Posted By:
davidcyclebackNo on on this thread suggested the matchbooks aren't collectable. I've owned 1930s baseball, football and hockey matchbooks and I would buy them again.
For future reference a trading card must be all of the the following four: a) Be a card in the purely phyical sense, b) Made to be a trading card**, c) Used for advertising or other commercial purposes and d) Made to be given to or otherwise available to the general public.
b) Rules out the average SI magazine picture cutout or picture cut from an advertising sign. Rules in Post and Hostess card, as manufacturer intended and advertised it as a trading card, often including dotted line and instructions for the kid to cut out the card. Once cut out as intended by manufacturer, a Hostess and Post card fits the physical definition of card.
Pertaining to a), a simple test to help judge whether or not an item is a card in the physical sense is to show it individually to seven people who are not card collectors and ask them if the item is a card. If none of them say that pinback or matchbook or june bug in your hand is a card, that's indication it isn't a card.