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Phonecards

September 28, 1996


Issue 49


Phonecards On-Line is written and distributed by Alan Cohen


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Phonecards On-Line is written and distributed by Alan Cohen September 28, 1996 Issue #49

News and Views

One Year Anniversary

This issue marks the one year anniversary of POL. What started out as something I decided to write on a whim has turned into something that has taken up a decent portion of my free time! With the exception of three weeks, this newsletter has been published weekly. There was no mailing list for the first issue - It was posted on-line, with a solicitation for people to receive issues via e-mail. I had also just started getting into the web, and got a web site to post issues. Today the mailing list has over 900 subscribers, and each issue gets posted at my commercial web site, The Card Mall. Quite a few changes! I’d like to reprint the opening paragraph of issue 1:

"Welcome to the first of hopefully many issues of phonecards on-line. I have three objectives in creating this newsletter. The first is to give a review of the latest news and information available on-line. There are currently many ways to get phonecard information on-line - The major on-line services, the internet newsgroup rec.collecting.phonecards, mailing lists, IRC, bulletin boards. It's only fitting that this high tech collectible has so many hi tech ways of collecting. The second objective is to provide information for the latest promotions and giveaways. Collecting promotional cards is a great way to increase your collection. Be it razors, cereal, video tapes or Big Macs, phonecards and promotions are here to stay, and will most likely expand. Being on-line is a great way to hear about the new promotions, and I hope to publicize many of them. The final objective is to analyze the current phonecard market. It is my opinion that phonecard collectors tend to collect other things as well, such as coins, stamps, sportscards, etc. Still, there are those who are new to collecting, and I hope those who are new (and those are not) will find some useful information from someone not officially associated with the industry."

I hope that I have met those objectives over the past year, and that I continue to try and meet them in the future. I’ve had a great time communicating with so many people. For those who have written recently, my response time is usually a little longer than I would want it to be, but I will get around to responding to messages. Now, on with the issue.

News of the Weird

I know that is a syndicated column name, but I thought it was appropriate for this story. A reader wrote in an said that something is going on with the HT Technologies web site. He said that if you went through the various options, the site was no longer at http://www.htti.com, but instead were listed from a directory called www.cyberdevinc.com. This by itself is not strange, but what is strange is that this Cyberdevinc is an adult-theme web site, not exactly what you would associate HT with. I tried checking out http://www.htti.com, and the Cyberdevinc site came up. I’m a strong believe in Cyberdevinc’s first amendment rights to create a web site, but the reader, his customer, and myself are concerned that someone exploring a site as innocent as HT’s can easily be diverted to something that they did not intend to view. I have sent a message to HT, and am waiting to hear a response. I do know that Dan Tudor, president of HT, is out of the country, so it may take a few weeks.

Captain Munchies International Swap Meet

This is just a reminder that Captain Munchies will be holding their international Swap Meet today, 9/27 in the U.S. It will take place from 7 PM until 1 AM. Pacific Daylight Time. You can access it via conference on the Card Mall Chat Room. I will be there as well, so chat with collectors around the world!

http://www.cardmall.com/cards/chat.htm

Magazine Merger

A 2-card set from Australia and New Zealand is due to be released soon which your readers may find interesting. Two phonecard magazines, New Zealand International Phonecard Collector and the Australasian Phonecard Monthly, are to amalgamate shortly under the name of The Australia/New Zealand Phonecard Magazine. It will be published 6 times a year and carry phonecard news from both Australia and New Zealand. Subscription is:

Included with the subscription are a $10 phonecard from Telecom NZ and a $10 phonecard from Telstra (Australia). When placed side by side these cards show the scene from the movie "Independence Day" where the White House is being destroyed by the huge, alien spacecraft. The 2-card set can thus be said to include 3 countries though the cards themselves can only be used in Australia or New Zealand. They are available only by subscribing to the magazine.

Aust/NZ Phonecard Magazine

PO Box 2590
Auckland, New Zealand

You can contact Ray Dobson from New Zealand at Dobson@netaccess.co.nz for more information

7-11 NFL Phonecards

DALLAS, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- 7-Eleven is first and goal with the release of its new Sprint National Football League pre-paid, long-distance phone cards. The new collector's series will feature favorites like Troy Aikman, Steve Young and 10 other NFL stars, all members of the NFL's Quarterback Club.

