Agents at Kamrok are now busy canvassing outlets throughout the country using all the wit and crudity to push card sales even higher.

And he worries less about employee theft, because his system notifies him of all card sales and gives him a daily total.

It now boasts 1,600 card titles a year and accounts for 15 percent of Hallmark's annual card sales.

Whether cards sent by e-mail will affect greeting card sales this year is not clear.

In mid-to-late 1985 the toy and greeting card sales began to decline, the first sign of the Gang's popularity waning.

"The card-shop retail sector has gone from 40 percent of all card sales to less than 30 percent and is still declining," he says.

And nearly half of alternative card sales are impulse buys.

In 1992 demand for higher-quality cards rose, and standard card sales dropped.

Industry leaders like Hallmark now offer designs similar to those of small producers, and big retailers increasingly dominate card sales.