My Decision Matrix page shows my process for deciding whether to include a company in this catalog or not. This page is more of a discussion of how I form and modify those ideas.

Trying to avoid wasting time. I spend an inordinate amount of time explaining why certain companies are not in the database. I would like those hours back.

Those questionable companies are in what I call "The Gray Area." The size of the Gray Area is a function of the size of the database. As the number of listed companies has grown, the number of companies with similar names and similar businesses has also grown.

Many collectors think I should be more inclusive in which companies I include. I respect their contributions and opinions. If I were making a living doing this, I would agree completely.

However, this is a volunteer effort and nothing more. If it were possible to count all my income from all the catalogs I've sold, I doubt that it would amount to more than three or four week's income from my main work. This is not a money-making venture. It is a labor of love.

With that as a reality, I hope you can understand that my experience is very clear. Instead of being more inclusive, I must actually be more restrictive in the companies I list.

Central logic. This catalog is intended as a guidebook for people who collect railroad certificates. Obviously certificates were issued by companies. Therefore, one of my main tasks is to compile and maintain a large list of "railroad" and "rail-related" companies.

If company names sounds like they might have been railroad companies, I will probably include them. 70% of the companies listed in my database sound like railroad companies.

Conversely, if companies sounds like they were other kinds of companies, then I will think seriously about excluding them.

Keeping my eye on my target market. I assume average certificate collectors have certificates and they want to learn about pricing, availability, varieties, dates, and so forth. The primary question I ask, then, is really very simple:

I would hate to think that average collectors would ever think of looking in my catalog for information about certificates from the Moon Motor Car Company. I would hope they would look in Lawrence Falater's American Automotive Stock Certificates.

Similarly, I hope average collectors would not consider my catalog a great place to look for information on certificates from brewing companies, steel companies, mining companies, and utilities ...

even though, some such companies ran rail operations during their corporate existences.

Or looking at it another way ... consider that many railroad companies operated coal mines and owned coal properties. I don't think more than a handful of average collectors would ever think of looking in a catalog of mining certificates for the Union Pacific Railroad. Never mind that the Union Pacific Railroad owned the Union Pacific Coal Company and mined tremendous tonnages out of southern Wyoming.

Practical matters. It already takes thousands of hours per year to describe certificates and record prices for legitimate railroad and railroad-related issues. Every miniute I spend on non-railroad certificates is one less minute I have for my core project.

Given the choice, I imagine that average collector of railroad certificates would want me to spend my time describing and pricing collectible stocks and bonds from railroads.

I already search every auction catalog, every eBay sale and every price list that I have time for. Adding more companies would cut into that goal and I would, of necessity, miss railroad certificates.

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