to provide us a great product.
BTW, he keeps his vast inventory in a bank and makes
frequent withdrawals to send to his printing teams.
Very interesting operation. He also recently bought
several large collections--40K+ photos, slides, and
negatives.

John


John Golden
O'Fallon, IL
http://www.pbase.com/golden1014

2nd Annual St. Louis Railroad Prototype Modeler's Meet
August 20th, 2005
Collinsville, IL
Contact: John Golden, Golden1014@yahoo.com