Each of the 12 new collector's edition phone cards features a different NFL Quarterback Club member on a 15-minute pre-paid Sprint long-distance phone card for the same price as 7-Eleven's regular 15-minute phone card -- $5.99, or just 40 cents a minute. Four cards will be released each month in October, November and December at participating 7-Eleven stores across the country.

Television advertising announcing the new cards will air during the FOX/NFL Game of the Week beginning October 27.

"We have had great success introducing new customers to the convenience of phone cards using our collector cards series," says Walt Abele, 7-Eleven category development manager. "Even if a customer doesn't know what a phone card is, they certainly know Troy Aikman, Steve Young and Barry Sanders."

"7-Eleven has the home field advantage as the nation's largest retailer of pre-paid phone cards in the country," says Abele. "We sold more than three million cards in 1995, and 1996 sales have been even better."

October releases of Sprint NFL Series phone cards include: Troy Aikman, quarterback, Dallas Cowboys; Barry Sanders, running back, Detroit Lions; John Elway, quarterback, Denver Broncos; and Steve Young, quarterback, San Francisco '49ers.

November releases include: Emmitt Smith, running back, Dallas Cowboys; Jerry Rice, wide receiver, San Francisco '49ers; Drew Bledsoe, quarterback, New England Patriots; and Jim Kelly, quarterback, Buffalo Bills.

December releases include: Dan Marino, quarterback, Miami Dolphins; Brett Favre, quarterback, Green Bay Packers; Junior Seau, linebacker, San Diego Chargers; and Erik Kramer, quarterback, Chicago Bears.

7-Eleven offers a variety of phone card levels: the 15-minute card is $5.99 (40 cents/minute); the 30-minute card is $10.99 (37 cents/minute); the 60-minute card is $19.99 (33 cents/minute); the 90-minute card is $27.99 (31 cents/minute); and the newest release, a three-hour card, is $49.99 (28 cents/minute).

With approximately 15,400 convenience stores worldwide, 7-Eleven is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry. More than 5,400 7-Eleven and other convenience stores are operated or franchised in the United States and Canada by The Southland Corporation.

From: James Wertheimer

Finish Line II Coming

Ponte Verde Beach, Florida - Finish Line Collectibles is moving forward with PhonePaks II following on the heels of the highly successful first series. New innovations include One Call cards, Wild Cards and over $2,200 in calling value per case. In addition, every card will contain at least 5 minutes in calling time. And the price hasn't changed a bit. Suggested retail remains $6 for a pack which contains at least 15 minutes in calling time.

"Finish Line has truly outdone itself this time by offering tremendous value and real collectibility," said Finish Line President Art West. "We want people to use our phone cards for the value and keep them because they are wonderful collectibles, too."

Each PhonePak contains three phone cards. Each phone card has a minimum of five minutes calling time. Randomly inserted are cards worth $10, $50 and $100. In every box there is also a "Wild Card" Phone Card. Just scratch off the panel on the back of the card and you can win great prizes. Finish Line added another bonus to Series II by individually numbering every card and cutting production even farther. There were only 800 cases of Series I but there will be much less of this second series.

From: Brian Chanin

Anniversary Contest

In honor of the 1st anniversary of POL, I will be holding a drawing for (3) Card Mall 10 Minute phonecards (Listed in Moneycard Collector under EastWest Telecom, for $40) Three names will be drawn at random, just send an e-mail message to:

polcontest@cardmall.com

The three winners will be notified next week. Good Luck! Only one entry per person, you can enter from the web page or from the e-mail list.

Until Next Week,

Alan

Distribution

Phonecards On-Line is written and distributed by Alan Cohen. It is a weekly newsletter devoted to phonecards - Current news, viewpoints, and reviews of new issues. It is distributed free of charge, and available two ways.

1) On-Line on the World Wide Web. The address is: http://www.cardmall.com

2) Direct e-mail. Send a message to: phoneline@cardmall.com

If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, or find yourself with two subscriptions (It does happen), please reply to the most recent message that was sent to you WITHOUT changing the subject line! - This will assist me in removing your name