News and Views

Gloom and Doom

Anyone reading my column over the past few weeks may come away with a negative view of collecting phonecards - However, my attitude is really quite the opposite. Overall, I think phonecards are a great collectible. The growth I have seen in the hobby in the 18 months is incredible, and that is nothing to what I feel the growth will be in the future. 18 months ago nobody knew what a prepaid phonecard is, now most people do. The best thing that can happen for this hobby is for people to be aware of phonecards and actually use them. The things that I am concerned with are limited edition sets not meant to be used for calling time, and rapidly increasing prices due to speculation. The hobby is growing at a decent rate, I get e-mail from new collectors all the time. The best thing that established collectors can do is to help educate those new to the hobby. I'm an experienced "collector" and I have to say that by far the people I have met through phonecard collecting are the nicest. It could be because we are still a relatively small hobby compared to cards, coins, stamps, etc., but I feel that there is something more than that. Hopefully we can stay that way.

Name Change

The Telecard Section on CompuServe recently changed its name to the Phone and Money Card Section. While initially I did not favor the name change, it has grown on me. After thinking about if for a while, the name change makes a lot of sense. Like it or not, we are in the middle of the money card revolution. Phonecards will be one of many different types of money cards available in the near future. Some money cards that are in the planning stages right now are

1) U.S. Postal Service - There has been talk about the U.S. Postal Service creating a debit card available for purchasing stamps in their vending machines. Currently at most post offices, change will be provided in Susan B. Anthony Dollars. That may change in the near future. The post office would be a natural leader for this type of money card, with their role in creating commemorative stamps.

2) U.S. Treasury - Yes, that's right, the people ultimately responsible for our money are talking about creating electronic cash cards. Philip Diehl, the Director of the U.S. Mint, is already talking about commemorative issues as well.

These new types of money cards will only help create phonecard collectors. We may be one of many prepaid card collectors, but at least people will know who we are and what we collect.

Phone Numbers

Another recent controversy has been the inclusion of phone numbers after articles in telecard publications. It's not a secret that many of the writers are dealers themselves. The complaint lodged was not malicious, but did point out that it might be a conflict of interest. My take on the issue is simple - I don't see a problem at all including a phone number. If you read the articles carefully, you will not see language such as "This is a great deal, buy as many as you can now!" Instead, the authors are just writing to inform us what is out there. We are a small hobby, and the dealers are in the best position to know what is out there. I appreciate that MoneyCard Collector tries to include the phone number of producers when possible, why not include the numbers of the dealers too?

Promotions

Southwestern Update Part 3

Thanks to John Wagner, who informed me that the current Long Distance carrier for Southwestern Bell cards is LDDS, and they will switch to AT&T next year. The current rate for their cards is 60 cents per minute, which in my opinion is somewhat on the high side.

Curiel

Available at Albertson Food Stores, a phonecard in included with a bottle of Curiel Lotion. Since there are no Albertson's here in Central NY, I have not seen this personally

Amtrak

Take a ride from Boston, get a 15 minute card. Travel between October 30 and December 22, ticket price of $35 or more. 1-800-USA-RAIL for information

Gillette Sprint

Since I just saw some packs here today, figured I would mention this - Specially marked packages of Gillette razors have a 5 minute phone card for the 1995 NCAA Championships. Since UCLA (My Alma Matter) won the title, I have more reason to like these cards!

Links of the Week

The first comes from Aegis Wildlife Organization, which has telecards on their page. They can be accessed at:

http://www.onramp.net/~lowcpm/index.html

The second link comes from EZ Comm, makers of Lenticular phonecards. Check them out at:

http:/www.fastlane.net/~ezcom

Historical Trivia

11/4 Question and Answer:

What year was Henry III forced to accept the Provisions of Oxford? Answer: 1258 - Winner was Anthony Janakas.

Look for Historical Trivia in random issues of Phonecards On-Line

Distribution

Phonecards On-Line is available via:

1) On-Line on the World Wide Web. The address is: http://www.idis.com/phonecards/phonecards/alan.htm

2) Direct e-mail. I'll be setting up a mail distribution system from my internet account. For those who have not already joined this mailing list, my e-mail address is: ahc3@cornell.edu

Until Next week,

Alan

I can be reached at ahc3@cornell.edu or 74074,2220

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