"QSL cards confirm either a two-way radiocommunication between two amateur radio stations or a one-way reception of a signal from an AM radio, FM radio, television or shortwave broadcasting station. They can also confirm the reception of a two-way radiocommunication by a third party listener. A typical QSL card is the same size and made from the same material as a typical postcard, and most are sent through the mail as such." Here's a substantial collection of them.
posted by dersins on Oct 7, 2009 - 43 comments

Tart cards [NSFW] are the means by which many London prostitutes advertise their services. Step into almost any central London phone box and you can contemplate up to 80 cards inviting you to be tied, teased, spanked or massaged.... [Wallpaper Magazine] asked designers – from students to superstars – to find the tart hiding in every typeface and create their own graphic numbers.... all 450 cards can be viewed here. [NSFW] [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Jun 26, 2009 - 39 comments

It's Friday! Enjoy Necronomicon, a fun little flash-based card game inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
posted by EarBucket on Jun 19, 2009 - 33 comments

"In fact, while transactional credit provision is a perfectly good business, it might be reasonable for the state to offer basic transactional credit as a public good." Blogger Steve Randy Waldman has an idea that's so crazy it might work. He buried it in a nice wonky, obscure post about transactional and revolving credit, but now has been linked by Ezra Klein at his new WaPo blog. Will Metafilter heads explode?
posted by emjaybee on May 25, 2009 - 27 comments

Wrong Cards. Some of these are tailor-made for MetaFilter. Some are probably offensive. Some I can even imagine sending to people I know. Which probably negates their mission of being wrong for every occasion, but I guess they can't be wrong all the time.
posted by jacquilynne on Apr 21, 2009 - 76 comments

A collection of early Valentine cards, and, A Treatise on Courtly Love .
posted by hortense on Feb 14, 2009 - 10 comments

The True cost of credit. Via
posted by jourman2 on Jan 28, 2009 - 58 comments

Soviet-era Mayan-themed playing cards.
posted by Rumple on Dec 27, 2008 - 16 comments

Adobecards - an aesthetic Flash-based advertisement for a new Adobe product
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Dec 24, 2008 - 29 comments

The ___ Cards in time for the holidays (or any other card giving occasion). Unfortunately, it appears they are out of their "A beautiful X'mas is what you make of it" cards. Found via: Jonathan Yuen who did the design for Victoria Chang's "Two Trains," which appeared in Born Magazine. [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen on Dec 6, 2008 - 7 comments

In 1684, the French Crown didn't send Quebec its yearly allotment of currency. Yet, the soldiers needed to be paid. [more inside]
posted by QIbHom on Oct 3, 2008 - 18 comments

Magic: The Election . Part 2. [more inside]
posted by casarkos on Sep 15, 2008 - 48 comments

NetClassixFilter: The next time you're standing clueless in the greeting cards section of your local drugstore franchise, you'll be wishing you'd visited the Gallery of Unfortunate Greeting Cards instead. For all your holiday needs: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Weddings, 4th of July, Hallowe'en, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course, Washington's Birthday. [via Cap'n Wacky] [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Jun 9, 2008 - 18 comments

More cool business card designs. (Previously.)
posted by Armitage Shanks on Apr 24, 2008 - 29 comments

Barbie Tarot.
posted by Orb on Jan 29, 2008 - 22 comments

Send messages to friends with fun, bureaucratic fill-in forms! Bureau of Communication has funny faux-bureaucratic forms that you can send to your friends. Whether you need to communicate a problem, send an invitation to an event, or simply apologize for a transgression, our easy-to-use forms will ensure that your message is clearly conveyed.
posted by lsemel on Dec 21, 2007 - 30 comments

Vintage Soviet-era Christmas Cards. They're certainly cheerful! (via)
posted by Jimbob on Dec 20, 2007 - 43 comments

Pre-1990s Sports Card Portraiture (Flickr slideshow) Images of pre-1990 sports cards which feature excellent photographic portraits, not action shots. I will delete stuff I don't think is good enough with abandon. [more inside]
posted by dhammond on Sep 8, 2007 - 11 comments

1983 Fleer Project As of 8/25/07: 364 of the 660 cards autographed (55%).
posted by dhammond on Aug 27, 2007 - 18 comments

Hand drawn Tarot Cards created by a Boris Kobe, a prisoner at Allach Concentration Camp, a sub-camp of Dachau. Each card depcits an aspect of life in the camp - click each image for high-res versions.
posted by jonson on Aug 25, 2007 - 34 comments

DIY business card holders from paint chips from industrial designer Aaron Tang at designverb, step by step.
posted by taz on Aug 20, 2007 - 10 comments

