In-between bouts of GODD® level programming, I’ve been creating a rather large & complex line of trading cards. Complex, because they range from fine art to sci-fi and there’s even some girlie shots in there somewhere — I decided to share some of my vintage pinups from 1790-1910, most of which are albumen prints, magic lantern glass slides, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes and more. I also plan to put together a collection of sci-fi, fantasy & horror folks with souvenir relics included in the extra-thick collector cards. Something I’m developing tonight for presentation tomorrow morning at the ICW is a line of non-triplex trading cards. They’ll be a LOT cheaper to produce, wholesale and retail out at very low customer cost, anywhere from $2.95 to $9.95 depending on scarcity, demand and marketing strategies.

What this means to you is that they are just a few pennies more than a color business card, so PROMOTIONAL, RETAIL MERCHANTS, ART DEALERS and WEDDING PLANNERS alert!!! Front side is typically in color, backside typically is black & white although for a bit of extra cost, it could be two-sided color. The new card is THINNER than the swatch and relic cards, much thinner, so it can be mounted in the standard top-loader, of which I currently have 2,000 on hand.

Trading cards such as these can be used for simple branding, marketing expansion, giveaways, tuck-ins (you put one in every order you ship out) and more. One great use for these is to familiarize yourself to your neighborhood.

Another great use for the less expensive non-enclosure cards is as gifts for weddings, birthday parties, souvenirs of various family events, giveaway promotionals for parking lot or signing parties. They can be used as a sales incentive, placed at register, even handed out at special events, talks, lectures, etc.

They can be loaded with almost any type of image; the catch is, you have to own the publishing rights to anything you put out there. I own the images I’m using, so no royalties or ownership issues are going to pop up.

About the title of this article — the story is short & simple: back in 1964, as an art student, I got a few commissions for signs and such, around Hollywood. One such commission was for a fish store on Melrose Boulevard around LaBrea, as I recall. The guy wanted to know how much I’d charge for a sign that read “Fresh Fish Sold Here Today!!!”

I told him I charged by the word.

“Hey, wait a minute,” he exclaimed. “I don’t really need the word ‘fresh’ in the sign, because what else could it be? And I don’t need the word ‘sold’, because obviously I’m not in business to go broke giving things away. The word ‘here’ is also redundant. Where else would it be? And ‘today’ doesn’t need to be in there either. When else? That leaves the word ‘fish’, and that’s obvious from a block away.”

See You At The Top!!!

gorby