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I am a Tasmanian based phonecard collector and have been collecting Telecom/Telstra Anritsu cards since 1991. When I used to go round to all the phone box's in my area and collect the used cards. As I got more into collecting phonecards I began to start buying from the local dealers and attending phonecard fairs. I subscribed to the Telecom/Telstra payphone services soon after it started and ordered many phonecards and limited edition/collector packs through them.
I stopped collecting soon after the introduction of the new smart/chip cards as I was not interested in collecting non-Anritsu based cards. Also, it was around the time that phonecard collecting in Australia took a significant downturn. I resumed collecting again in the mid-2000's in the hope of being able complete the collection I had started back in the early 1990's. I have managed to make significant progress towards completing my collection since then.
Through my years of collecting and communication with fellow collectors I have gain a lot of knowledge on Australian Anritsu phonecards. However, I am still finding out more information on the Anritsu phonecards that were released. It is amazing that more than 30 years since phonecards were introduced in Australia new discoveries are being made. To disseminate this information to other collectors I have created a few articles regarding some of the recent discoveries that I have made with the help of other phonecard collectors. These articles can be found in the resources section of this website.
I am an active member of the Melbourne Phonecard Club and have enjoyed the knowledge sharing between the members within the club. The regular newsletters and club auctions are a great way to find out information and try to add phonecards to your collection. I have also recently become a member of the APCC club based in South Australia. It is a small club of collectors of a variety of collectables (not just phonecards), in the meetings the members discuss things that they have found out about their relevant collectable. I find it nice to hear about what others are collecting.
I have found that the phonecard collector community here in Australia is a great one and I have exchanged information as well as traded with fellow collectors.