NEWS / COMMENTARIES

The Chudnow Report© by Jim Chudnow (jimchudnow@compuserve.com)

Regarding my last Report appearing on POL, I received an inquiry concerning the SPORTSCALL phone cards from a lady in England (who'd bought some of the cards from a dealer). She asked a number of questions, and I felt you might be interested in seeing some of my responses, which I'm quoting below:

It's very hard to get a "handle" on the Sportscall cards, in the sense that, outside of their being regularly offered for sale by one gentleman in the U.S., I don't know of any really "active" MARKET existing in the cards themselves. In my estimation, they were created to mainly appeal to the TRADING- CARD collector, rather than the phonecard collector. That's why they have the squared-corners look and cardboard-base of trading cards.

Keep in mind that, while the announced quantity of 5,040 printed of each card is comparatively small by TRADING-card standards, it was quite large (perhaps about double the number of "active" U.S. collectors) concerning PHONE cards.

I'm sure there was a hope that people would be eager to use the cards to make calls for playing the now-long-expired contest...sweepstakes game affiliated with the product. Naturally, as with trading cards, the images of "STAR" players and "ROOKIES" are likely to generate the main interest by collectors of sports-related cards.

I wrote an article for BECKETT'S [which appeared in the November, 1997 issue of their "Future Stars / Sports Collectibles"] in which I pointed out that, since phone cards of sports figures tended to be done in far smaller quantities than those done for trading cards, I felt trading card dealers should consider that a "selling point" for handling phone cards.

But, the U.S. trading card market has itself been very weak and in a general 'downwards" slope since the baseball strike, and phone cards themselves were never actively "welcomed" by trading card dealers in the first place-- much less cards produced by smaller companies such as the Sportscall ones. I doubt that the lesser-known players (the vast majority of the

"common" cards in the set) will ever generate much interest, either from trading-card or phone- card collectors:

There are a small number of people (such as myself and my friend, Ken Stryker) who are especially eager to "COMPLETE" card sets whenever possible, simply to have things "whole" (rather than expecting uncommon cards to particularly appreciate in value) . But, in going thru around 15 boxes of Sportscall cards, after 2,160 cards, we could not compile even one complete 400-card set.

The cards printed with different card numbers utilizing the same images were technically "errors", but not of a significance that they'd likely be of any special value to "error" collectors: it was a "screw-up", but it's still unclear whether the "unlisted" cards were designed to in-effect "MAKE-UP" for the possibly-"missing" numbers. [ I've gone to the

people who carried the TIME on the cards, to see if they can provide any information-- but I haven't heard anything back yet ]...

Keep in mind, it's always been admitted that, while fairly minor in the many thousands of cards listed, there are a number of ERRORS in the Moneycard Collector catalog-- partly due to deadline and staff problems, partly due possibly to printing problems, and partly due to inaccurate and incomplete information from some of the suppliers of information:

In the catalog, some items are "repeated" twice (such as the United Airlines Mileage Plus Firstcard set by GTI, & the $ 5 McDonald's cards by Score Board), and numerous cards are simply UN-listed (due to space limitations, incomplete information, and simple errors). Thus, the fact that a small number of cards in the huge Sportscall set are UN-listed is, in itself, not particularly significant, and is unlikely to itself result in any special value to those un-listed cards; it's just a happenstance that they were not listed. I'll try to keep people posted if I learn anything "new" re the cards...

Some "NEWS":

Previously, I mentioned how a special stored-value train-travel card was issued by the local METRA transit authority for travelling to and from the fascinating HOUSEWARES Show held in Chicago in mid January. The Show used all three major exhibit halls at McCormick Place, and the cards could be found (attached to folders) at numerous Show information

booths scattered throughout the Halls. (Seeing such a wide distribution sort of surprised me; usually, you're lucky if you can find such items at just one location at a Show, and this effort thus struck me as being very "on the ball"!)...

At the Show, I found a couple of CARD-related venues:

A whole booth had been set up by EconoPhone Inc. out of New York (1-800-577-3724). They featured their 4-denomination vending machines, and claimed the response had been very good from the attendees interested in reselling their cards via setting up such machines in various locations.

As explained in person (and in their brochure which states they are "a proud member of the International TeleCard Association and The National Association of Convenience Stores"), the machines can be stocked with cards having various denominations (such as $ 5, $ 10, $ 20 and $ 25), and the company offers cards with varying calling rates.

They showed me one of their live scratch-off $ 2 "Gem link" promo cards, which is similar in design to those offered in the machines (namely, having a diamond-like graphic hovering over a globe of the earth). Also at the show, I saw a manufacturer who was offering a clever

design of specially made SHOWCASES for housing collectibles:

By using a special "slide rail" system, you can put your favorite TRADING CARDS (or wallet-size PHOTOS) in easily-organized, clip-together clear plastic holders, and readily arrange those holders in rows "inside" the rails of the showcase.

For example, there's a showcase holding 9 cards (3 rows of 3 each) selling for around $ 17.99 in metal (or around $ 19.99 in oak, + shipping in all cases), and a 20-card version (5 rows of 5 cards each) for around $24.99. They have also made versions designed for PHONE cards (both horizontal and vertical), holding around 20-25 cards.

