If you plan to hit the toy store this weekend, you probably won't even notice its not there. Back in the late 1960's, facing focus-grouped competition in the toy business, the A.C. Gilbert Company threw in the towel after having sold 30 million erector sets. If the erector set is largely forgotten, then the story of its inventor was almost lost. Until writer Bruce Watson started doing research on a toy he'd received as a child. In his book "the man who changed how boys and toys were made", Watson tells the story of A.C. Gilbert, a man who sold novelties before his epiphany in 1911.

Tomorrow is the deadline for China to meet a promise to the World Trade Organization. It's supposed to open markets to outside investment. The Chinese would seem to be on target, if American investment is any measure: it doubled over the past year. But direct sales? That's still a work in progress. Marketplace's Jocelyn Ford explains why doing business a la Amway, Avon and Mary Kay is considered controversial.