Has anyone ever collected these ? They were inserted in certain issues of National Geographic World magazine, from the mid-1970s until sometime in the 1990s. I had a bunch of them, but foolishly tossed all of the mags in the early 2000s when I moved.

I am surprised that I can't find any on-line articles or checklists anywhere.

There were dozens and dozens of different cards, mostly all animals, from what I can recall.

You can see a bunch on ebay, but no definite info on what exists.

I do collect these even though they're printed on flimsy paper, and I agree there should be some kind of checklist. Todd?

I literally had every issue of this magazine from #1 in 1975 until the late 1980s.

Looks like the magazine became "National Geographic Kids" in 2002.

Here are images of some of the cards. I HAD all of these.

https://i.redd.it/l3ev5hlr87t81.jpg

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
Has anyone ever collected these ?

They are difficult to document because a card will not have the issue of the magazine that it came from printed on it. So unless you get the original magazine with the cards in it, you don't know what order they came out in. Also, (and I'm not completely sure about this), I believe that two different copies of the magazine could have different sheets of cards stapled in.

I've got probably a hundred or so different cards, but have only accumulated them, and have never tried to organize them or list them.

Do those Americana Guide to Non-Sports volumes from the 1990s have these cards in there ?

I don't have any of these cards but vaguely remember them. There were also spacecraft and gemstones cards.

A lot of people have dumped their old National Geographics to save space but the good news is that you can find issues very cheap at used bookstores and flea markets. I'll start looking for those.

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
Has anyone ever collected these ? They were inserted in certain issues of National Geographic World magazine, from the mid-1970s until sometime in the 1990s. I had a bunch of them, but foolishly tossed all of the mags in the early 2000s when I moved.

I am surprised that I can't find any on-line articles or checklists anywhere.

There were dozens and dozens of different cards, mostly all animals, from what I can recall.

You can see a bunch on ebay, but no definite info on what exists.

Yes, one copy can have different cards than another. The cards were issued as 9-card panels and there could be over 20 different cards in a series but it doesn't seem to be known if each series had the same number of cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
Has anyone ever collected these ?

They are difficult to document because a card will not have the issue of the magazine that it came from printed on it. So unless you get the original magazine with the cards in it, you don't know what order they came out in. Also, (and I'm not completely sure about this), I believe that two different copies of the magazine could have different sheets of cards stapled in.

I've got probably a hundred or so different cards, but have only accumulated them, and have never tried to organize them or list them.

Old National Geographics are very common. You can't even give them away. My dad had every single issue from the 1940s until about the year 2000, and they turned out to be worthless. The libraries did not want them.

The National Geographic World was the kids' version, which I am sure you don't come across often at flea markets or yard sales.

Yes, I have just the #4 Price Guide by Chris Benjamin which covers cards from 1961 to early 1992 and there is a listing for it on page 442. It notes the cards are 2 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches and that NGW started inserting them in September 1979.

The cards are said to fall into these categories: Spacecraft, Cats, House Cats, Butterflies, Horses, Dogs, Birds, and Gemstones. There is text in the magazine saying that there are 9 subjects (different cards) per series but someone has card 27 for one of the series. As noted above, not every copy of the same issue had the same cards encouraging kids to trade. The size of the set was unknown then. The cards were going for about 25 cents each in at least excellent grade. Intact panels were valued at $3 each.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
Do those Americana Guide to Non-Sports volumes from the 1990s have these cards in there ?

I did a quick search, and cards came in these issues of World:

Dec 1978
Jan 1979
Mar 1979
Jun 1979
Feb 1980
Sep 1980
Dec 1980
Sep 1981
Nov 1983
Jan 1984
May 1984
Sep 1984
Jan 1985
Sep 1985
Feb 1986
Mar 1992
Aug 1992
Jun 1992

And probably even more issues

I've seen those too. Some people kept a mix of them. I still have some issues that contain articles on dinosaurs/prehistoric animals.

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
Old National Geographics are very common. You can't even give them away. My dad had every single issue from the 1940s until about the year 2000, and they turned out to be worthless. The libraries did not want them.

The National Geographic World was the kids' version, which I am sure you don't come across often at flea markets or yard sales.

OK, I found some info on the National Geographic forum. See below post by somebody:


"The first 2 series of collector cards ran from 1978 to 1986. There were a total of 16 issues offering collector cards. Each issue came with 1 of 3 sheets of 9 cards for a total of 432 collector cards. Now most people tore out the sheets and separated the cards. This is great except no one knows which issue they need to be looking for to find the missing cards to their collection. So I have built an inventory list of which issue had cards, what are the 3 sheets from each issue and what cards comprise a sheet. Of the 48 possible sheets I have 44 of them complete and in the magazine."


I noticed he said in the post that the cards started in 1978, but he also said that the June 1976 issue had 9 cards of the planets.

Shall I post his checklist here ? It is quite LONG

quote:

Originally posted by David R:

Shall I post his checklist here ? It is quite LONG

It's simpler just to link to his checklist.

Thanks, Bill.

I noticed in the author's later post from 2012 that he said that he ended up finding 47 of the 48 sheets and that he sold them all.

Here are some more images

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildl...ectible_cards_circa/

Wow, he was that close and he quit? One time, a friend was having no luck finding a particular issue of a German geology magazine. Challenge accepted. It took about two years maybe but I found it.

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
Thanks, Bill.

I noticed in the author's later post from 2012 that he said that he ended up finding 47 of the 48 sheets and that he sold them all.

Too bad I threw my magazines out. But even if I had kept them, I would only have had about 16 of the sheets, not 48, as back in those days people didn't have multiple copies of the same magazine. I certainly didn't. They were subscriptions which came in the mail.

Furthermore, as a kid in the 1970s/80s, who would have known that each of the 16 magazines had 3 different sheets, 1 per copy ?

While the posts from the fellow discuss how he was pursuing all 432 cards from 1976-1986, he may not have known that in 1992, more cards were released. Not sure what those looked like.

Here's one of the sheets from the August 1992 issue.