Collectibles

MANY of you have heard of "philately," which means collecting postage stamps. Now what do you think is "fusilately"? That's the British English term for collecting phone cards. As usual, the Americans have their own term, which is "telegery." And Filipinos? Well, there was this unsuccessful attempt of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) to popularize the term "fonkie" for a phone card collector.

You meet "philatelists" and "fusilatelists" and all kinds of other "telists" at the Greenhills "tiangge" [flea market] where they have special booths selling collectibles till Oct. 2. The tiangge has special themes year-round, sometimes concentrating on plants, other times on appliances, but it's these collectibles that I enjoy most.

Artsy phonecards

Some people will scoff at the stuff as trinkets and baubles, until they find out what their prices are. Who would have known that used phone cards would still be worth anything? One of the dealers told me he'd pay P500 for a used Star Wars phone card, the one denominated at P1,000. Can you imagine that -- a card still worth half of its original face value even after it has been used?

There were at least three dealers at the Greenhills tiangge buying and selling phone cards. One of them told me the prices are still bound to increase because the companies aren't issuing too many new phone cards now, not with cell phones taking over.

Actually, many of the cards are quite drab. I've written in the past about how unimaginative we can be with our phone card designs, reflecting our inability to appreciate and tap local culture. There are quite a few cards bearing ads for commercial products, from Magnolia milk to pharmaceuticals. We also get a lot of Walt Disney cartoon characters, plus Winnie the Pooh, and lots of cards featuring basketball players. My dealer friend says values should appreciate for one card featuring Yao Ming.

But there are a few good ones on Philippine wildlife, and some on our tourist spots. The independence centennial (1997-1998) did have some good "artsy" releases from the phone companies. The phone firm Extelcom had its "Larawan" collection featuring old photographs of Manila scenes (for example, a street in Sampalok around 1865). PLDT had a "Revolution Series" featuring four paintings by Carlos "Botong" Francisco, as well as a Centennial Paintings Collection, featuring paintings by Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo. One dealer wanted P300 for the P500-card that featured a Felix Hidalgo painting.

There's even a catalogue of these phone cards, "A Collector's Guide to Philippine Phonecards 1991-2001" written by Marlon L. Panahon, with a foreword from then-congressman Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who apparently collects phone cards! It was from this guide where I learned the terms "telegery" and "fusilately."

Nostalgia

Why this compulsion to collect things like cards? Collecting relates to nostalgia, an attempt to keep something of the present so that later it becomes a memento of the past. Many of the collectibles are small -- offering portable nostalgia.
Dealers cash in on this longing for the past. One of the dealers gives out flyers offering to buy, among other things, "Boy Scout items especially 10th World Jamboree," "Elvis and Beatles 78 rpm records," "old Philippine cigarette labels," even "vintage toys (die cast or tin)."

Stamps and coins can go for quite a bundle, but you'd be surprised at what else picks up value -- old comic books, for example. Several dealers have old issues of "Darna" and, easily, one could write an entire book about how the super-heroine Darna has evolved. I hear that Darna has now been transformed into a "colegiala" [college girl], as comic book publishers try to capture a new market!

And then there are those old photographs and postcards. I've been using old photographs in some of my courses to show how gender roles change. Men, for example, had no problems posing while holding each other's hands; and women used to pose with a deadpan look because it wasn't modest to smile.
Postcards are also interesting, often produced by non-Filipinos -- a fact that tells us a bit about what they want to project about the Philippines and Filipinos. At this tiangge, there was one vintage postcard showing several women "de-licing" (removing lice from) each other's hair; it was selling at P400 each.

Everyday life

I'm not really a serious collector. I buy odds and ends, as someone more interested in history. I like browsing through old magazines because there are interesting ads inside. Two or three years back, I bought several "Aguinaldo stamps" issued during our short-lived Republic in 1898. I got them simply because they're a good reminder that the Republic was already in place then, with its own institutions, including a postal service and stamps.

The other week I bought a "Culion coin" because of my interest in the history of medicine. Back in the 1920s, the Philippine government issued special coins for use only in the Culion leper colony in Palawan, because of the mistaken notion that leprosy was very contagious.

I almost feel like a time voyeur with these collectibles, knowing that many of these objects meant something to their previous owners. I wonder about life in Culion. I wonder what the woman in terno in an old faded sepia photograph, was thinking about as she stared into the camera.

I particularly like old colored photographs and postcards because they remind us that life in the past wasn't in a black-and-white or sepia world, but also in the same colors that we see today.

Some of the collectibles are almost ridiculously expensive, even quoted in US dollars. When I protest the high prices, the dealers explain that they've actually begun to buy back Filipiniana from the States and Europe. These dealers spend their time surfing Internet sites like e-bay, looking for old stuff from the Philippines. Unfortunately, they explain, our tropical weather and our lack of appreciation of things Filipino have resulted in many of these valuables being destroyed.

Fortunately, there were American and European expatriates who picked up some of these "trinkets" and brought them back home with them. In their more temperate climates, these collectibles survived quite well. Now they're being put up for sale on the Internet, and some are being bought up by Filipinos, who then resell them in the tiangge. It's a good thing this is happening, reflecting a growing interest in our own past.

What kind of stuff should we keep that might be valuable later on? I don't know, but "valuable" is relative. I'd just trust my own instincts, keeping stuff that future generations might have some interest in. One dealer told me he was looking for phone cards produced for overseas Filipinos, and again I can see why future generations might be interested, wondering as they look at the card, what life was like for our overseas workers.

More than investments, the collectibles should be mementos, chronicles of the times and of everyday life. Whatever stirs our sentiments now should have a similar effect 50 years from now.

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