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Posted By: David

In cases where an item is cut off of something larger, the removed item can be considered a trading card if the issuer intended it to be removed and to be a card. The 1975 Hostess cards are trading cards, as Hostess intended them to be removed and to be cards. There are dotted lines surrounding the cards and they were clearly advertised as removable trading cards. The same goes for the 1960s Post cards and most strip cards. For this reasoning, ordinary pictures or card sized ads in a newspaper or magazine are not trading cards, and this ordinarilly keeps their value low (not neccesarilly worthless). A nice old cutout picture may have some value, and if a collector wants to buy for a few bucks one of his favorite old time player and put in a picture frame that's great. The problem is that some beginning collectors incorectly price these items as if they were trading cards, which they will eventually find out is an error.