April–May 2016 35
S
tudents of non-sports are not
the only ones who have some-
thing to gain by increasing their
knowledge of how things do, or could,
work in the hobby. Manufacturers thirst
for a better understanding, too. Small
card companies, in particular, are learn-
ing that by banding together they can
find methods to harmonize their busi-
nesses in a way that can lead to new and
innovative growth experiences.
One established strategy in adver-
tising a new hobby product today is
through use of promotional cards —
those free cards given away at shows and
hobby & comic shops, inserted in maga-
zines (like NSU!), or offered directly
through manufacturers’ websites.
Richard Parks, owner of the indepen-
dently managed trading card company,
RRParksCARDS, largely dispels the
presumed success of only employing
promos through those methods, “One
of the challenges for new and small
trading card companies is the cost of
promotion, advertising, and building of
a customer base. While promo cards are
certainly one venue publishers use to
promote their companies and their card
series, they are generally one of the least
effective.” Along with Parks, some other
manufacturers think promo cards could
be put to a new, supplemental use.
According to Parks, four different
publishers have teamed up to create
what is possibly the first cross-branded,
multi-publisher suite of promo cards.
The publishers involved are Attic
Cards, RetroDrive, Byron Winton, and
RRParksCARDS. Together they are
producing a series of eight promo cards.
Each of the four publishers is designing
two cards towards the eight card set.
One of the two is a “meet the publisher”
card and the other highlights some
aspect of the specific trading card com-
pany. Each card’s back has the name/
logo and website information for all four
publishers.
The plan is for the eight card promo
series to have a production run of 500
total sets. Those sets will be divvied up
to give each participating company 125
sets, which they will use to distribute to
their best customers. The cards should
be ready for distribution sometime
within the June to August timeframe.
“We are hoping this idea will introduce
each of our customers to three other
publishers,” enthused Parks. “In other
words, the 125 sets that are mine to
distribute will introduce Attic Cards,
RetroDrive and Byron Winton to cus-
tomers who like what I’ve published and
produced. Those receiving the eight-
card promo sets will get the FULL set
in a special wrapper. Because the four
publishers involved have gotten to know
each other, this promo set is our way
of vouching for the integrity of our fel-
low publishers...and this idea puts our
promo cards in the hands of collectors
who actually support new and small
publishers with a track record of buying
our card series.”
This musketeering approach to
trading card marketing is a risk all are
apparently willing to take. “This is very
much an experiment but all four of us
feel there should be no competition
between publishers,” Parks confirmed.
“The more collectors we can introduce
to new and small publishers the health-
ier the hobby will be. A publisher’s
biggest competition is NOT other pub-
lishers, because collectors will collect
everything they want to collect regard-
less of who publishes it. Aspects outside
the hobby that compete for a potential
collector’s time and resources, like hand
held devices, digital collectibles, video
games, and so on, [are the real competi-
tion]. This promo set is a way of dem-
onstrating multi-publisher brotherhood
and the bond to form between collectors
and publishers, with a sense of ‘We’re all
in this together.’”
If this test project proves successful,
Parks is hoping other small manufac-
turers join in future company mash-
ups. Said Parks, “Kurt [Kuersteiner] at
Monsterwax really liked the idea and
was going to be part of it but his travel
and production schedules didn’t allow
for his contribution this time around.
Hopefully next time. ANY other pub-
lisher who feels inter-company coopera-
tion is valuable to the hobby, collectors
and publishers is certainly welcome to
contact either me or Jeremy Faulken-
burg at Attic Cards. I would LOVE to
have five, six or a dozen publishers all
helping one another’s promotions. The
underlying concept here is to let the col-
lector know there are small and/or new
publishers producing some really neat
card series. And this ‘brotherhood’ of
publishers approach is just a simple and
hopefully effective way of introducing
collectors to the wide range of small/
new publishers currently publishing
cards.” NSU
August–September 2017 35
UNITED THEY STAND
NoN-SporT UNIvErSITY
By Alan Biegel