Probably a really silly question, but I honestly don't know. Are checklist cards considered to be promo cards if they are promoting something that is not a card set?

Short answer, yes, probably. It doesn't matter what type of product they are promoting.

However, if the checklist card is part of a set itself, then it's not a promo. In older card sets, near-mint, unmarked checklists usually carry a nice premium. The key is to have an unchecked checklist.

It would help to specify the card, as there are different opinions when it comes to classifying certain promos, so it's never a silly question.

Oh yeah, any card that promotes something (a book, album, movie, etc.) is a promo card. There's a checklist card in the Biosphere promo set so that card is a promo.

quote:

Originally posted by Ingrid Hardy:
Probably a really silly question, but I honestly don't know. Are checklist cards considered to be promo cards if they are promoting something that is not a card set?

Ahh thank you for the answers! The reason I asked is very selfish - I was wondering if I could post a preview of the first checklist promo card for the podcast here. There will be two by the end of January (or before, depending on how many podcasts get recorded)

Useless side note - I'm kind of getting into collecting promos now... (thanks Promoking, lol...!!)

Mars Attacks cards (1962) promoted the sale of Space Adventure Bubble Gum.



The checklist:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
Mars Attacks cards (1962) promoted the sale of Space Adventure Bubble Gum.



The checklist:

Yeah, that was exactly what I was alluding to when I said "if the checklist card is part of another set itself, then it's not a promo".

I wouldn't call the Mars Attack cards promos because they advertised gum on the wrappers. Anymore then baseball cards were promos because they really wanted to sell the stick of gum inside. They are card sets all by themselves.

However, that's my opinion. Some people might say any other product promotion makes the cards promos in the strictest interpretation. But you are also not supposed to be paying for a promo in the pure sense, so there is that too. There is more than one way to look at it, which is the fun of it.

Bill likes to pull that out when the subject of promo cards comes up. He brings it up at dinner parties. Yeah, I see his point but to a point. I started buying baseball and football cards around 1974 and it wasn't for the gum.

My question is was the super-delicious "Space Adventure Gum" the same as the gum with the baseball and football cards?

So I hope it is ok to show the podcast checklist card then? Do let me know if it is not allowed. There will be two of these, as soon as the next 4 episodes are recorded.

I'm sorry for the size, I have no idea how to change it here.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ingrid Hardy,

Nice touch with the color-coded chart. Now you just have to tell people how they can get these promo cards, as long as it's not a sales link it should be OK.

Thanks Raven! People will be able to get these cards by supporting the podcast in any way, shape, or form. Ideally if people wanted to support the small kickstarter that launches January 1st, EVERY supporter will get the TWO checklist cards (just waiting to record 4 more episodes to finish the list on the second card)Levels are Pay What You Want, and $10 so far.

Here is the link to the Kickstarter sign-up page (please tell me if this is not allowed)

https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...-in-podcast-episodes https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...-in-podcast-episodes

If you are using "promo" as an adjective to modify "cards", then saying that any card that promotes any thing is a promo card is fine.

But when you use "promo" as part of a noun phrase "promo card", to mean a specific subset of nonsports (and sports) cards, then: Promo cards are cards that promote cards, or card sets. That was what the term meant when it first started being used in the hobby (ca. 1991 or so).

Other types of cards that are currently lumped in with "promo cards" today existed back then (and well before), yet when collectors or dealers spoke of promo cards, it was obvious that the term only meant the definition above.

Historically, cards that promote other things were so diverse in subject matter and in distribution that there was no single name that covered them (and there still isn't). They might have been called insert cards if they were inserted into packages of some retail product, or PD ("package design") cards, if they were cut from cereal boxes or the like. Some cards were distributed at the point of sale for products, others were mail order premiums. They could have been inserted as die-cut pages in magazines, or polybagged in with them. Some were freebies in mail advertisements, or handouts at shows.

I think the main reason that the term has been corrupted in meaning is Todd Jordan's "Promo Card Encyclopedia" series of books. They include many of the cards that are often called "promo cards", but that I maintain are not. Some collectors even use the books as a guideline -- listed cards are a convenient enough proxy for promo cards. But even Todd himself makes it clear that his book includes many cards that are not promo cards. Promo cards, comic/magazine inserts, toy inserts, and product premiums are all separate categories of cards that just happen to be listed in the same book, whose title includes "Promo".

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
But when you use "promo" as part of a noun phrase "promo card", to mean a specific subset of nonsports (and sports) cards, then: Promo cards are cards that promote cards, or card sets. That was what the term meant when it first started being used in the hobby (ca. 1991 or so).

Sometimes two opposite ideas can both be equally true. Being around cards in 1990 myself, what you say above is absolutely true. Promo cards promoted other cards, period.

That's not what it means now however, and I don't know enough about Jordan's "Promo Card Encyclopedia" to say that's the reason. Probably more about the money, it's always about the money. Promo cards became its own market and the more cards that got tagged the more there was to sell, which is also the opposite of the free card a promo was supposed to be.

So now a card promoting any product is a promo card and chances are it's not free. Chances are its artificially created for the purpose of making somebody money, somehow. And promo card collectors have accepted these changes and supported the rebranding of the promo card.

So what else is there to say when majority rules? You can be completely right and still be wrong. You can say that about a lot of things in the many facets and segments that make up the whole of card collecting. Some of the popular opinions are really very wrong, but it just doesn't matter because they are popular and there's no point in tilting at windmills.