Gaming is declining.. I think not

Long time lurker here

			   Quoting the decline in number of bricks and 
mortar outlets as proof of the forthcoming death of miniature gaming is
no 
longer valid.. The world has changed and the sales systems in the hobby 
too.. I have been gaming for about 50 years and in my youth had been
known 
to travel hundreds of miles to shops to buy and get a look at the latest

models. This was also true of Wargames exhibiton. Yes i enjoyed the 
exhibition games but my real target was the trade stands to see what was
new 
etc and to top up the metal pile..  That is no longer necessary. All I
need 
is that magic On switch and  a modem to satisfy that need. I view and
buy 
all my gaming needs from the comfort of my own home and purchase 
WWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY too much stuff with the flexible friend and the
oh 
so easy to use PAYPAL account..
		  I personally have never spent more on gaming than I do
now 
and am gobsmacked by the range and quality of material that is
available.. 
>From where I sit in war gaming isolation in northern spain the hobby
has 
NEVER appeared healthier than it is in the present day.. A dying hobby
is 
incabable of supporting so many new and incredibly expanding
manufacturers 
as we see today.. In the "good old days" It was hard for a manufacturer
to 
get his goods to market .. Now all he needs is a web page and a decent 
marketing strategy and a good product of course. The overabundance of
web 
cams, cell phone cameras and incredibly cheap digital cameras mean that 
displaying your goods on the web is so easy that your customers can view

them from there own homes.. How much better can it get.
		  Then we get to plastic figures. In the "old days" you 
would need to be insane to consider putting a plastic moulded figure on
the 
market because the costs were way to high to justify the sales the
market 
could generate. Even considering the way that production costs have come

down in recent years a dying market could never support the plethora of 
plastic molded items filling out web shops at the moment.

		Sooooooooo lets stop bemoaning the death of our hobby
and 
celebrate being participants in a life long joy that has discovered the 
internet and reinvented itself into a whole new world of electronic
sales 
and the type of service so many manufacturers now provide to make our
hobby 
both vibrant, alive and incredibly satisfying..

Bob D..