This issue starts a new year and its time to sit down and evaluate how well that we are doing. The magazine has been published for about a year and a half and is adding new readers every month. This month we will approach the 6000 mark with readers coming from all over the world. This would indicate to me that the magazine is filling a need. Since we originate in the U.S. and the magazine is in English, I assume that most of the readers speak and read English and live in the U.S. This is a lot more card modelers than I thought existed in the U.S. The thought was that card modeling was a Eourpean hobby and those of us who built card models in the us were in a minority.

I wonder how many of the people who read our magazine ever purchase a card model? With the advent of the Internet, there are plenty of free models out there so that a builder might not have to ever purchase a model. We try and offer a free card model every month and I am sure that attracts many people to visit the magazine and download the file. The magazine is aimed at commercial models but we need those who are interested in the free models because this is the way many of us became buyers of models. We built a few free models and found that we liked this kind of modeling and gradually moved into the purchasing of card models.

What about the commercial card modeling industry? We are seeing some intrusting movement in the industry at this time. ModelArt has increased the number of dealers that are now offering their line of models and you can now purchase them in printed form or download then across the Internet. We have seen the addition of a number of new dealers who are offering card models both in the U.S. and Europe. It is now becoming easier to obtain models from Eastern Europe as there publishers become more approachable.

All of the above are on the upside for card modeling but is there a downside? I am afraid there is, the biggest disappointment for me is the pricing of the card models out of Germany. I, as I am sure a lot of you did, started building the German models especially the Wilhelmshaven models. I noticed an ad for the re-released Forestall the other day and they are asking $95.00 for it. It appears that some of the German companies are going to price themselves out of business as there are not many of us that can afford to pay around $100 for a model. The models coming out of Eastern Europe are staying within reasonable range and I believe that we are seeing a move away from card modelers purchasing models from Germany and going to the models in Eastern Europe.

All in all this has been and intresting and exiting year for we card modelers. I an looking forward to the year 2004 as I expected to also be intrusting and exciting. The rumors I hear of new card models that are going to be released during this year make my mouth water.

To all: May you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Saul