I bought a bunch of super cool vintage cards and I think I don’t know my terminology yet.
I assumed a maxi card was a 5 page (more or less) one sheeted card that is folded up and sent without an envelope.
I have a few. What are these called?
I googled what is a maxi card and it mentions a card with a matching stamp, but I think I’m not understanding because then, wouldn’t anything worth a matching stamp be maxi?
I don’t have matching stamp anything,
Also, I see a lot of profiles mentioning no free-ad cards. Excuse my ignorance. Does anyone have an example? I don’t know what it means?
Australia has a strong tradition of maxi-cards. The stamp is almost the same as the card, and the postal stampage fits too:
Several other countries issue maxi-cards too, the Austrian ones look a bit differnt
Like @Cassiopheia said, ad-cards are postcards promoting businesses or events, and they are free (almost) all of the time. In the 90s and early 00s they were popular in Austria too, you found them at cinemas and bars and clubs.
Some users like them, some users don’t. But remember - you always can send the card you want (almost).
Sometimes, ad/free-cards even hit a suggested topic/wish perfectly (like 'I collect beverage-C-cards) - imho it’s extra ironic when these users exclude ad-cards. But it’s their (collection’s) loss, not mine.
I call them Leporello, but if I remember correctly, these are several individual cards that have to be separated and then sent individually without an envelope.
I will give you my two cents. The cards that are attached to each other we call “Accordion Cards.” I stay away from these. I sometimes get these tear-off items; usually I toss them.
Free Cards/Ad Cards/Rack Cards…all pretty much refer to the same thing. Not surprising that you are seeing in profiles that members don’t want them. Their generic nature make them unsuitable to send in my opinion. I mean…a member in another country might not want a postcard showing a bottle of perfume. However, there is a segment of collectors that like these cards. Some are quite attractive like movie posters. But exercise caution before sending them.
They used to be common in, about, the 1970s. I remember buying several in France, and seasidy places here in the UK. I remember one in particular that was several photos of chateaux of the Loire. They’re not perforated and aren’t meant to be divided up.
Cards from the globally very well known beverage that starts with C ;-). Or maybe even CC (sorry, just my weird cryptic trying-to-be-funny style)
Back to topic:
I think Leporellos/Accordion Cards were/are meant to be cut and sent as regular single postcards. All the Leporellos I had contact with the last years, from Austria, Egypt and Morocco, were made of ‘fully-functioning’ postcards with adress lines and square-for-stamp etc. On the other side, there was no practical way to send them together, at least there was no blank side on the outside to write the adress on.
Maybe it was a way to protect the single cards.
As for free/ad cards, I disagree a lot with @cliffside’s
Advertisement/campaigns can differ a lot in various countries, as can the topics. A free card for a local restaurant, a campaign to use the city’s metro, an ad for national food can be as un-generic as a picture from the neighbourhood’s church.
But as there is a thread for ad-cards already, we don’t have to dive into that discussion here. The OP’s questions were answered, and the general rule is still valid: send what you like, as long as it’s a postcard.*
*which does not mean I send ad-cards to users who mention disliking them
Those postcard folders were common in the US back in the 50s & 60s, often sold in tourist areas and were generally kept rather than mailed. It would be rare to send one now, but likely there is someone who collects them as this article shows:
