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I’ve been having a look at the number of views of those model-by-model catalogue reviws which have received zero replies, the idea being that each of these single-post pages has probably only been visited once by any given individual and that the number of views therefore gives an idea of the number of active 1-75 collectors visiting this site.
My findings are as follows:
- There are eight single-post pages covering model 58a and above. These all have similar viewing tallies, with the average number of views being 76.6.
- There are four single-post pages between 54a and 55d with an average view tally of 99.5, which is significantly higher than for 58a and above. Does this indicate an increased number of collectors regularly visiting the site from November 2014 onwards?
- The most recent post (48b) which has been up for three days has received 27 views and this is therefore an indication of the number of hard-core 1-75 collectors visiting.
- Post 50b (16/2/15) has had 58 visits, whilst post 51b (20/1/15) has had 60. The difference in the viewing totals for 48b and 50b could be interpreted as indicating that there are some 30 collectors who visit the site once every month, whilst the 50b and 51b figures point towards there being a further ten collectors who visit this site about once/two months.
It is interesting to note that the single-post page for 53a (the Aston Martin DB2-4) has received a massive 249 views! Surely a reflection of the popularity of this model and, presumably, an indication that there are plenty of visitors who collect Aston Martins rather than the whole 1-75 Series.

Interesting observations Hugh.
Like many, my schedule is busy enough that it keeps me from spending great lengths of time here in the VDB forum on any given day. I am pretty much a pre-Superfast collector and my typical VDB visit has me doing a quick check of the regular wheel 1-75 forum, the Lounge and occasionally George's casting show. Once a week or so I'll glance in on the Marketplace. I tend to totally forget that you are doing this exhaustive research with regard to the variations for each casting. Perhaps this will be the prod that gets me there more often to see what has surfaced.
BTW, I never posted in the "Hugh appreciation" thread but I think you know that I genuinely appreciate your contributions to the well-being of our collecting community. I count our connection over the past few years as one of the best gifts of my transition from the MCCH to the VDB forums.

As a specific one car make collector, I will visit many websites and forums looking for models of that make of car and before joining the 'VBD Forum', I would have visited as a guest and looked for articles specific to Rolls -Royce models, this will be the same for collectors of Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari etc, etc.

So the popular car brands and the prestige car brands may well always have a higher viewing rating. If Lesney had excusive rights to the Ferrari and Porsche marques, this site would go into meltdown.

If you look at the figures for a forum such as 'FerrariChat', which is real car based but with a models section, the number of posts the last time I looked was...9.6 Million across nearly Half a Million threads, created by 157,000 members!!

GHOSTHUNTER.

There are always certain models that are very popular with marque collectors, so the numbers reading those Posts will be much larger than normal. The figure of 249 views on the Aston Martin post certainly is exciting Hugh, but a figure I could not have predicted. I can generally check in on your updates within a day of two of when they are posted, so I guess I am one of your diehard 75 or so 'regulars'. I am very proud of that, and I always try to add some history as I can on the listings from our early 'Bibles'.
One of the Great results of your efforts on bringing new variations to light is the fact that we now realize that distribution to different countries has effected the rarity and also the appearance of certain codes, and that many variations common in America were in fact never even seen or reported in the U.K. As some of these older variations come to light, it seems amazing that many U.S. codes went unrecorded and under-collected in the U.K. for all these years. Thanks for putting up with my enthusiastic outbursts on some very major, and also some very minor details you seem to be uncovering here Hugh. I enjoy the opportunity you and Nick have now given for some of the top regular wheel collectors to join in and share some oddities and rarities from their diversified collections. It is features such as your's and George's Casting Show that keeps the interest high in our amazing hobby. kwakers