Early on, some like-minded participants on the RTC newsgroup decided to create a fun sort of "virtual" collectors club, and for laughs they based it on the medieval round table, themed with knights and steeped in monarchy. Initially, membership was by open invitation (anyone from RTC could join). And many did. I believe the group swelled to 20 or 30 members pretty quickly. Upon joining, the members were "knighted" with royal names (i.e.--Sir Kevin, Knight of Camaro... or, Sir Joe, Knight After Last Night). The group called itself, "The Round Table of Goodness"... "RTOG" for short.

By the time I heard of this virtual group of collectors the open invitation membership had closed and the group had decided to only induct members who were nominated to the Table. One of their early goals was to have selfless members, who were trustworthy and honest. People who'd share, offer fair trades, and generally be of good charactor. It was truly a noble endeavor, and some of those originators were class acts.

I was eventually nominated and inducted to RTOG myself, and even though I knew most of the members from RTC and our local club, RTOG had a dedicated mailing list and a much more intimate atmosphere than the public newsgroup. I quickly became close friends with several other collectors and, in 1999, many of us got together for the first time at a Hot Wheels convention in Arkansas (the Arkansas Collector's Show... or, "ACS" for short). A couple of years later I met even more RTOG members at a similar convention in St. Louis. And the group had grown to approximately 75 members by this time!

The St. Louis show (hosted by the Gateway Hot Wheelers) had probably 20+ RTOG members in attendence, including some local guys who were also members of the Gateway Hot Wheelers! One RTOG member, based near Seattle, Washington, actually toured around the USA for 3 months in a rented motorhome visiting other RTOG members! He criss-crossed the entire nation and made about 40 stops along the way in one giant loop from Washington state to Washington D.C. to North Carolina to Texas to California and back to Washington.

During my tenure in RTOG I witnessed countless deeds of generousity and good will. The group lives on today, but not before spawning a splinter group to become known as the SuperFriends of Collecting!

In 2001 the RTOG group was ripe for civil war when the inevitable happened. Infighting ensued as rival opinions clashed over the direction of the group and, sadly, feelings were hurt and reputations tarnished. Resentment became commonplace among a select few and several members began to depart from the group. I was one of those.

Initially, I was content to just be done with the whole ordeal. Collecting wasn't as fun any longer, and I realized that "fun" was why I had collected in the first place. But then some of the other departing members and I began talking and before long we decided to start our own group, SFOC. We started with 8 members. And since our inception in 2001, we've lost one member to personal interests, but gained 5 others. So as of early 2006, we stand at 12 members. A very manageable number, and an even more intimate atmosphere than in my early RTOG days.

SFOC is made up of folks who are more friends, than collectors. And that too seems to make a difference. We may be discussing the latest diecast product, but we might just as likely be discussing the latest hot TV show, computer trend, or sporting event. We have our own mailing list that ends up being a sort of cyber-cafe. It's very nice.