WHAT IS A PHONECARD : A CARD ISSUED BY AN OFFICIAL INSTITUTION MADE WITH THE INTENTION TO USE IT FOR MAKING A PHONE CALL. So I eliminate : NON-OFFICAL INSTITUTIONS example : UNKNOWN TELECOM Ltd. , GO CALL Inc. , TELEFAST , ... CARDS THAT HAVE NEVER HAD THE POSSIBILITY TO MAKE A CALL. example : Dummy cards (without control or unloaded) , SPECIMEN ,.. I have to make my mind up for the following , but I consider it as a phonecard (because Mr. HISCOCKS does it too ...) SERVICE cards : cards used by technicians of an OFFICIAL company to establish a connection with the phone-central. They normally cannot make a call with-it Well known are : LANDIS&GYR service cards (Are they not nice !!) 240 units, GPT RED HANDSET PHONE cards (1000 units) TEST cards: cards used to verify the technical parts of a phone. Mostly used to see if the reader works well. Well known are : LANDIS&GYR test cards (Are they not extraordinary !!) no units on the card , but technically out of work after 25 tests. CHORLEY TEST cards (1000 units) I HATE remote cards. Why ?? Everybody can make any quantity from these stuff. These are not official issues, and like pins there is no control over these issues and issuers. So it will ruin our collecting in the long run. Most of the private issuers are persons as you and I , there are many cards issued with fake-units (not loaded, or already expired when marketed) or with very low call units (1$ or 2$) so that they know these units will never be used in real. Very short expiry dates. Even many cards without 0800-number or without remote identification are massively sold on the market. DO NOT SPENT A PENNY on PHONECARD-LIKE stuff. It's only PAPER or if you have some luck it's WORTHLESS PLASTIC. Also consider SPECIMEN and TEST or SAMPLE cards AS WORTHLESS. But it's nice to have some, but consider that these ARE NOT PHONECARDS. Why don't they put a remote number on thea-cups or in chocolate, or under the seats of a Ferrari ? This is more fun to collect , isn't it ?? Some idees have come above as for example : Amerivox : a phonecard of 1$ (Texas) as the america Map. phonecards with fine-gold plated. I've seen coffee-jars with a remote number. I HATE THEM E X C E P T .. I can accept remote cards for one of the following reasons : - If not commercially intended to make money out of it. for example : Sprint , Amerivox , AT&T public issues. reason : even publically they are not really bought by collectors, and they are thrown away after use, so GOOD to collect. - Used in countries where coin-or cardphones have problems of vandalism. for example : HAITI , CONGO , ZAIRE reason : poor people, they break everything down) - Used in countries with economic problems, or in situation of war, or without local phone companies. for example : BOSNIA , RWANDA , DOMINICAN republic reason : because there are no other phone-possibilities than remote access. A good advise to the serious collector : Do not buy COMMERCIALLY exploited stuff, (even if it from official companies) What I mean is the following ; First of all you have to know what you're collecting. If you have a thematic collection, choose something not really commercially exploited , such as for example : Men with-(out) hats !! , women with-(out) hats (clothes). Nudes is too commercial.. , The lions club, the Rotary club, Red cross , Whiskey brand-names or wines (thats difficult) , computers , Printers only. Telephones , satellite , animals, polar scenes , and others are well known thematic items. But avoid items as COCA-COLA (or look for other COLA brandnames thats interesting) As I was a stamp collector before , I have seen the same things happening there. Stamps of UMM-Al-QUWAIN , QUATAR , CENTRAFRICAINE (nobody can write there) , GRENADINES (is there a post-box ?) , and many unknown countries issuing massive quantities of stamps. They even print them stamped at the same time. DISGUSTING ... Al these things are useless , for exhibition, as valuable, as collectable. But it's nice to see (that's all) ABBA say's : MAKING YOUR MIND UP ... BEATLES : OBLADI-OBLADA JAVARO : THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO SAY TO YOU ...
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Copyright © 1997 JanVanRossum
This Page was last revised on 28/5/97