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Nostalgia… Ain’t What It Used To Be
Cardsharp is not really one to look back. He prefers to live in the present and look to the future. But it seems, nostalgia is not what it used to be! Having said that while contemplating a subject to discuss, he realised that this month’s column means he has been scribing his rubbish under Max Publishing’s ownership for a third of a century! Given that the start of any new year is a time to look both back and forward, Cardsharp indulged himself with a few reflections. January 1991 was the first edition of PG under Max Publishing’s ownership, and Cardsharp appeared as part of the line-up. The cartoon Cardsharp character has appeared in every column since, often disguised in different garbs, although funnily enough, unlike the real Cardsharp, he has not physically aged at all. The character was originally drawn by designer Steve HeathSmith, then one of PG’s designers. Ironically recently PG got to know Steve’s niece, Tori Heath-Smith who was blissfully unaware of her uncle’s heritage, and was a greeting card buyer with Paperchase and is now
heading up the card buying at Scribbler. Thinking back, some columns came easier than others. During the 1990s as the industry was growing rapidly, there was never a shortage of issues to write about. It was a period of acquisitions with Hallmark and American Greetings seemingly snapping up every medium sized publisher that moved. Or the rise and rise of Clintons where the chain expanded from around 100 stores to over 700. But the period was not without its spectacular failures. The collapse of the iconic Athena chain in 1996, perhaps echoed more by the demise of the likes of Paperchase. Above: Cardsharp can turn back the pages of the industry’s history book. Left: There was a time when Clintons’ orange fascia reigned supreme. Right: Andrew Brownsword (far left) with some Forever Friends bears and their creator Deborah Jones (front) back in the day when the Sunday Times Rich List included several cardies.
30 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
In hindsight, the 1990s really were the boom years. Many of contemporaries of Cardsharp, both on the retail and publishing side, have commented him that if we knew what a good time it was then, we would have made more of it. Some did! These days you don’t find any cardies in the Sunday Times Top 500 Rich List, nowadays its full of techies, property magnates and a huge amount of wealth based on inheritance. But back then you had Andrew Brownsword, of Forever Friends fame in the top 30, plus Don Lewin, founder of Clintons, Ron Wood founder of the Birthdays retail chain, and Simon Elvin (more of him later) in the top 100, along with many retail magnates. It was really the golden age of bricks and mortar retailing and a period where margins on