From The Editor's Desk...

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", May 1992, page 3

With this issue, I complete seven years of publishing Crown Jewels of the Wire. It really seems like only yesterday that I finalized plans to purchase the magazine from Dora Harned, CJ's originator and editor for sixteen years.

Right from its inception as a monthly publication, Crown Jewels offered a regular means of communication for those who love to collect porcelain and glass insulators. It provided a stimulus to the hobbyist and educational information to the public as well. It weathered the ups and downs in our economy, inflation in gasoline prices that kept many from traveling to shows and swap meets and several years when there was a general decline in enthusiasm of collectors.

Dora predicted that the subscribership of about 1,000 readers at the time of the purchase in 1985 would increase with time. Today, there are nearly 1,650 copies of Crown Jewels of the Wire magazine consumed each month by collectors.

If the Insulator hobby could serve as a barometer of the national economy, the word recession wouldn't exist. From my desk top, it looks like there are plenty of new collectors and a great deal of enthusiasm for our hobby. The word INSULATOR is definitely being spread.

The last six months have been a virtual nightmare for Crown Jewels. There have been three, that's right, THREE different printers used. It became so frustrating that I was convinced that the "pricey" Chicago printing market could no longer print this magazine. Dora Harned used to ship her magazine copy 500 miles south to a friend who did the printing and had it shipped back to her by Greyhound bus for her to mail from her home in Chico, California. I had a real problem with that as a solution....! haven't seen a Greyhound go by our house in months!

We have found another printer which we hope will be with us for a long time and have added equipment in our home to collate, make the booklets and trim each issue. Our goal is to freeze all subscription prices until such a time the U.S. Post Office makes us reconsider the economics. 

Speaking of the Post Office....if there has ever been one constant about publishing and editing this magazine, it is the complaints I field each month from readers who haven't been able to purchase an insulator from an ad "because someone else got his/her magazine FIRST." Each time such a call comes in, I try not to take it PERSONALLY, but some people feel that they should have their magazine mailed several days in advance so that it would guarantee an equal chance on everything advertised. Now, I ask you, how would you like to be tripping over 1,700 copies of Crown Jewels while you spend the better part of a week second guessing the postal system and deciding whose magazines you should mail three days early this month. The magazine is mailed in a timely manner each month and there is just NO WAY I can predict what happens after it leaves my post office.

Let me throw the ball into another court for a moment....to the advertiser. This is only a suggestion, but... WHAT IF....when you place an ad in Crown Jewels you specify a date, an hour, or even the minute you wish your ad to start. Maybe the 10th of the month would be appropriate. Then, all of the subscribers who have paid a little more to get their magazine early will have an equal opportunity to buy. It will then come down to who can dial the advertiser's number the quickest at the appointed hour. Maybe you who advertise will become virtual "heroes" in the hobby. And I will be able to take off the villain's "black hat" and enjoy a month without those calls that start out..... "I don't mean to complain, but I never get what I want from ads, someone else gets there first, can you please mail my copy a few days early.....?

Thank you for you support and here's to the start of another year... 

CAROL