What do you want in your Tombstone?

                 I called Kraft the other day—the makers of Tombstone Pizza—to complain.  You see, every pizza they make is all wrong.  See, mushrooms belong on a pepperoni pizza. What happened to the good ol’ days when the pepperoni was crumbled?  I see they have brought back the Classic Sausage Pizza, but it’s not always available were I shop.  I bet you that people are buying them out the back.  Every time that I go to the store, the freezers are always full of old stuff.  There’s never anything new.  Kraft is only out to make money.  I told them that I miss Double Top Pizza and proceeded to place the blame on the operator that was taking my call.  For some reason, it HAD to be her fault.  Matter a fact, I bet she was enjoying a Double Top as I spoke to her!  Probably some “Employees Only” thing.  Stupid Kraft.

                 Okay, I didn’t actually call Kraft.  But think about this: replace Kraft with Mattel.  Replace pizza with Hot Wheels.  You get the idea.  What would Kraft, a large corporation with several product lines, do if there were several hundred Tombstone Pizza websites?  Ever seen a Pepperoni Tombstone message board?  Or how about this: I’ll trade you two mint ’97 supremes for your 2002 double cheese?  Funnier still, I wonder what the price guide would look like!  Real food for thought (pun intended!)

                 I argued this to a fellow collector the other day.  He was furious at Mattel for something or another, and as he talked I began to understand a management concept that a professor shared with me.  I believe it was called the 70-20-10 principle.  It says that you can truly only hope for 70 percent of approval for any decision you make in management, 20 percent will disagree with the decision for a legitimate reason, and 10 percent of the world are….poopheads (G-rated for the kiddies!) who won’t like anything you do.  I think this applies so well with Mattel.  They are trying so hard to please everyone.  They have a website for collectors, special clubs, more exclusives than I can keep track of, more first editions, more segment series, and message boards for feedback.  I’m impressed with their effort and I will accept the occasional mistakes that come with such effort.  Yes, Mattel is out to make money.  Almost all of us know this.  And I understand that I will not like everything that Mattel makes or chooses to do with their products and services. But I for one am glad that they are listening to why I buy.   I can hear Mattel asking me now, “What do you want on your Tombstone?”

 --hwcrash