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Simpsons Greeting Cards Notes Created and Maintained by Bruce Gomes Sr. Want to know how and where to find these cards? How we categorize different cards? Read on! |
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Back to Index |
Notes |
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Hallmark - Seasonal (2008 - 2012) |
Hallmark - Everyday (2008 - 2012) |
Hallmark - Stickers |
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Gibson - Everyday (1992, 1995) |
Children's Valentines (1990 - 2008) |
Boxed Christmas Cards |
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Simpson fans everywhere love to give and receive Simpson cards. Keep them in mind the next time you're buying cards! Naturally, if you're mailing a greeting card from within the United States, then we suggest using Simpsons stamps!. CARD TYPES |
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All cards first fall into two basic categories - Seasonal cards, given in
connection with a specific annual holiday or event, covering everything from
Christmas to Hallowe'en to Bosses Day, and Everyday cards, cards which are on display
year round since they cover events that can occur anytime; Birthdays, Anniveraries,
illness, or even blank cards.
Card types within this document describe physical attributes of the card: Standard (and hence none of the following attributes) Oversized (11" by 11" and larger!) Audio (cards with sound chips, activated at the push of a button or when you open them) Motion (activated when you open the card or with tabs or handles you move) Lenticular (images that change or move as the image is viewed from different angles) Spring (part of the card is spring attached outside or inside) Raised (part of the card is raised, glued to a stryofoam cushion to the front of the card) A card can have multiple attributes, naturally. Under the Hallmark brand some of the trifold cards are issued with multiple sound chips, leading to a nice dialogue stereo effect leveraged for some Simpsons cards and referred to as "Dueling sound" cards. Motion cards with handles fall under the term "Spin-a-majig". For sound cards the clips taken from episodes are supplied in blue. When we find sentences that were truncated or quotes that have words removed from the middle of sentences (usually quite appropriately, we should add!) we supply the missing words in red, and with each quote we supply the episode it was taken from. We also supply additional lead in sentences to illustrate the original context, which may, of course, be entirely inconsistent with the cards purpose. Several cards take clips from multiple episodes, for example, combining one of Bart's calls to Moe from one episode with Moe's response from a different episode. |
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HALLMARK CARDS |
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Availability When we believe a card or series of cards is generally unavailable we note it with the cards. For the current seasonal cards we survey a variety of stores in an attempt to verify what is currently available and flag it appropriately. Note however that a card flagged as available does not mean it is available in each store; Hallmark has tens of thousands of cards and each individual store only has a subset of what is currently available. On the other hand, since cards are rarely withdrawn any card can technically still be available since stores may carry cards from older stock.Naturally, seasonal cards are only available... in season. Everyday Cards Although everyday cards are by definition available year round, card manufacturers recognize that there are periods during the year when there are fewer holidays approaching, and offer additional lines of everyday cards (one manufacturer calls these "flex" lines) to fill-in during these periods. In addition card stores obviously have far more space available to display cards "out of season". This primarily occurs after Father's Day in June and through the summer until the Hallowe'en season approaches in September. We've noted that we've been able to find additional Simpson cards during these periods. So, since some everyday cards may only available during certain times of the year we recommend buying them when you see them!Seasonal Cards Many if not most of these cards continue to be available, but since seasonal cards are only available in season, it's always difficult to know if they will return. Moreover retailers will put out cards they didn't sell out from the prior year, so even cards no longer available from Hallmark may be out there... somewhere.Where to Buy Cards Since Hallmark currently has the exclusive right to manufacture Simpson cards for sale in the United States, Simpsons cards can be found "wherever Hallmark cards are sold." So you won't find Simpsons cards, for example, inside an American Greetings store or a store that only carries American Greetings cards. In addition to Hallmark Gold Crown Stores (see "Store Locator" at the top of that page) Hallmark cards can be found in;- Walmart stores and certain other supermarket chains - Various drug store chains (including Walgreens and CVS) - Department stores such as Kohls - Your local independent card shop! Keep in mind that the Hallmark line includes other lines of cards, which leads to our next topic.
Hallmark Lines
Comedy Club The Comedy Club line was registered at the end of 1999 and first released in 2000. As one might expect this line issues everyday cards of a lighter nature.
Other Hallmark Lines
Sunrise Greetings In 1998 Hallmark bought InterArt and renamed it back to Sunrise Greetings. We found a single Simpsons card released under this line (in Barnes & Noble) but don't know if any current cards or future releases will include Simpson cards.Stickeroni, Party Express and Hallmark party The Stickeroni line is used specifically to distribute stickers; The Party Express line is geared specifically to stores that specialize in party goods. The Simpsons goods in the Hallmark party line has been seen online; various stores including Target carry Hallmark party goods but we have not seen the Simpsons lines. |
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GIBSON CARDS These cards are long out of print and are now collector's items and very difficult to obtain. In general they are not available except for the rare appearance on auction sites. The same is true for some of the Hallmark cards, and someday we'll be saying that about all the cards that are generally available now, so... get them while you can!Gibson first released a set of Simpson cards in 1992 and then re-released the cards in 1995. The 1995 cards were slightly smaller than the original cards, measuring 7" by 5" instead of 7 5/8" by 5 3/8". The 1995 cards however used Simpson fonts and seem to have used a slightly higher quality printing methodology so we prefer them to the original series. All cards shown are taken from scans of the 1995 cards. Since these were designed in 1991 they reflect the level of Simpsons art at that time. The characters are drawn to fewer specifications, as opposed to the evolved set of standards that the artists have migrated towards, particularly as it applies to secondary characters. Gibson as a printing firm was founded in 1850 and became a subsidiary of CIT Financial Corp in 1964, which also acquired Cleo Wrap later that year. It was then purchased by RCA in 1980, but was subsequently bought out by Gibson executives and The Westray Corporation in 1982, and changed it's name to Gibson Greetings in 1983, under which name they produced the two lines of Simpsons Cards. Gibson Greetings was then acquired by American Greetings in 2000. |
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This Documents History |
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We initially chose not to document Greeting Cards, but the advent of cards with
sound combined with the fact that Hallmark was using sound clips from specific
episodes (and periodically removing words from the middle and combining clips
from multiple episodes) prompted us to proceed. Of course, once we're documenting
Hallmark sound cards, that led to documenting all Hallmark Simpsons cards,
which led to documenting older cards, which led to Simpsons Valentine cards, which
led to boxed Christmas cards, which led to foreign cards, which led to....
Future Plans We double check stores frequently for new cards and for the re-issue of older cards. For each Simpson "card season" we review the cards available several times and update the lists accordingly. In addition although we've now completed our second round of expansions, having included all U.S. Simpsons cards, we will be adding an entire UK section and other foreign cards. Feel free to write with suggestions or to supply additional information! |
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Back to Index |
Notes |
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Hallmark - Seasonal (2008 - 2012) |
Hallmark - Everyday (2008 - 2012) |
Hallmark - Stickers |
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Gibson - Everyday (1992, 1995) |
Children's Valentines (1990 - 2008) |
Boxed Christmas Cards |
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All Hallmark cards are copyright 2008 - 2012 Hallmark Licensing. Inc / Hallmark Cards, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, duplication or distribution is prohibited. These web pages, its operators and any content contained herein related to Hallmark Cards are not authorized by Hallmark Licensing, Inc. |
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