Collecting Phone Cards
Collecting phone cards, calling cards or, as they are often called, telecards is America's fastest growing hobby after collecting Pokemon cards. Although phonecards as a consumer commodity are only about 25 years old they come in a multiplicity of forms and like stamp collecting they are printable. The very fact that a phone card can have anything printed on it makes it collectable. Add to this the fact that cards are mostly printed in limited runs. This results in scarcities of each card as there are a finite number of that particular run.
Why Do People Collect Phone Cards?
Obviously, people collect phone cards for a variety of reasons, but the majority collect them for the same reasons others might collect stamps, coins, and sports trading cards.
The images pictured on the phonecards are of the most interest. Disney is the #1 collectible in the world by a wide margin. Coca-Cola (Coke) is second and McDonald's is third. There are animals and artwork, birds and flowers and ships and cars and space and sports players and movie stars and comic images, and just about everything else. Phone cards are often collected by topic or theme, but they are usually collected because of their pictures.
Also of interest are Corporate names and promotions. Many workers from IBM might Love to own an IBM card. Many AT&T workers may want to own AT&T cards, or were given some at a special event and those cards may now be worth a Bunch of money if they kept them in good condition. So the second most popular form of collecting would be by Company. And AT&T, the Regional Bell Operating Companies, along with the large corporations are far in the lead in this area.
Another interest is for the purpose of "investment". Cards can go up in value (The 1st AT&T card issued in 1992 now sells for over $1000., but cards can also decrease in value (The NYNEX $1. Democratic Convention complimentary card at one time reached $1700.00 but now sells for under $500.00 The Sprint Coca-Cola Monsters of the Gridiron card was once worth $45. and now sells for less than $5.00).
But the most important reason always been to collect for enjoyment. Sure ...if you want to buy two of an item so that you might someday trade the extra for a different issue that you want, then that's okay. But be extremely careful if you decide to speculate, because this is a very new hobby within the USA and as such, has a very limited (illiquid) market. The Japanese and European markets are well established (since 1976) and have an enormous collector base. The first USA collectors started about 1990.
What Determines The Value of Phone Cards?
1) AGE: Many older cards have disappeared, have been lost, or have not been collected. Even the early AT&T cards (that have only been produced since 1992) have been difficult to locate in any quantity to satisfy early collector's demands. The first U.S. card (IntelExpo) was used from an Exposition phone booth in Washington, DC in 1985 and is listed for about $1000. under the heading of Landis & Gyr.
2) MINTAGE: The quantity produced is a major factor. First-rate telecommunications companies will sometimes print very limited runs of a card for a variety of legitimate reasons. Many of these cards were unknown until the promotion was over and they are simply not available. It can be expensive to track these down.
3) AVAILABILITY: Some phone companies have cards left over from promotions, and the prudent thing to do would be to destroy the remaining cards. However, some companies who had little concern for the collector, were greedy and sold their leftovers at very cheap prices to under-capitalized dealers with business ethics that allowed them to resell these cards well below the established market value. Some dealers sold them by weight even the very same cards where they had been the original distributor. This practice made the cards very available, and consequently their values dropped substantially. Such was the case with Omnitel, NAT (North American Telecom), STS (Strategic Telecom Systems), HT Technologies, many issues produced by The Score Board, some ACMI and Sprint issues, and some others. Most of these phone companies have gone out-of-business, but the damage to collectors was already firmly in place. It will take considerable time for the market to absorb the extra cards, and for collectors to regain their confidence in collecting.
4) ATTRACTIVENESS & TOPIC: Collector demand is increased by the design on a card. Collectors generally prefer to collect by theme or topic, but their second choice is by phone company. The most internationally collected themes are Disney (#1 by far), Coca-Cola (#2) and McDonalds (#3). Other popular themes include: Space, corporate logos, or really any other subject that strikes your fancy such as Art, Animals, Birds, Cats & Dogs, Santa, Garfield, Presidents, Sea Life, Snoopy, Transportation, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, or Elvis. People collect AT&T or the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC's), or IBM, etc. Sports-related telecards are a strong market segment. Price increases (and drops) are related to demand and availability.
5) OTHERS: Additional determining price factors include the phone carrier, dealers' stock levels, competition, issue price, condition, distribution, trendiness, uniqueness, origin, technology, and whether there is a bull or bear market.
Collecting Guide
Step 1:
Seek out interesting looking phone cards. Browse the racks at stores that sell phone cards or look online for different types of phone cards. Phone Card Smile and Calling Card Plus have many designs available to collectors.
Step 2:
Steer clear of buying plain phone cards that only have the store logo printed on them. Unfortunately, these phone cards are the type that you'll see most often. Unless the store is one that you wish to remember, look for more elaborately designed cards.
Step 3:
Look at the details of the phone card that you plan to buy. Collectors take note of the location of the magnetic strip and how many of this type of phone card have been issued.
Step 4:
Pick up an album with compartments to hold cards. The album can be used to house and protect your phone card collection.
Step 5:
Use the phone card and then place it in an album. There is no sense in letting the call minutes go to waste. To get an idea about the value of your collection, hook up with other collectors through an online forum.