Now that you have decided to collect telephone cards, or, more likely, have drifted into collecting them, allow me to offer a few suggestions, tips, hints, etc. which, if not necessarily useful, I hope some of you at least will find interesting.

What to collect

Most new collectors start by collecting everything that they can get their hands but soon realise that a) there are far too many companies and countries issuing cards nowadays to ever hope to obtain all cards available, and b) this method of collecting can be very expensive particularly if you choose to collect mint cards. The first, and probably most basic, choice is whether to collect mint (unused) or used cards. Both have good points and bad points, mint cards may be in better condition but are usually more expensive whereas used cards may be cheaper but show signs of wear or damage. Most people end up with a combination of mint and used cards.

Collections can be built on a variety of bases and the following are a few suggestions:

A) All cards from one particular country -- your own country would be a good starting point.

B) One card from each country or issuing company in the world;

C) Cards from a particular region, for example Europe, Asia-Pacific Rim, West Indies; this method of collecting adds the variety of cards from several countries that a one country collection does not have;

D) Cards from one manufacturer, for example Landis & Gyr, Autelca or any of the other companies making the cards;

E) Test or service cards and complimentary cards - test cards are used by engineers from the telephone companies to test systems and installations and service cards are given by the telephone companies to their employees for use on official businesss. Complimentary cards are again given to the telephone company employees to be handed out as advertising material to customers and clients. All three of these types of cards are difficult to obtain as they are not available to the general public;

F) Private issue cards - these are cards commissioned by private individuals or companies for advertising purposes or for use as business cards. They are usually printed in small numbers and are not available to the general public and, again, are therefore expensive to obtain;

G) Errors, trial cards and first issues - errors, as the name suggest, are cards which have a printing error on them; trial cards are cards issued by companies to test new installations or to test market reaction to the use of the cards, and first issues are the cards first issued for general public use once a system has been accepted and installed.

H) Themes or topics - and here the choice is almost limitless with cards being available depicting almost anything you care to name! A few of the more popular themes are cars, planes, animals, cats, dogs, sport, golf, boats and ships, flowers, horses, snowmen, computers ... the list goes on! As you can see, there is almost no limit to the choice of what to collect. Now, where do you get your cards from?

How to collect

Having decided what to collect, the next question is where to get your cards. They can be picked up from telephone booths, exchanged among collector friends or collectors from other countries, or they can be bought from dealers.

Cards can be exchanged with other collectors, eigher in your own country or overseas. It may take some time to find another collector with the same interests as yourself with whom you can exchange cards but the wait may well be worth it as, in addition to obtaining some new phone- cards, you may well obtain some new friends! It is important to establish right at the beginning, before you exchange any cards, how your are going to operate the exchange.

A few important points:

A) How will the exchange be carried out, that is one for one, two for one etc.,

B) Will any rarer OR harder to get cards be included and, if so, what is the basis for exchange for these cards;

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© 2000 Jun Alday All rights reserved.