What exactly is a photo premium?
 

Is it an actual card or is that a cut out from a magazine?

Photo premium is usually a photo picture handed out by a team or from a product advertising. It could be a supplement.

joe

A premium is normally something you send away for-- perhaps having to send coupons or whatever for payment. A supplement is included in the main item-- like a supplement print included inside a magazine. Both should be free-standing 'on their own' items, and not tear outs or cutouts, not printed as part of the magazine.

So unless the seller is fast and loose with terms, a photo premium would not be cut from a magazine. Though a magazine could have issued them. The M114 Baseball Magazine Premium prints were sold by Baseball Magazine, but not physically included in or with the magazine. You had to send away for them.

Supplement and premium are about how the items were distributed, and a supplement and premium can be very similar physically. The Baseball Magazine Premiums and the M128 Police Gazette Supplements are much alike in size and style.

A few examples of 1947-49 Pacific Coast News Photo Premiums: