THE CARDS ARE OUT THERE

EVENTS

Events announced between Newsletters will be posted in the News section of www.aviapc.com as will the corrections that usually seem necessary for this section.

Known collectable shows are:

2004
Mar 27 / Stuttgart – Musberg Village
Apr 3 / Toronto Holiday Inn E
Apr 18 / Ellesmere Port Civic Hall
Apr 25 / Gatwick Crawley Leisure Centre
May 15 / Heathrow Feltham Community College
Vienna Airport T2 0930
Jun 12 / Paris CDG Roissy Holiday Inn
Jun 26 / Frankfurt-Schwanheim
Jun 27 / Zurich, Restorama Fracht Airport
Jul 8-10 / Airliners International 2004 Los Angeles LAX - Sheraton Gateway
Oct 16 / Brussels Zaventem Viallgae Atheneum
Oct 24 / Manchester Airport T2
Oct 30 / Boston USA, Airport

INTERNET AUCTION REPORT

There was a bit of time-lag, but by January a full-scale bubble had been inflated around Concorde material on Ebay. For the common material this has mostly collapsed as fast as it grew but the collision of one or two determined collection builders can still produce surprises. What is clear is that the Concorde cards known to be rare will probably carry premiums for some time. In the short term anything unusual may share this premium. By “unusual” I mean aspects of Concorde of which the general public was largely unware but also extending to any card claiming to be a “limited edition”. Examples of the three categories can be cited. The BA Concorde on a card issued by parcels carrier TNT is likely to remain hard to find though the intense competition that drove one to £50+ may not persist. The Concorde Collectors Circle card of 4 Concorde drawings although a “limited edition” probably also has a limited appeal and another sale at £50 + seems unlikely. Lastly the Pepsi paint scheme on an Air France Concorde was little known to the general public and therefore seen as most unusual. But this event was covered by a number of the “collector-card” publishers, so although the event was short-lived, the cards are not uncommon.

The TNT card is one of those rare cases of an “airline-issue” card showing the equipment of another carrier. Most examples of this card seem to have come from Singapore so perhaps it was issued by TNT there – at the time TNTwas Australian-owned but is now part of the Dutch Post Office, who presumably liked the orange colour scheme as well as other aspects of the business.

To show that other themes are still active, this National Airlines card with Stewardesses + views of Chicago and Miami went for around £88.