Be my Anti Valentine. A little late in the day, but you can't beat stuff like "One Day in February isn't special...you are. Happy VD everyone!
posted by allkindsoftime on Feb 14, 2007 - 10 comments

Tradecards.
posted by hama7 on Dec 18, 2006 - 9 comments

Playing cards and tarot cards. An amazing resource about cards with hundreds of scanned decks, and an illustrated timeline of cards through the ages. Cards started in China, but the link to the West was the gorgeous decks of the Marmeluks [Coral cache],which used 52 cards (though the suites were polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups), from there, they spread to Europe and evolved into the tarot and playing cards. Through their history, cards remained art there are many beautiful decks in the past, and 20th century artists like Dali and Hockney created their own decks [coral cache].
posted by blahblahblah on Aug 24, 2006 - 14 comments

Artist trading cards (ATC's) have three rules they shouldn't be sold, they are to measure exactly 2.5" by 3.5", and on the back they must have the artist's name, contact information, title of the ATC and it's number in the series. Since M. Vanci Stirnemann started this hobby in 1997 it has spread the world over. [previously on metafilter]
posted by bigmusic on Aug 16, 2006 - 13 comments

Ganjifa cards have a history of more than 300 years. A pack of ganjifa cards consists of ninety-six cards; they are generally circular and made of ivory, tortoise shell, thin wood or hard board material. Dancing, hunting, worshipping, and processions are some of the subjects painted on the cards. Some more patterns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. However, Ganjifa today is a craft in a crisis.
posted by dhruva on Jun 2, 2006 - 10 comments

Take a card, any card, from the Anti-religious pack, or the insufferably cute Our lovers (kittens!) deck, or the utilitarian Cards that talk (Japanese, Korean and Chinese phrases) and many, many more.
posted by tellurian on Apr 12, 2006 - 12 comments

Everything from Aieee! to Zzzzwap! Las Onomatopeyas has lots of the onomatopoeic title cards from the 1960s Batman TV show.
posted by kirkaracha on Mar 30, 2006 - 24 comments

Katrina: The Gathering is the latest great new collectible card game!

I almost don't know how to describe it. A brilliant, concise, very complete, and quite hilarious¹ summary of the the political fallout. It just keeps going and going and going. I think I want to play a game of it.
1 - My options are laugh or cry, so.
posted by blacklite on Sep 14, 2005 - 38 comments

A Chip and a Chair: The World Series of Poker's Main Event started today at the Rio in Las Vegas. That's a change from every other year, when Binion's Horseshoe hosted the event. With the rise of online poker and televised tournaments, it's no surprise this is the biggest year ever: 5,661 people registered for the $10,000 no-limit event. That's about $50 million in prize money, once the tournament and casino costs are taken care of. CardPlayer has up-to-the-minute updates on the tournament. Things at the WSOP can get pretty crazy, as you've got thousands of gamblers ready for any sort of action. For instance, poker celeb Phil Gordon put together a Roshambo tournament (paper rock scissors) together with a $10,000 first prize, just to kill time. The main event, by the way, is only one of 45 events, started back in 1970 by a group of hard-core gamblers. Despite the record turnout, however, there's still plenty of people who didn't make it to the main event, including former Harper's reporter James McManus, who placed 5th in the Main Event in 2000 and wrote a fascinating novel on the subject.
posted by Happydaz on Jul 7, 2005 - 22 comments

Unusual Cards
posted by sciurus on May 25, 2005 - 15 comments

The only rule I can tell you is this one. In the vein of self-modifying games such as Nomic, 1000 Blank White Cards, Fluxx, and Cosmic Encounter, comes Mao: the game where the only way to learn the rules is by banging your head against them. Repeatedly.
posted by Ironwolf on Apr 24, 2005 - 32 comments

1000 white cards The game is fairly simple. You take a lot of index cards, cut them in half, draw your own cards and play them on each other.
posted by srboisvert on Apr 23, 2005 - 25 comments

A house of cards. Trapped by the blizzard, our elaborate system of creature comforts seems like nothing more than a house of cards that Mother Nature so easily knocks down. Bryan Berg knows how to make a real house of cards.
posted by caddis on Jan 22, 2005 - 10 comments

Poker player plays for 24 hours in a row? Yawn. Online poker player plays eight tables simultaneously for 24 hours in a row? Interesting.
posted by bdk3clash on Jan 10, 2005 - 20 comments

