All of you who seem to think that I and others of the same opinion as me are bashing dealers in general and Norm in specific are totally off the mark. In every collectible hobby, especially an area specific hobby like strikes where collectors can't be in that area at that specific time, local dealers provide an invaluable service in making those items available to the public. I don't have any problem with any person making a business out of providing items to others at a profit.
My beef is, as stated in the original post of this thread, is a local dealer hiring people or "stooges" to play the machines for them and their profit DURING CONVENTION TIME, a time when it is highly likely a good number of people are making their plans to be in Vegas to enjoy their hobby. The one time of the year there is likely to be a concentrated number of strike collectors, the local dealer is basically trying to say (in my opinion) to hell with the masses. It's all about me. Convention lasts, what, a week? 5 days? Why not hire stooges to play for you during the other 360 days of the year? No. It's got to be during convention time to do everything possible to hinder the progress of the common guy.
