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The May 5th meeting of the Washington DC Phonecard Collector's Group was a small gathering. This is due to changes made in postponing the meeting from the Previously agreed April 21st meeting. A small number of folks went to that meeting anyway. I was not there so I cannot report about that meeting. The string, however is now broken and no one has made all the the meetings since our humble beginnings almost four years ago.(November, 1996) Although only Brian Chanin, Richard Brook and I were at the meeting, we had an enjoyable time discussing a lot, talking about a lot of folks. If you don't get included, it probably wasn't because we didn't talk about you. My notes of the meeting are a bit mixed up. I brought some of the new 1999 Coke cards distributed in the Washington DC area. Lots of discounts offered in the accordian style folder, including an offer for a Sprint Foncards.
I also brought a package I ordered form Luis Vigdor of Powell Associates, now located in New Jersey. He had a great offer on a Canadian AGT collection and threw in a bunch of show cards for the club at a great price. I brought a handful of cards I purchased through Alan Cohen in a charity promotion for AVON charity. Great prices are available now and in this case a good cause was helped too.
I brought three catalogs to look at and discuss. The H&G 2nd edition, MoneyCard Collector Catalog and the Sirius catalog of Japanese and some other cards. Brian and I both took advatage of a great offer years ago from Jim Moran of CompuServe fame. I hope my brother made it to the Card Tech Secure Tech conference in Chicago. I expect Jima Moran will make it to that one. Richard toyed with the idea, but most likely won't make it. Brian seems to be focusing these days on the phenomena of Pokemon stuff. He is trading some on EBay and also at Flea markets. I suppose Pokemon phonecards would be an interesting collectible.
Of course we discussed Art Becker and Ron Abler, wondering what folks think about the 100 Definitive Phonecard List. How many of those cards are now sought after by collectors. The ones which were the most fun to collect may very well have been the Gillette set which is a good buy now for those new to the hobby. You won't have the enjoyment of acquiring the set through searching the local stores, but good prices are available through auctions, sales in a variety of locations, including Art Becker's web site and his Telephone and Debit Card Journal. Richard brought a part of his casino card collection. We discussed the possiblility of a future trip to Atlantic City. Can a trip to Vegas be in the future too? We discussed the seeming decline of the Mobil GO card program and the rise of the EXXON Driver Cash card. Richard also brought a batch of cards he purchased from Steve Eyer at a great price. He uses many for his interational trades, hoping to collect at least one card from every country.
We also discussed the AT&T phonecard machines located in malls and at tourist attractions It's great that they are out there, but the price is way too high for acual use. I met a Swedish fellow who told me a $10 card offered only four minutes to Sweden. When I was in San Francisco, I picked one up for a dollar, offering two minutes of USA time. We wondered about the members who have missed meetings. George Samuels was out of town. Chuck Cornelius was taking care of his children. Maria, Kendra, June, Tom, usan, Lowell--all were missed. Jeff Turner of InTouchUSA couldn't make this meeting, but hopes to make the next. It's hard to trade cards when one doesn't see the esteemed members of the club. We discussed our International subcommittee, with Ulf, Jobst, and Coral in >Germany and Bosnia. Will John Monzo of Philadelphia ever get down to one of our meetings? We also chatted about great deals our club has received in the past from Ginny English, Bruce Harmon, Steve Schwartz, and Lenny Rapp. Whatever happened to Howard Segermark? Whatever happened to AmeriVox? Whatever happened to Keep the Change? Whatever happened to Grapevine v HT Technologies? Will there ever be a new phone card magazine? These questions and more will be food for thought at our next meeting. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, June 16th at the same Pentagon City Mall location. It's smack in the middle of tourist season, when the mall has more tourists than locals. 7:00 -??? We are looking for donations to the kitty for anyone looking to be included in the next minutes:)
HT Technologies
Collectors report that HT Technologies cards no longer function. HT had previously filed Chapter 11 (Bankruptcy Protection) - 100 Issues later, HT Technologies is nothing but a memory, the company is long gone. They were one the most prolific issuers, and many of their cards are quite nice and can be found below original wholesale prices from dealers.
Destiny Lawsuit Settled
The California Attorney General settled a 1.6 Million Dollar Lawsuit. 100 Issues later, Destiny is also long gone. This network marketing company abruptly went under, leaving many with cards that do not function
Omnitel out of business?
Moneycard Collector reported the demise of this company. It turned out to be true.
