News and Views

Newsletter Notes

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey that I held last week, as well as all of the wonderful and constructive comments I received. I have the results of the survey, which I would like to publish. For those who are new to the newsletter, or don't remember the topic, I was thinking about including paid advertising as part of this newsletter. In addition that that category, I took a couple of statistics about readers of this newsletter. Out of the surveys turned in, I found out that:

67.1% of you read this newsletter thoroughly
28.9% are casual readers
4.0% really dont read it at all (people could enter from the Card Mall web site, and perhaps saw this as a contest and do not regularly subscribe?)

30.2% have been subscribers for under 3 months
18.4% have subscribed between 3-6 months
13.1% have subscribed between 6-12 months
38.3% have subscribed over 1 year (I have been publishing this newsletter for about 2 1/2 years.)

31.6% said that paid advertisements would be great
53.9% said that it would not bother them
7.9% said that it sort of bothers them
6.6% totally hate the idea.

The numbers support the addition of advertising, and were higher than I thought they would be. About half of the people who said that they hated the idea also fell into the do not read category, so I do not know what to think about that. One person said "add color to your page" so they must not be a subscriber.

For those who were against advertising, I hope you bear with me. It will not take over the newsletter. I plan on having a paragraph at the beginning of the newsletter, and a paragraph at the end. The rest will only be newsletter. I will do my best to not let it interfere with my editorial comments. Readers are welcome to submit articles/rebuttals to any of my ramblings. (or anyone elses ramblings too) Finally, I hope to use some of the advertising funds to spruce up the web site for POL including a domain for the newsletter, a searchable index of all issues, phonecard scans, and more. Ive also been considering a POL daily, with breaking news that would be published (if warrented) on a daily basis. Dealers or companies interested in advertising can contact me.

As promised to those who filled out the survey, a name would be drawn to win a prize either a Moneycard Collector Catalog, or $35 worth of phonecards catalog value. That winner is: Judy Medeiros. Congratulations, Judy! Please e-mail me with your preference, and postal mailing address. Now, back to our regularly scheduled newsletter..

Dallas Telecard World Show Report

By Terry Windholz, TW Phonecards

The Telecard World Dallas show with few exceptions was very enjoyable and it was good to make contact with some old friends as well as making a few new friends. As to some of the cards,there was a tie for the top show card and that was the Worldwide Digital Die Cut of Texas 5 minute card (mintage 500), and the Continental Plastic Texas Die Cut set of five cards (very colorful) with five different carriers. (100 sets). Each of the Continental cards has 15 minutes of time from Cable & Wireless. These cards were popular at the show and on announcement of the winners it appeared that the few left were quickly purchased by people at the show.

Probably my favorite card was the 10 min. Lenticular Cowboy riding a bucking horse, very cool card indeed! I believe it came in second place. Some of the show cards seemed quite elusive and there were a few that were tough to track down. GE had a nice $5 card that was simple, yet very colorful in my opinion, however it was not a show card. Galaxy had a 10 min. phonecard with a race car and the driver autographed a few phonecards and some photos. LCI had a few different user cards available. Vocall had a guitar singing cowboy at lunch time with free chips and snacks. As usual I was short on time and long on things to do and by the time I arrived back I was thoroughly exhausted, yet it was an enjoyable trip of memories.

Seattle Skyline Card

Gazelle Telecard has released a 15 minute phonecard in the Seattle Skyline Series. The creation of this card represents the public debut of Seattle artist Bill Ritchies inaugural foray into what he considers a new and exciting medium for artistic expression: phonecards. There were 350 cards issued, with 50 of them hand signed by the artist. Contact Gazelle at 888 860-9359 or metalcore@aol.com for further information.

New Alaska Airlines Card

Gazelle Telecard has issued a new Alaska Airlines Phonecard. The card was issued as an incentive/reward to be given to travel agents at various industry trade shows that Alaska Airlines participates in. The front of the card is similar to other cards issued, with small differences such as a lighter/brighter and sharper image. 1,000 were produced, with 10 minutes of phone time provided by Cable & Wireless. Contact Gazelle at 888 860-9359 or metalcore@aol.com for further information.

Bravo card

I received a flyer with my Bravo card statement. It said that if I purchase $150 worth of goods with my Bravo card before 3/31/98, then I will receive 30 minutes of free phonecards. They showed a photo of a 10 minute phonecard with the Bravo logo on it, so I surmise we will get 3 of these.

From: Maria Rublee

CITGO Giveaway

CITGO gas stations are giving away a 5-minute phonecard with an 8-gallon fillup with superpremium gasoline. There are two different cards dealing with their sponsored NASCAR and driver Simpson.

From: Charles Frisinger

Walmart / Polaroid

Found this week in central Florida Wal-Marts: an in-package phone card offer from Polaroid instant film. Each specially marked package of Polaroid 600 instant film, which bears the name of sports driver Dale Jarrett, contains a 10 minute laminated card sandwiched in between the two 10 exposure packs. The front of the card pictures Jarrett and car #32, showing both Polaroid and White Rain as sponsors, and the text "#1 in a series." The back of the card has the Polaroid and Wal-Mart logos. The pin number is exposed, with teleservices by Smartalk. The twin pack sells for around $20.88. [ The card itself doesn't indicate Jarrett's name; not being a race fan, I'd otherwise have absolutely no idea who he was! ]

From: Steven Sickerman

Until Next Week,

Alan

Distribution

Phonecards On-Line is published 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 - All back issues are archived at the web site!

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

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