NEWS / COMMENTARIES

Charity Ebay Auction

Last year, I offered lots of 10 U.S. Mint/Expired phonecards for $10 to raise money for a friend participating in the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. Over $300 was raised for charity from this sale. My friend is walking again this year, so I have offered the same type of offer. Unlike last year, I placed the auction on Ebay to gain wider exposure. With 6 days to go, $100 has been raised so far! You can participate by bidding in the Ebay Auction. If for some reason you are unable to bid using Ebay, please let me know so we can work something out. I have allocated 1000 cards to be used for this charity auction. Here are the details:

• $10 for a lot of 10 different. You can purchase multiple lots, I can guarantee up to 100 different cards.
• Checks and Money Orders will be made out directly to Avon Breast Cancer Walk – 100% of proceeds will go to the charity
• I will pay for shipping anywhere on the planet

That’s about it. E-mail me with questions. Here is a direct link to that auction, which closes this coming Saturday. Thank you for your bids.

©Copyright, 2000: The Chudnow Report

by JIM CHUDNOW ( e-mail to: jimchudnow@compuserve.com )

" COMIC CARDS AIN'T A LAUGHING MATTER "

As of the spring of 1998, ads started appearing -- including in auctions on the Internet -- offering so-called "COMIC" phonecards purportedly by HT Tech. You will NOT find the cards listed in the Moneycard catalog under HT -- because they're NOT really HT's, & it appears to be a sad situation of "SHENANIGANS" & seemingly slipshod ''justice'' that's caused some of those cards to even appear as they have on the market. Here's the story as I've been able to piece it together from various sources:

In my not-yet-published lengthy article regarding fantasy-related phonecards, I speak of the 1500 or so classic comic covers done by artist

L. B. COLE in the 1940's & '50's. Art publisher ARGO CITY COMPANY secured special licensing rights to some of his work, and, in early 1995, worked to issue some of Mr. Cole's illustrations on phonecards.

Per the initial plan, there was to be a set of four 10-unit cards, printed in a quantity of 1,100 each. The back of each card said at the top, "ARGO CITY COMPANY - Pre-Paid L. B. Cole Art Phonecards." That was followed by the card's title and the phrase "by L.B. Cole" in white on a black stripe, and then some additional information on the artwork, followed by the Dialing Instructions:

One card pictures a wonderfully vivid red devil figure surrounded by faces. That was "MASK COMICS # 2", "Classic Satan Cover, 1945." -- listed in the Moneycard Collector Catalog as Argo City # 5 (page A-84). Another card -- MCN # 6 -- is titled "SUSPENSE COMICS # 8", the "Classic Spider Cover, 1945", featuring a man and woman caught in a blue-backgrounded web near the arachnidic protagonist.

Two cards with black backgrounds are self-described as "Unseen Good Girl Art": "AFTER DARK" , highlighting a blue-jacketed woman come-hitheringly resting her right hand on her face (Argo City MCN # 3); and "CONVERSATION IN GREEN", with a seductively-clad lady in lime (MCN #

4). But, things did not go smoothly in Argo City's efforts to release the cards; in fact, the whole episode is an unhappy commentary on the "GO-GO, GONE-GONE" days of the U.S. phonecard industry:

In its July, 1996 issue, Moneycard Collector ran a column entitled "Uncertain Utility" on page 10, dealing with HT Technologies & how some of the cards it released had unusable time. That was followed up by a "Readers Always Write" section in its September, '96 issue, detailing continuing problems with HT and its cards, such as a businessman who related his concerns over invalid PIN #'s on some HT Taugher bird cards (MCN # 26/31). On that page, a letter is printed from Mark Demarest of Worldwide Digital, in which he speaks of not being paid for cards he'd printed for HT when working at Mark One Digital (& he personally told me later that it involved the "Zodiac" series, MCN # 50/61).

He's quoted as saying, "I did battle with [HT Tech's President and CEO] for months over outstanding invoices with no success at all in collecting. I understand that other printers also had the same problem. " That Moneycard issue quotes a letter from HT's then-President Daniel Tudor, professing that his company had "activated all its inventory of LDDS WorldCom cards", and asserting that "HT has always enjoyed satisfied customers." Well, Ken Barnes -- the owner of Argo City Co. -- wouldn't in the slightest agree with that latter claim:

Since it seemed a progressive company at the time, Barnes went to HT Tech to handle the production of his cards, and in early 1995, paid them a substantial amount for what was to be a total of 4,400 of the Cole sets;

it was agreed that the phone time he'd paid for would be through LDDS, and

the printing would be handled via highly-regarded Brilliant Color Cards (BCC).

