Harris - I think he was talking about that "type" of insert into mainstream media as opposed to the insert itself

http:\\mtlhddoc2.8m.com

Dan, to answer your point about preview sets - Cards Inc have ALREADY issued several preview sets for existing and upcoming sets - indeed, there were a couple of prevuew sets for the current Cards Inc set "Captain Scarlet" and I believe sets were issued for "UFO" and "The Prisoner" (if not more!)

I'm not commenting on the Promo question - I got tied up in knots last time this sort of thing came up!
Au Res.,
Paul

Sometimes, one pack is not enough...

Hmmm...

Well, a promo does not effect what cards I buy because if I like the show or movie or whatever the card is I'll buy regardless of the promo.

Like some of the people who have already replied, I consider the promos as part of the set so when I collect a set I try to get all the promos which can be a pain sometimes. Especially with the promos that are limited or the promos that are only available overseas. I normally have to go to ebay for the overseas promos. I think that the promos are going to people who are trying to make money off them. I've had to purchase all the overseas promos of the cards I collect on ebay and I really dislike that.

I certainly would not mind if not having promos lowers costs because collecting entire sets are expensive.

TR

Personally I tend to treat promos as part of the set. If I can get hold of them they are put with the set as a sort of chase level.
They don't have any effect on which sets I buy or not. I only buy sets where I already have an interest in the subjest matter(ie sifi, film or TV) and as such the look of the set (as advertised on the promo) is not too inportant.
I still like promos but would be happy to do with out them and pay less for the sets .

I buy sets I'm interested in - promos have no effect in what I buy.
While I have bought a couple of promos that looked interesting, on the whole, I'm not interested in them.

Can of worms again - Im a promo card collector in addition to sets - what if you were to issue a preview set for us promo collectors instead? a 4 or 5 card set for 6 or 8 dollars (or 4 or 5 pounds)??? pleasing everyone is hard but making your product available to more people is probably the best choice and if cutting down on promos is your best way to drop the price then you probably should (but think about the preview set thing - inkworks and Rittenhouse have both done it with a great deal of success).

Dan

http:\\mtlhddoc2.8m.com

Ah, it's a two-pronged issue. I try hard to use promos as tools to promote..meaning I get them into the hands of collectors, BUT!!! These are people I likely wouldnt have to sell my product to very hard, we knoooow we're gonna get it when it comes out, don't we OTOH< the span of time wehre there wasn't promos (back in 96-97), it was sad without them...They are a nice *tide me over* goodie. Does that justify the cost, I suppose not.
BUT, I would LOVE to see cards promote the upcoming sets to pepoel who would be otherwise clueless..I would love to see promo in Sci-Fi magazines (non-card mags) Maybe stuck in the pages of ST books (heck, they could give us some and we could all sneak into bookstores and plant 'em. Stacks at librarys, at schools....perhaps offered to leaders of the various fan clubs out there to pass on to their members.....passed out at conventions.....do I even have a CLUE as to what I'm talking about in practical terms...nope. But, it doesn't stop me from loving the idea
Maybe a card company could have a promo guy/girl whose job it would be to figure out ways to distributoe promos...heck, I'd do it, they could pay me in ST cards :snort:
I would hate to see promo cards go, I would LOVE to see them more widely put to use....

I would have to answer yes to this question and to prove it I shall give the example of The Ghost Whisperer I have all the promo cards both Inkworks and Breygent and am eagerly awaiting the release of the set. Promos should be seen as adverising making collectors aware of a forthcomming set. Dealers send me promos when I buy cards, but that doesn't neccessarily mean I'll buy the set it just depneds on my interests. The Rittenhouse rewards programme is a way of creating interest in other sets as I've started their Star Trek: Women of Voyager set because of the rewards programme. A set I wouldn't otherwise have looked at.

It all depends on how good the promo is. Some promos were done with a lot of thought to look great, while others look really poorly designed.

I thought this was a recent thread but it says Darrens post is 2002.

Where the heck did the last 8 years go?

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I thought this was a recent thread but it says Darrens post is 2002.

Where the heck did the last 8 years go?

You consumed them by typing 23,000 posts
"Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with Card Talk loons" (with apologies to TS Eliot)

The Ghost Whisperer promo card for season 3 and 4 is a beautiful card. If you let light shine on it, it glows like a refracter card. I wonder if the cards in the set glow that way.

Those were the days when collectors view ''really'' counted

Darren - What set are you going to release? I guess that's the purpose of the promos!

Steve - Darren's 2010 post was in response to an initial 2002 post!! I don't think they have any new cards or promo's coming out - sadly

Thanks Hammer - I must learn to keep up! Its a wonder Harris hasn't deleted this thread

I think he hasn't deleted it because this topic is still relevant even if this particular discussion seemed talked out in 2012. Printing up a run of cards to give out as advertising is something card manufacturers and makers of other products have been doing for over 30 years now. Ten years ago, the late Bill DeFranzo wrote an article in NSU celebrating the 20th anniversary of what he considered the dawn of promo card collecting - the first modern promo. Even if it wasn't actually the first card given away by a company, he meant the one that seemed to get wide attention within the hobby in general and started a practice and hobby-within-the-hobby that continues today.

The funny thing about paying for a run of cards is that it actually gets cheaper per card as the quantity increases. If a company is going to set up at the National, it probably wants a few thousand cards to give away. The company doesn't really care if it can't profit from a card becoming more valuable later. The company is happy that people are still talking about the card and its promoted product long after the public release.

In the 90's I bought hobby boxes for a number of sets. I picked up the promo (free at shows or cheap from a dealer) because it seemed like part of the set just as the sell sheet did. By the late 90's I had a few hundred or more promos and realized I had unintentionally become a promo collector. Collectors like promos partly because they are given out for only a short time and advertising items have a long history of attracting collectors for that reason. If the pieces themselves are attractive or otherwise distinctive, there are going to be people who want them. The person who collects promo cards is the same kind of collector who looks for old posters, signs, calendars, and salesman samples.

In the years since this thread started Topps cut back on the practice of printing and giving out promos and it has been said that NSU would have to consider not including cards with issues of the magazine in the future simply because other companies are doing the same thing. After all, it's an extra expense to put the magazine in a bag and an extra layer of customer service to deal with when even a few subscribers complain when a card gets bent in the mail. Then again, NSU customers have been getting cards with each issue going back to the mid-90's almost to the beginning of the magazine. It's become part of the deal. Hopefully, NSU will come up with some other exclusive card giveaway avenue in the event the submissions from other companies dry up to a critical level.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by steve j:
Thanks Hammer - I must learn to keep up! Its a wonder Harris hasn't deleted this thread

I wonder if the promos from the June/July 2018 issue will be sought after down the road? Seems like there's been a few collectors that didn't get them with their issue.

Thanks Darren for this interesting topic and for, as a manufacturer, gauging the opinions of us collectors.

I'm a promo card collector, have been for over 25 years. I started buying promos as a way to "Finish" the base set of cards that interested me, eg. Species, The Flintstones, Tank Girl etc

Living down under I have no real choice but to go on ebay to search out for hidden gems, and they are there, just with a little patience, bargains can be found.

thanks for the topic again Darren and glad you came to your senses and listened to the folks in the office

Now, there's a card set waiting to happen Darren, The Office UK Version of course.