What is a "card"?

Seeing all the cool post cards in the other thread up this thought, which has been hashed over numerous times but is still a good to resurrect once in a while. Do postcards and cabinet cards count as "cards" as we know them?

To me, a card is something that was a premium involved with something whether it is cigarettes, candy, gum, store promotion, etc. Cabinet cards and postcards, while great looking, do not meet this criteria because you could just buy the item and nothing else was involved. Doesn't mean I wouldn't want them or collect them, I just see them as cards in the classic sense.

I'm going to differ with you on this one, Jay.

Cabinets, no. Postcards, (or as it was previously written "post cards"), yes. I've never heard them called "cabinet cards" before.

(and by the way... I own exactly zero postcards and own three cabinets, so my personal collection didn't skew my conclusion.)

Then would Topps BB cards from the 50's be considered cards? They were being sold as cards...not as gum with the bonus of receiving cards?

Actually, Topps was a candy company using the cards to promote their gum. I am pretty sure Topps still owns Bazooka bubble gum.

what about all the modern cards today that you can just buy w/o anything else?

to me, the intent of a card is irrelevant when defining what a card is or is not.

True, today's card aren't offering anything other than the card. I guess trying to define a card is is like trying to define pornography. Not easily defined, but you know it when you see it.

ha ha...nice Jay...but I think Porn is easier to quantify than what is...or isn't a card!

Bicem wrote:
to me, the intent of a card is irrelevant when defining what a card is or is not.

Jeff's comment above really sums it up for my opinion as well. Me, I collect postcards for the image itself and nothing more.
They're a little piece of visual history that takes me back to when the game was great. Jay here's another one for your viewing pleasure.

Awesome postcard. It doesn't get much better than that. Gotta love the people that climbed the fence to watch the game. And that doesn't appear to be a very short fence either. Maybe a good 12-15 feet high. Any info about where and when the game took place?

Hi Jay. All I know about the shot is it's a baseball game being played at the Ohio/Pennsylvania League ball field in Liverpool Ohio.
It's postmarked June 1911 on the reverse. It's by far the coolest image I have ever seen on a real photo postcard. The large smoke stack in the background you see is an old brick bottled kiln used to make pottery. One of the biggest pottery makers in the day resided in Liverpool Ohio, (Knowles, Taylor, & Knowles) After doing some research it's said these large stacks were found throughout the town.