OK, OK... I get it.
I remember a few years back...there was a seller who auctioned green foam packing 'peanuts' online as "Alien Poop". And, yes, he/she was quite 'successful', as I recall, but certainly not to fully finance a roundtrip to Tahiti! (Probably ended up as office party gifts, ...maybe?!)
Seriously, though... While cleaning out some old forgotten desk/detritus of yore we came across a few of those inspection slips. Curiosity (the 'alien poop' syndrome, again) led to finding that these small slips of paper, each one having a bunch of different numbers...with no discernable identification as to the specific product/box they came from, have/had collectible interest to some bidders. Some of those sold on the auction site went for amazing prices! Most hover around a number ≤$7, each. But, why?
Is there a correlation of the numbers to some Lionel Corp. records? Is that among the amazing Lionel archives people seem to come up with...and sometimes make available online? Is there a finite period of time, number of employees using the same...with cross-reference to specific employee names? Was this a short-lived QC 'thing' at Lionel...too 'intrusive' (a.k.a., "search for the guilty") for employees' tolerance level even back then, etc., etc.? Judging by Forum comments posted at the release of some current new products, and their obvious and irritating defects as received, I imagine it would be quite interesting to have the QC gate-keeper identified by a little piece of paper therein!! Some of the 'corrective measures' directed to that employee could be...well...rather extreme, shall we say...or so rumor has it!!!
Just trying to decide if these few scraps of yellowed paper in perfect condition are really worth the sales effort, and how to best define them. It's hardly your typical Lionel item on the auction block!!!!
Meanwhile, back to the guesses and guffaws...
DK