According to Mr. Barnes, after they'd been paid in full up-front, HT indicated to him that they could not come up with the cards Argo had paid for, supposedly because of a dispute between HT & Brilliant. The HT reps "basically just stalled me", & they and some BCC people intimated that the fundamental problem had arisen from BCC's position that there was a good deal of money HT had owed them for quite some time (not even necessarily involving Argo's cards at all).

After many delays and excuses given to Argo City, the owners of HT claimed that they couldn't provide the cards because Brilliant was ostensibly holding Argo's cards "hostage"-- alleging that they'd had to go in person to BCC and plead to get just 1400 of the cards from them (in February of '96).

Further, HT told Barnes that BCC wouldn't release any more than that -- HT never clearly explained why ANY certain number had been released at all --, and in addition, BCC evidently wouldn't even release the original artwork back to HT (much less to Argo City).

Since Argo City had paid HT for all 4400 of its cards in ADVANCE (with money that even included the TIME on the cards), they were most distraught at being put in the middle of a festering dispute not of their doing.

Accordingly, in March of '96, based on what they'd been told by HT, Argo directly faxed a letter to Brilliant's attorney, to "apprise them of our situation" and to request that the balance of their cards and artwork

be returned at once.

When Argo received "no response at all" from Brilliant, they had their California attorney in Visalia fax BCC about the matter. Unfortunately, possibly due in part to not having dealt directly with Argo City concerning the order for the cards to be printed, BCC continued to provide no real response to Argo's requests.

As Mr. Barnes stated recently, "We paid for our cards in advance and had nothing to do with Brilliant... Who knows, maybe HT had [all 4400 of] the cards all along, we don't know for sure. All we knew at the time is what HT representatives informed us; Brilliant told us nothing."

[ Note from Jim Chudnow: Some time ago, I contacted BCC & provided the details you're reading-- but, though asked, they did not care to comment on the matter in question... ]

No matter what the disputing parties' positions were, the bottom line is, rather than the 1100 of each card agreed to, HT only sent Argo City 350 of each of the four cards, about 32% of what it'd been PAID for.

Argo has long had a tradition of having its artists SIGN a portion of the output of their cards, and the original plan was to have that policy continued with these comics cards: HT originally promised the cards would be completed within one month after production was started-- namely, by late August or early September of '95. Cole was contracted to sign 100 of each "Artist Edition" card for that time period.

But, the only cards HT eventually provided, the 1400 of the order of 4400, didn't ship to Argo until February of '96-- five months late, and about two months AFTER Mr. Cole had DIED! So, no hand-autographed versions

were ever able to be done-- and the balance of the order was never

delivered to Argo City (although it had been fully PAID for in ADVANCE).

After Mr. Cole had died in December, as HT continued to make excuses for the non-delivery of the cards, Argo decided it had to do something special for those who'd committed to buy the promised special Artist Edition. Accordingly, they sent HT a facsimile signature of the artist, which was to be imprinted on the backside of cards along with the phrase "Artist Edition" and special sequential numbering from 1 to 100 in the lower-right-hand corner.

When HT finally made some cards available to Argo, the total consisted of just # 1 to 50 of the Artist Edition, along with # 1 to 300 of the separately-numbered regular edition. [ In addition, "SAMPLE" versions should have been made of both; and, the "Artist Edition" should probably have had a SEPARATE IDENTIFICATION # by MCC, due to its separate numbering... But, I'll cover some of the "background" and behind-the-scenes anomalies & stories of the M.C. Catalog at another time...].

All of the cards, which were supposed to have LDDS as a carrier, instead had HT listed as handling the "network services". HT claimed to Barnes that they were supposedly buying their time through LDDS; even until 5-9-96, they were still purporting that, as evidenced by a letter from HT to Argo stating that, in-effect "suddenly", recharging the cards through LDDS wouldn't be "available".

As Barnes reported, the fact that HT was really the carrier presented an additional problem, since, with no prior notice, in March of 1997, all of Argo City's phone cards having HT as the carrier got TURNED OFF, as HT slid into effective default and bankruptcy!

[ As a comparison, some of Argo City's earliest cards (involving early airplanes) -- such as "MORNING CLASSES" (MCN # 1) and "SPLASH ONE" (# 2) --, which had LDDS (now MCI WORLDCOM) rather than HT as the carrier, are STILL working to this day... ].