Recently, they came out with a special matted case holding the series of 50 STATE QUARTERS that the U.S. Mint is issuing (with a Mylar frame for around $ 10, & a wooden type version for around $ 12.50).

Some PROMO news:

Not long ago, WALDENBOOKS started offering a good-looking $ 25 gift card picturing Anakin Skywalker in his "racing" goggles from "STAR WARS - EPISODE I". I recently found some interesting sort of "revisions" concerning the original program:

The card holder initially stated that the cards could be used at any "BORDERS" bookstore; the card now has the word "Waldenbooks" (which is usually at mall-based locations) pasted OVER the "Borders" name ( -- keep in mind that the Borders Group owns both chains)...

And, the holder has another paste-over, which says you NO LONGER have to buy at least one STAR WARS-related item in order to use the card-- you can use it to buy anything. (The store I visited still HAS a number of Episode I items-- but, the holder and card now thus reflect the "changing" interests in the world of Collectibles collectors!)...

Speaking of Gift cards, we seem to be seeing a profusion of offers

concerning them (probably as a means of keeping more sales "in house"):

Phonecards and phonecards collecting in Norway

Phonecard collecting has become quite a popular hobby in Norway and it's growing. The first regular phonecards were issued in Norway in 1990 by the state owned phone company "Televerket" (name changed to "Telenor" in 1995). These phonecards all have chips and they are produced by Schlumberger Industries, GEM and ODS. Norwegian phonecards are issued in quite small numbers, from 1.000 cards up to 300.000 cards. Since 1990 it is issued 160 different regular cards and 36 promotion cards. In the last couple of years some companies have issued Remote Memory cards for use in Norway.

The Norwegian Phonecard Collectors Association (NPCA) was established in 1994 and has now 295 members. We arrange swap meetings in several towns, hold phonecard auctions, and the members get our magazine CARTA 8-10 times each year. We will arrange the large phonecard exhibition NORTEX-2000 in the center of Oslo, Norway, 28.-29. October. The exhibition will include lots of traders from different countries, large phonecard auction, seperat localities for swapping etc. Free entrance. See you there!

For more information have a look at our website:

or contact our chairman Mr. Gert Nygaardshaug at e-mail gertn@online.no (he is also a famous writer). On our website you can register as a collector, find links and addresses to collectors both in Norway and world wide, explore links to other phonecard sources in Norway etc.

Comment on the New Zealand Market

Event Masters, the company that produced the Disney phonecards in association with Telecom New Zealand, suddenly ceased business at Christmas. Their stock of the latest releases seems to have disappeared, and getting loose sets of cards and presentation packs is now very difficult. It has been rumoured that either another company will continue producing these fabulous cards, or Telecom will take over this task themselves. All we can do is wait and see.

There was a major flurry of card releases towards the end of 1999. These were:

$5 IHC Montage, showing our own Lucy Lawless (Xena), although the image of her is very small.

$5 Sitel two card set. A great puzzle 2 card set. Only 900 sets produced.

$5 Christchurch Phonecard Club. Mintage approximately 150.

$5 Calvert Cleaning. 2000 cards to be used by this firm as business cards.

$5 Telecom One Challenge.

"First of, Last of": A great 4 card limited edition (500) puzzle set commemorating the changeover to chip cards. Please email me if you would like to know more about this set.

Technicians cards. Cards used by the Telecom phonebox installers to test the equipment. Email me for details.

General issue set called Hauraki Heroes, celebrating the America's Cup.

General issue Millennium cards. Two $10 cards celebrating the Year 2000.

And of course the three Disney releases:

Donald Duck part 5, Winnie the Pooh part 3 and Stars of the Silver Screen part 4. With the introduction of chip technology, the clean designs are printed on one side, leaving the reverse for Telecom's information and the chip.

For Visa Cash card collectors, WestpacTrust Bank released a Visa Cash card in conjunction with the opening of the new sports stadium in Wellington. A startling design on black.

If you would like to know more about any of these phonecards, please email me for details.

PRESS RELEASES

No press releases submitted

PROMOTIONAL OFFERS

Best Buy

In the Chicago-area BEST BUY flyers circulated on 1-23-00, they offered one of their $ 25 cards for purchasing any EPSON printer costing $199.99 and up, or for buying a WESTERN DIGITAL hard drive (17.2 GB model WD172AARTL for $ 139.99 after mail-in rebate). Both offers specified that the card had to be used towards an "IN-STORE purchase" (which seems to be a new "limitation" requirement).

From: Jim Chudnow

PC Zone

A recent flyer from mail order company PC ZONE (phone #1-800-419-9663; online at "www.zones.com") offered the following: If you purchase a 5-pack of FUJI brand 250MB disks for the "ZIP" storage system (item # 115122, for $ 79.99), you get a free 30-minute phonecard saying the following on the front: "FUJIFILM / Better Saved than sorry. / Are You Y2K Ready?"

From: Jim Chudnow

Until Next Time,

Alan

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