Using cards is sometimes not as easy as it should be. Recently I have had a number of experiences with cards that have gone bad In other words, the card is not expired, but is dead. A few months back, I ordered some cards from PATCO, and the cards died. They sent me replacement cards by a different company to make up for the lapsed phone time. However, over the next couple of months, the time on those cards also disappeared. There are a lot of people out there who were sold STS cards by their friends and associates, who now have dead phonecards. Same with Destiny.
Another card that I tried to use recently, with phone time from Frontier, was dead. The card has no expiration date, only a note that says it expires 12 months after last use. I have never used the card. I called customer service, and they told me that the phone time had expired. I tried to argue that the card has no expiration date, but they were not really willing to listen.
As a phonecard collector, it is frustrating when this happens, but I will continue to collect. For someone who is using a phonecard for the first time, or has limited use of the cards and more importantly is not a collector, this is a big problem. If a phonecard is not dependable, why use it? If my goal was to make phone calls and not collect cards, I would rather pay more for a calling card from my phone company, than a prepaid card that may or may not work.
Its not even important that these people develop into collectors. They will use cards, and collectors could collect these cards They may leave them at the phone booth, or put them in their junk drawer and let their children have them. Phonecards that are supposed to be live but are not are hurting this hobby a lot. Unfortunately, this is a problem that will not go away very soon. For every company that goes out of business, plenty are left to take their place.
Re: The destruction of certain commemorative cards.
In accordance with a resolution approved at the Board of Director's last meeting in New York, the remaining sets of commemorative cards produced for the ITA dinners in Chicago and New York (in 97) were offered for sale. Approximately 20 added sets were sold.
The Board ordered sales suspended on December 31st, and remaining cards destroyed. Today, the "Shred-It" corporation of Rockville, Maryland, came to the ITA offices with its truck-mounted document shredder, and turned 2,675 phonecards to inorganic mulch.
ITA has received a certificate of destruction from Shred-It, and has inventoried the cards destroyed. 115 sets of the New York six-card commemorative set were destroyed (out of a total of 350 produced. The 165 sets of the Chicago seven-card set were destroyed (out of a total of 500 produced).
The Chicago seven-card set included cards from Cable & Wireless, ConQuest. Frontier, GTE, GTS, MCI, and Worldcom. Separate cards were provided by ACMI, American Express Telecom, and Innovative Telecom. In addition, 500 added jumbo-sized cards produced by Innovative Telecom for the Chicago show were destroyed. The New York cards destroyed included cards from AT&T, MCI, SmartTalk, Southern New England Bell, Teltrust, and Worldcom.
ITA destroyed the cards to prevent a market-overhang of these cards, and to bolster the collectibility of these and future ITA commemoratives.
Luis Vigdor, President of Powell Associates, a founder of ITA and a major Manhattan collectibles dealer said, "The official word that the balance of these cards have been destroyed means that the proud owners of these cards should be happy. The desirability of the sets will go up and because of the now-limited supply and the prices are likely to rise."
From: Randy Bowden
Until Next Week,
Alan
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