In retrospect, Barnes said he can now understand why, at the time of their issuance, various dealers had REFUSED to STOCK some of his cards,

citing the fact that they were "leery" because HT was involved in them. As reported in the pages on Moneycard, HT soon ceased to exist as a shall-we-call-it-"viable" operation. Barnes, out about $ 20,000 from his dealings with HT, joined numerous others in formally filing claims against HT in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of California.

Time dragged on, HT purportedly didn't show up in court, and, to no one's particular surprise, nothing concrete of a worthwhile nature was accomplished; as Barnes said, he was never properly compensated from HT re

the Cole or other cards.

On May 7 1998, Argo City received correspondence from the trustee of HT's estate that plans were being made to sell 80,000 expired-time phone cards from HT's "inventory" to some operation named "Interactive Fundraising"; the price was to be $6,000 for the lot-- in other words, 7.5 cents per card.

Argo City felt it pointless to bother protesting the sale, since any division of that small amount between the numerous creditors would be meaningless, and, " We didn't expect our L.B. Cole card balance [of 3000 cards], that we never received, to be in that" figure, since, HT had claimed they'd NEVER GOTTEN the remainder of the cards from BCC.

Strangely and / or coincidentally, in late April of '98, announcements were appearing on the internet mentioning "4 different Comic Cards by HT Tech". When I bid on those in an auction, assuming them to be including the Amiga Computer cards (HT MCN # Pr31/Pr33), I was surprised to find that they were instead ARGO CITY's L. B. Cole cards-- which, in the opinion of Mr. Barnes came (according to their serial numbers such as #777) from the group HE'D PAID FOR which were NEVER DELIVERED TO HIM by HT or BCC!... HOW did those long-missing cards suddenly enter the marketplace? WHO had really been holding onto what ARGO CITY had paid for up-front and never received?... We don't know for sure.

No one is claiming that the dealers involved in advertising the cards had anything to do with their non-delivery to Argo City. As Barnes commented to me, "I didn't even know they [still] existed [or that they'd even actually been printed for sure]." Are there other "hidden" mysteries concerning HT and cards by OTHER now-defunct (and possibly even some still-operating) companies?

The collecting public has grown quite concerned at the way some producing companies and / or "back-doors" of certain printers (such as those involving the Score Board and others) seemed to repeatedly come up with "more" cards than the "announced" quantities. It's been a long time since the ITA & others urged the adoption of industry-wide "STANDARDS" in regards to requiring all respectable issuing companies to have such things as serial numbers and proper information imprinted on cards, whereby people could feel reassured that they were dealing with reputable firms involved with properly-LICENSED and HANDLED images and products... But, as you know, nothing concrete has really come of such proposals... Without such standards, there has been a continuing malaise of hesitancy and distrust from a large segment of people who've grown increasingly wary and weary of trying to collect items in such an "iffy" atmosphere of soon-gone fly-by-night MLMs and others who've far too often touted the unreliable and untrue.

Despite his unpleasant and costly experiences with HT, Ken Barnes continued to issue the ARGO CITY COMPANY phonecards (such as the # 5 TERRIFIC COMICS, the BETTIE PAGE series of four, etc.). Barnes vastly understated the situation when he commented, "We just got hooked up with the wrong company." As I said, at its core, "comics" aren't always a "laughing" matter...

MCI'S "SURVEY" # 2

We're not talking "Mambo # 5" or any other "dancing around" here-- we're talking a "follow-up" to my POL # 185 words about MCI's working to promote SURVEY-related promotional phonecards:

Recently, at the NADA (National Automobile Dealer's Association) gathering in January, MCI offered a specially-printed free 30-minute phonecard featuring a new design-- which I'd describe as sort of a stylized "sunrise" over the "top" of the earth globe as viewed from space.

The front of the card named the event-- "Orlando NADA 2000 Convention and Exposition". When you called the toll-free number on the back of the card, you were given a personalized greeting about having attended the show, and urged to answer a few questions to activate the card.

As before, you were asked if you realized phonecards could be used for SURVEY- gathering purposes, etc. Once the questions were answered, your calling time became activated.

The same basic "sunrise / globe" design is being utilized on a whole SERIES of MCI offerings designed to promote survey cards, in varying denominations: there are 10, 20, 30, 60 & 100 minute versions saying "Promotional Prepaid Phone Card" in the upper right-hand corners. Besides just mentioning the MCI brand name, they are making available CO-branded versions that can also be imprinted to list a logo or message from the retailer, etc. who is providing the card to the public.

