In the June rrc I commented on the problem of dodgy
Editor's practices in the phone card world. In the same issue's World
COMMENTS
The Summer holidays are here - and so is the August issue
of ITC. Perfect reading for the beach. And for anywhere
else, of course!
Regular readers will recall that in JanuaJYwe pUblished
comments on the pricing policy of Phonecard Direct, the
collectors' selVice of BT (the company formerlY known as
British Telecom). Several readers responded with their own
feelings, and some of these letters appeared in March.
Since then, we have had more letters on the subject.
Collectors' services and swapping problems seem to be
the two topics on which readers are willing to put pen to
paper and our Februcuy letter on the vagaries of swapping
prompted some more of you to send in advice. We have
included selections from the postbag in an extra big letters
section this month.
One thing to bear in mind when swapping is that,
unless you know which cards you are going to receive, the
likelihood is that you will get common cards which, unless
they later turn out to be rare, and, as yet, uncatalogued,
varieties, are never going to increase in value. It is, thus, a
way of increasing the size of a collection, without adding
much to its value. However, one this month's correspon-
dents says she goes out and buys nice cards to send to
people who write to her - an example to us all.
Many overseas collectors are unwilling to swap with
their British counterparts (or, in our Swap Shop, specify 'No
81') because, in the past, they have received BT green cards
in exchange for more interesting itemS - or else, nothing at
all. British collectors have a poor reputation as swappers
and, perhaps, this is the reason why they, themselves, feel
badly treated. Phone card magazines in other countries
(and we see a lot of them here) have far fewer complaints
about swapping than do British ones.
Whilst on the subject of letters: a third topic on which
we get correspondence is that of people who write in to
ask why we don't print more readers' letters. Perhaps the
answer is for these people to set an example by sounding
off on something. I have Just been reading a German
Jl'l38tUine which had five letters on such varied themes as:
which ~tlon prize Is better - a holiday or a 'good'
r>taonecard, phoIlecard fraud, should non.,tele(>hone cards
be in a ~ magazine? and the value of a rare card
found at the back of a cupboard. SO, hOW aboUt proteCting
yourselves from the sun by putting on your thinking caps
and sending us some thought-provoking or amusing
letters. Or is it true that there is no such thing as a phoIle-c
card collector with a sense of humour?
News we included cards from Azerbaijan, Kirghizstan,
Tadzhikistan and Turkmenistan. However, in common with
other magazines, we pointed out that nothing was known
about the operator, Middle Asia Calls Ltd, or whether tele-c
phones in any of these states could accept the cards. We have
now heard from a reader that these cards were produced
in Latvia and are being retailed by a dealer speclallsing in
questionable cards. Similar problems have been reported
from other parts of the former USSRand from Africa.
But the questions raised are much wider - and involve
the basic issue of what is a telephone card? Certainly, in
Britain, there is, as yet, no generally-accepted definition.
With other collectables, such as stamps or coins, there
are legal and operational requirements that provide a frame-
work for decision making. Phonecards, however, are quite
different. In most countries there is no regUlation and it is
left to the individual collectors to decide whether something
is a real card - and the range of possibilities is increasing.
At one time, a 'genUine' phonecard was regarded as
one that could be inserted into the slot of a telephone. But
that has changed. Teccom of South Korea, for example,
produce cards that are inserted in a separate reader and
not into the phone. Many telephone charge cards (and,
also, conventional credit and debit cards) can now be
inserted into the phone. Is a BT or France Telecom chip-
based charge card a real card?
Here are a few other questions for you to consider:
1. If a rernote-cmemory card is a real card, need it be loadabIe?
2. Must a card have value? if so, does the $0 Telstra card
issued in January count as a phone card?
3. What about a blank card that can have value added to it?
4. And then there are the 'collectors' cards' which have
value, but are not intended to be used.
These and many other questions await answers. I look
forward to hearing your views - or receiving an article on
the subject.
This month we have the second part of our feature on
promotional remote-memory cards and today I was
reminded by a shop-keeper of how many angry customers
she had as a result of selling the remote-cmemory cards of
a well-known company which gave her unactivated cards
or cards with an unreachable access number. These cards
will never be a success if the producers treat consumers
with so little respect.
Beware: there are thieves about! A while ago we heard
that In" lost a consignment of cards, including the entire run of
at least one issue. Now, we learn that stolen French cards are
appearing at collectors' fairs: recent issues (for instance, the
Cannes Festival card in this month's Oobe Trotting). The cards
are unwrapped, by Gemplus, and carry no serial numbers.
Enjoy yourselves in August - and don't forget to put us
on your holidaycard list!