What is the deal with Texas hold'em??? Texas Hold'em (in the U.S.) has become the poker players crack. Its OK, but not that fun for me, and I don't understand what has caused this huge craze sweeping the nation. Poker Chips are in definately in demand... 1 In 10 Kids Will Become Compulsive Gamblers so Do Your Kids Know When To Fold'em? at least there is some texas hold'em charity work aiding victims for the holidays
posted by clubmedia on Dec 7, 2004 - 52 comments

Fun and free e-cards for all... for the geek, for the addict, for the artist, for the musician, for the conspiracy theorist, for the chef, for the tasteless, for the tactless, for just about anyone. Where do you go for all of your e-card needs?
posted by MsVader on Sep 29, 2004 - 17 comments

Are bluffing bots outplaying human poker players online? They might not be as strong as Vex Bot, but they could spell trouble for the booming online-poker industry.
posted by mrgrimm on Sep 21, 2004 - 28 comments

It's all in the cards: an interesting look at the development and design of playing cards.

Despite their global origins, playing cards are a uniquely American art form. Looking at a deck of cards provides a glimpse of social, economic, and advertising history.

posted by jazon on May 25, 2004 - 6 comments

Hanafuda, also known as Go-Stop. [more]
posted by hama7 on May 2, 2004 - 6 comments

Social theory trading cards, action figures and legos! [Via Boing Boing.]
posted by homunculus on Mar 16, 2004 - 5 comments

Business Card Menger Sponge Project
The primary goal of the Business Card Menger Sponge Project is to build a depth 3 approximation to Menger's Sponge ... out of 66,048 business cards . This can be done by building 8000 business card cubes out of 6 cards each, linking them together and using the additional cards to panel the 18,048 exterior faces of the sponge.

With all the troubles in our world today, the confusion of the Presidential primaries, terrorism, you name it, it is good someone can find a project that gets people involved and serves, after its completion, as a greatly beneficial offering for mankind.
posted by RubberHen on Jan 29, 2004 - 4 comments

Templates that you can use to make custom cards, envelopes, and boxes , requires only minor paper folding skill to make one of a kind gift holders/presenters. I like the take out box and the trapezoid box for some reason.
posted by jonah on Jan 21, 2004 - 12 comments

The Art History of Cheating - just one of the many interesting topics found at Cardshark Online.
posted by anastasiav on Oct 6, 2003 - 4 comments

"It's time for people to show their cards." Ostensibly modeled after these, and perhaps a step up in quality from these, they look to face competiton from these. A game of Texas Hold 'em, anyone?
posted by subpixel on Jul 28, 2003 - 13 comments

The War Profiteers Card Deck. Not only is Saddam still running free, but so is Sam Nunn.
posted by zedzebedia on Jun 24, 2003 - 11 comments

And solitaire's the only game in town.... A topical twist on a typical office timewaster.
posted by konolia on May 24, 2003 - 6 comments

Bush Regime Playing Cards, with Ari Fleischer as the King of Hearts. [via Daily Kos]
posted by kirkaracha on Apr 28, 2003 - 25 comments

Dealing With Saddam What's in the cards for the missing members of the Iraqi high command? According to Reuters AlertNet "The United States will soon deliver Iraq's deposed president Saddam Hussein and his inner circle into the hands of its own troops -- as a deck of playing cards...Brigadier General Vincent Brooks held up one of the first examples of the card packs at a Central Command briefing on Friday, explaining that each card depicted a character the United States wanted pursued, killed or captured." Checking the deck quite predictably we find that Saddam is portrayed as the Ace of Spades, and his strong-arm younger son Qusay is tricked out as Ace of Clubs. Ironically, elder-psychopathic progeny Uday, who is said to favor the use of rape as a weapon of torture, is imaged as the Ace of Hearts. An Adobe Acrobat PDF image of the full deck is available at Defense Link.

Is this the the new US military card game, Poke-Iman? "Hey, soldiers...gotta catch 'em all!"
posted by Dunvegan on Apr 11, 2003 - 27 comments

The Next Time You Hear that Beep, you can be on Supermarket Privacy Sweep! I'm sure most of us own Supermarket Discount Cards, I mean who can resist the savings? If you don't like being monitored, help out the always popular Rob at Cockeyed.com become the Ultimate Shopper by using his card (NYT Article here). I'm always a bit wary when I use mine, I'm afraid they may find out how boring I really am. I'm tempted to sexy up my database profile: "I'd like to buy come chocolate chip cookies... and ah.. some vaseline and hamster food. Oh, and straws!" Then Safeway will give me a discount on new underwear, fo shizzle my nizzle!
posted by Stan Chin on Mar 13, 2003 - 33 comments