Collecting replaced trading and playing, and cards were carefully placed in plastic holders. When everyone became a collector, the value of the cards dropped. Thirty years later, Wizards of the Coast Company brought back the concept of collecting trading cards with Pokemon and Magic the Gathering. "Magic the Gathering in fact, is not just for young kids. It's not unusual to see 'kids' over 20 playing this game!" Silver told us. These cards will remain "valuable" as long as everyone continues to play with them and not collect them.

Predicting what toys will be a success is more than just luck, admitted Silver. He sees well over 100,000 toys during Toy Fair each year. Toy Fair occurs every February in New York. It is an opportunity for manufacturers to present their line to toy buyers. Toys fill up 15 floors of two buildings between 23rd and 25th Streets and Broadway, and are also shown at the Jacob Javits' Center where over 1,000 manufacturers exhibit their toys. Manufacturers test drive their line even before they are presented at Toy Fair. Manufacturers create focus groups where kids are actually paid to play with new toys. From these focus groups, manufacturers can determine which toys have a chance to make it to market. Sometimes, manufacturers are hit with surprises, and they don't anticipate market response accurately. This was the case, for example, with Tickle Me Elmo. This toy did alright in focus groups, but when the toy hit the market, the retailer was caught without enough product to meet the consumer demand. While some people might believe that underproduction was intentional, a marketing strategy to create demand, Mr. Silver denied that this was the case with this product. "The company just didn't anticipate how popular this toy would be."

According to Mr. Silver, technologically advanced toys are the wave of the future. Toys will definitely become more life-like in the next millennium: they will be smarter and more realistic in design. He admits that while the new millennium will feature these kinds of toys, he and his colleagues are concerned that toy manufacturers use caution. "It is important that toys motivate children to use their imagination. High tech "watch me" or "entertain me" toys may reduce a child's imaginative play. Toys should always be interactive, enabling children to have fun with make believe play."