New collection hobby looms

Press, 23 February 1989, Page 13

New collection hobby looms

Telephone-card collecting has become a popular hobby in Japan and some other countries and could spread to New Zealand soon. JOHN HICKEY, who has looked at the system in Japan, reports:

Telecom’s new-style public telephones, using plastic cards instead of money, will be installed on a trial in Christchurch in a few weeks time. If the trial is deemed a success — and overseas experience suggests it will be — we could see a variety of colourful cards issued gradually. Some will become collectors’ items.

In Japan, where a card-phone system has existed for several years, the giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, which owns most public telephones, sells an enormous number of cards. It goes about the task enthusiastically. Along with special issues for private companies, about 25 new designs are released each month for public sale. They are put out on a regional basis, but would-be purchasers can see what is available outside their own areas through brochures showing cards in full colour. They can be ordered.

Collectors might be keen on cards featuring kittens, and brochures will tell them if one in the kitten series is about to be issued in a distant part of the country.

Many collections are based on such themes. Enthusiastic collectors will go to a good deal of trouble and expense to extend collections. The value of a collection can be greatly enhanced if azcollector can track down cards on a similar theme which have been produced for a private buyer. Large companies often order cards by special arrangement to give to their clients.

Phone-card collectors’ clubs have sprung up in Japan. Sought-after cards can also be bought at a premium from many knick-knack outlets and stations. Specialist dealers produce catalogues similar to those of stamps.

Unused sought-after cards can fetch several times their face value.

The cards are light, convenient and attractive. In Japan, their use allows a small saving to be made. Cards with a face value of 1000 yen, for example, are good for 1050 yen in phone calls. New Zealand’s phone-cards should make life easier for everyone — except vandals and thieves. With no money in a phone, there is little point trying to smash it open. Telecom’s card phones will accept cards only, unlike those belonging to N.T.T. which eagerly accept card or coin.

Cards for $2, $5 and $lO will be issued. When the card is inserted, the telephone’s computer will read its value from a magnetic strip. The value will appear on a digital display on the telephone, reducing gradually for the duration of the call.

Phone cards will be available from places such as shops, dairies, bus stations and airports. It is not clear yet whether special cards will be produced for private firms.

The price of phone calls has not been announced. Telecom’s public coin phones, which have been installed in some shops, charge 20 cents for a three-minute call, almost twice as much as N.T.T. charges in supposedly high-priced Japan.