Got a 1992 Democratic National Convention prepaid calling card issued by NYNEX? Hang on to it–that $1 card is worth more than $450.
And don’t chuck that AT&T American bald eagle card if you have one. Only 500 were issued; they’re worth $1,850 each now.
There’s a booming collectors’ market in prepaid calling cards–not for the humdrum cards issued en masse but for limited-edition cards distinguished by their quirkiness, character or quality.
“The utilitarian cards are mostly pretty blah looking,” says Mechele Bashover, marketing director for the Phone Card Market Report, Matawan, N.J.
MCI, US West and other phone companies are appealing to the collectors market by issuing limited edition cards.
Calling cards have featured almost every imaginable subject–the Rolling Stones, Pope John Paul II, Claude Monet, Crayola crayons, John Deere construction machinery, Calvin Klein perfumes and colognes.
Some collectors, Bashover says, invest in calling cards the way other people play the stock market.
Bashover estimates there are about 15,000 to 20,000 serious collectors in the United States.
The number of collectors is rising fast, she says, as the range of collectible cards expands.
Virgin cards are what collectors most want.
“Most of the trading is in the mint (never-used) market,” Bashover says.