A new MCI offering is a varied-denomination series of break-apart "KEYTAG" cards (which again uses the new design): each card shows the toll-free and PIN #'s in 2 places, on the main part of the back of the card-- and repeated on the right-side of the card which is scored and can be broken off to serve as a KEYCHAIN (since it has a hole at the top of it for a key-ring).

Thus, you can utilize the card in two different 'forms" (or, I guess you could give one portion as a sort of "GIFT" to your spouse or friend!)...

Keychain-type cards have been around a while (since OMNITEL, I think it was, pioneered the idea some years ago)-- but the "break-apart" idea has been under-utilized as a promotional tool (ditto the idea of a "DUAL" card which could be utilized by 2 people; the last version I saw of that was the comic-like "A Little Stressed about your Health Insurance?" one done last year by PHONECARD EXPRESS for an AETNA / US HEALTHCARE promotion).

In addition, MCI is producing the same series of branded cards and keytags with a design I'd describe as "SUNSET swirls" with the "top-of-globe", done in the same general varying denominations.

Their co-branded "EXPRESSIONS" series consists of "sunset swirls" keytag cards imprinted for giving on various occasions, since they use a script font to say "Congratulations", "Good Job", "Our Apologies", and "Thank You", on different 10-minute cards.

As a demonstration, MCI offers to send a free 30-minute "Test Drive" version of the "sunset" design Survey card to interested parties

responding to their new advertising for such cards (# 877-809-4212). It's good to see companies like MCI trying to "GROW" the marketplace by actively promoting such Survey and "Keytag" cards!...

"SPORTSCALL" -- THE "MISSING" CARDS HAVE BEEN "FOUND"!

Previously, my Reports raised the question of whether or not certain SPORTSCALL NFL card numbers really existed. Well, a search has

been done thru 2 MORE boxes of the product (making a total of around 17

now)-- and I can report some news to you:

An associate of mine has actually FOUND (& held!) the 2 "MISSING"

cards needed to "complete" the 400-card set: Card # 62 pictures Scott

Galbraith of the Washington Redskins, and card # 66 features Brian Mitchell

(from the same team)!... Whether or not those (or other) cards were "SHORT"-printed (or just didn't "chance" to come up previously), we still

don't know...

GIFT CARDS:

Previously, I mentioned some GIFT-CARD offers being done by BEST

BUY in the Chicago area concerning EPSON printers. There have been OTHER such promotions recently:

In a January 30th flyer, plus in a large full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune later that week, BEST BUY offered one of their $ 50 gift-cards, to be sent by mail, to anyone buying either of 2 XEROX machines: a DocuPrint C-8 inkjet printer (with individual color cartridges, for $ 79.99), or a WorkCentre XK35c Multifunction printer, copier & flatbed scanner (for $ 349.99). As before, the cards are only good for "future IN-STORE" purchases.

In their 2-27-00 Chicago-area flyer, with the same "in-store-use" stipulation, BEST BUY offered a $ 10 gift card for purchasing any cordless phone of $ 69.99 or more; and a $ 40 card (again by mail) for buying and activating any digital phone or any SPRINT PCS phone.

And, a 2-4-00 ad -- repeated on 2-27-00 -- offered a "Free $ 50 CIRCUIT CITY giftcard" by mail for anyone making a "Wireless Phone Purchase" at one of their Chicago-area stores.

I must wonder-- since chain stores like the 2 mentioned above SELL such gift cards, why is it "necessary" to MAIL-IN to get one, when you've made the necessary purchase right in their store?!... Certainly the "paperwork" can't be all that massive for their Customer Service departments!...

News from Norway

Large phonecard exhibition in Oslo 28.-29. October 2000. Free entrance.

More information on http://www.norsktelekortklubb.no/exhibition.html

Norwegian phonecard company Telenor has issued their first _transparent_ phonecard. It's a Millennium motif. Card number N-162. 30 000 cards issued. Schlumberger chip.

N-162 Valentine phonecard. 50 000 issued, ODS chip.

N-164, N-165, N-166, N-167 Nostalgia telephones. Old telephones, nice cards.

50-100.000 issued of each card.

More information on http://www.telenor.no/privat/produkter/samleservice/

Also check out the Norwegian Phonecard Collectors Association at http://www.norsktelekortklubb.no/

Until Next Time,

Alan

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