Upcoming Events: Local Meetings:
Wellington : 20th August 2023 at Memorial Hall, Aorangi Road, Paraparaumu
Christchurch : 16th September at 67 Manderville Street, Riccarton
Welcome Card Collectors
We are the New Zealand Card Collectors Club (officially called the Cartophilic Society of NZ Inc), which has been running since 1975. Take the time and see what we offer.
Introduction
Card collecting has been a hobby enjoyed by people around the world for over 120 years. At some stage, most products (including cigarettes) have included some type of giveaway card set for purchasers to collect, with a wide range of topics to choose from. New Zealand is no different, with cards given away with various food products, petrol stations, sports teams and even movie theatres.
In more recent years we have also seen commercial cards arrive, that is cards produced by a company and sold in packets with no other product included such as the cards from Futura, Tap-n-Play, Top Trumps and others.
Many collectors have a theme to which they collect, it may be flowers, trains, cricketers, golfers, etc or an issuer such as Wills, Ogdens or it maybe a type of card, large silk’s for example. Whatever your interest, we are sure there is a set of cards just for you.
To find out more about each type of cards click on the required heading below:
For many older collectors, card collecting revolved around collecting "cigarette cards". It was at its peak in New Zealand around the mid-1920s and continued for about 15 years. The small pictures of ships, trains, motorcars, animals, sportsmen and women, flags, soldiers and many other subjects were given away - one card in each packet of cigarettes, cigars and tobacco. At some stage, most New Zealand household had a Three Castles album full of cigarette cards.
Although initially intended as advertising the various brands of cigarettes and therefore directed at smokers, the cards were quickly seized upon by the children of the time. They were both a game (flicking cards toward a wall and seeing who got closest or trying to land your card on top of another so you can claim both cards) and were also educational, with pictures and text about many topic including Sport, Wildlife, Famous people, Flora and Fauna, Transport, Etc. Some of the early cigarette cards also included sets of actresses in attempts to get the smokers of the day to smoke their brand and make sure they completed the set of cards.
It is because of the efforts of many young collectors from that era, that large quantities of cigarette cards have survived in a variety of albums, books, bundles and forgotten shoe boxes. Cigarette card were issued around the world and it is now recognised as a major hobby (especially in England).
Although Trade Cards appeared before cigarette cards, their popularity with collectors has developed over the past few decades.
The 2nd World War brought about the virtual disappearance of cigarette cards, the cardboard was needed for the war effort. In the 1950s, the absence of cards with cigarettes encouraged manufacturers of other commodities to produce a continuing supply of alternative material, such as gum cards, tea cards and cereal cards.
One of the most prolific and famous issuers of cereal cards in New Zealand has been Sanitarium; who since 1941 have produced more than 100 card series covering a wide range of subjects and are mostly inexpensive to collect.
Since the late 1980s / early 1990s, trading cards (cards usually sold at a fixed price in packets and not given away with a product) have made a large impact with many collectors around the world.
There have been thousands of issues from America (typically promoting sports or the latest movie/tv show) and a few from Australia and New Zealand over the years. These types of cards often have special chase or rare insert cards as part of the series, which are produced in limited numbers and inserted in only a few packets.
Gaming cards such as Pokemon and Magic the Gathering are relatively new to the card collecting scene compared with other types of collectable cards. They began in the 1990s and now have huge global followings. Unlike traditional collector cards, these can be both collected and used for gaming purposes. These types of cards are also now experiencing a cross-over with trade cards, such as the Weetbix All Blacks Stat Attack cards.
Interested in joining the New Zealand Card Collectors club? See our membership types here