Mark, your analogy to Wall Street only makes sense to me if you are trying to maximize resale price of the strikes, not if you are trying to maximize profit for the casino either directly through strike redemptions or indirectly through customer goodwill and gaming loyalty.

Because of the law of supply and demand, if you have fewer strikes, the resale price of the $200 strikes will of course increase. It has nothing to do with confidence in the casino (look at the prices of the last Sundowner strikes), only confidence that the resale price will be high (which is what you presumably mean by confidence in the Four Queens strike program). I don't see how it maximizes value to FQ on a specific $200 issue, since the casino doesn't benefit directly from the increased resale price. This is different from any IPO underwriter. When a public offering is oversubscribed, everyone is happy. The offering price increases, meaning that the company gets more cash for the sale of its stock, the shareholders' and employees' shares are worth more, and the underwriters get a higher commission based on the higher dollar value from the sale of a fixed number of shares (and in most cases, from the sale of additional shares released for sale in the event of oversubscriptions). When a $200 release is oversubscribed, the dealers and speculators are happy, not the collector community in general, nor would I think FQ shareholders (unless they value the "prestige" of a sold-out release more than profits and cash flow).

Having said your analogy doesn't necessarily make sense to me doesn't mean I think your strategy is off mark. I can see your short production run approach possibly benefiting the casino in the long term. Even if you believe you are suboptimizing your profit on each specific $200 issue, you may be creating such demand for FQ issues that you can release many more $200 strikes than other casinos and therefore create more bottom line profit over time (i.e. it's easier to "move" ten LTD 100 issues in a year than one LTD 1000 issue). Is that your strategy? If so, you have to be careful since collector ill will can destroy demand over time. So can too many releases. Or are you perhaps just being evaluated more by strike demand and resale value than bottom line profit generation?

BTW, I'd personally favor higher quantities in each release so that I could actually get to play your strike machine once when I come to town (the last two trips the machines have been fully "booked"). But I also think you guys should run your strike program anyway you think makes sense for your shareholders, and that your behavior would be viewed as rational if collectors fully understand your objectives and strategy. That doesn't mean, of course, that everyone will like it.