Stolen Merchandise Alert
B&B Phonecards reported that an employee stole a large portion of their stock and was reselling it. I am not sure that this situation was ever resolved.
Card Mall Phonecard
I produced my first phonecard for sale with this issue. It sold out in about four days. Only 100 were issued.
All back issues of POL are located at: http://www.cardmall.com/pol/archive.htm
A CRTC Class A License permits Phonetime, a leading provider of prepaid long distance phone cards and network services, to operate telecommunications facilities used in transporting basic telecommunications service traffic" between Canada and other countries.
"A Class A international telecommunications license from the CRTC, places us in the same category as most Canadian telephone companies and many well known names in multinational long distance service. This accomplishment is a benchmark for our company," said Wayne Silver, Executive Vice President of Phonetime. "The license enhances Phonetime's position in the industry and moves us up to a new level by permitting the company to provide licensed retail and wholesale phone cards, plus network services to all major international telecommunications companies."
"The international portion of Phonetime's business is grown more than ten-fold since last year as we continue to expand our own world-wide network. Our goal is to constantly provide higher quality and more cost effective telecommunications for Canadians to call friends, relatives and business associates abroad," Silver added. "As the phone card industry becomes more competitive and rapidly consolidates, over a half dozen of our competitors have gone out of business over the past year. This CRTC license will enable Phonetime to further expand its distribution, by providing our dealers and consumers a high level of confidence when they choose Phonetime products and services."
Phonetime International Inc., headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Beverly Glen Capital Corp. Phonetime is one of a select few phone card companies in Canada that are licensed by the CRTC. Phonetime owns a high capacity switching platform and operates a bilingual call centre dedicated 24 hours per day, seven-days per week to pre-paid customer service. In addition to Phonetime International, Beverly Glen also includes Provincial Products Inc., the exclusive marketer of Creature Cameras and Canada's leading distributor of Photo Accessories. Beverly Glen Capital Corp. currently has 30,639,119 common shares issued and outstanding. The web site is www.pproducts.com/
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 1999--Bingo and Gaming International, Inc. (OTC BB:BING - news), an Austin-based distributor of prepaid phone cards and machines that distribute its prepaid phone cards, announced today that the Los Angeles Superior Court has ruled that machines similar to those sold by the company are not gambling devices. The ruling will allow the company to sell, lease and operate its Lucky Strike machines - which resemble Las Vegas-style video gaming machines - in the state of California. Bingo & Gaming estimates that its entry into California could allow it to more than double its annual revenues.
``This is a great victory for us. California is going to be, by far, the largest potential market for our machines,'' says Bingo & Gaming International CEO, Reid Funderburk. ``Not only should our yearly numbers double just from the added sales during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 1999, but we are going into a state with no real established competition.''
California, where all recent pushes to legalize any new form of gambling have been summarily rejected, is expected by many in the industry to be the largest potential source of revenue in the country. Bingo & Gaming expects its Lucky Strike machines to be an immediate success in the state.
Even though Lucky Strike machines look like one-armed bandits, they are really prepaid phone card vending machines that employ a novel marketing concept. For every dollar inserted in the slot, the customer actually purchases a two-minute prepaid phone card, but at the same time, enters a free promotional sweepstake which offers cash prizes from $1 to $1,000. What separates this unique form of buying prepaid phone cards from gambling is that - as with all legal sweepstakes - no purchase is necessary and the odds of winning are posted on the side of the machine.
In addition to selling, renting, operating and servicing Lucky Strike machines, Bingo & Gaming International also operates as a lessor of charity bingo facilities. Bingo & Gaming is currently negotiating with distributors for the sale, lease and operation of its prepaid phone card machines in California. The Company projects that it will have distribution contracts in place by the end of June and sales for the period July through December 31, 1999, will be $3.6 million from this market.
The company's growth strategy includes selectively broadening the geographic scope of its operations by entering new markets. Pending legislation and distribution contracts may enable Bingo & Gaming International to sell its machines in several more states this year than it has done in the past. The company already has its machines placed in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho and Illinois. Most of its machines are located in charitable bingo halls and Indian bingo facilities, but some are located in bars and bowling alleys.
Learn how the ITA is lobbying for repeal of the tax and also learn how you can get a free,active 20-unit phonecard.
http://congress.nw.dc.us/cgi-bin/alertpr.pl?dir=letters&alert=letters12
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