1977 Edito-Service World War II Non-Sport Forum

"... WORLD WAR II Cards aka THE SECOND WORLD WAR CARDS by Edito-Service, 1977

The Second World War cards (also known as World War II cards) were released by Edito-Service cards in 1977 through mail subscription and have been out of print since 1978 or 1979 (the subscriptions were available in 1978 and 1979 but all cards are Copyright 1977, Edito Service, S.A. Geneva Printed in Italy). The cards measure approximately 4 5/8 x 4 3/4 inches (12 x 12.5 cm) and they are in English and in full color (some images are naturally black and white). The back of each card includes a great history of the person, weapon, vehicle or event that is depicted on the front.

These subscription cards were delivered to buyers by mail in "decks" sent every few weeks. The buyer could then remit payment which would continue the subscription. These cards were never sold as a complete set, only by subscribing could you accumulate some or all of these cards. There are 106 decks of 24 cards in each deck for a total of 2,544 cards. The decks are numbered 01 to 88 and then jumps to 101 to 118 for a total of 106 decks. The cards are numbered 01 to 24 in each deck. The back of the card is marked in the lower right with the card number which has the 5-digit prefix 13-036 then the DECK number followed by the CARD number, so the card numbers read 13-036 ddd-cc (ddd= Deck number, cc=card number)."

I do not believe these cards are listed here (yet).  The description above explains pretty much all there is to know about the cards and how they were issued...except a full checklist of all 106 decks.  I won at auction about 200 of these including a still in wrapper deck 02 and 09.

Now the questions before everyone rushes in and creates the set(s) and enters the appropriate checklist(s).  

All 1 set?  I think so and not 106 individual sets.

Card # to be "13-036-02-01" or "02-01" or 1-24 repeated 106 times? I prefer the first one if the site can handle it.  I am fine with the second one.  I don't like option 3.

If anyone knows of the whereabouts of a complete checklist of all 2,544 cards, that would be a big (huge) help.

And one last point of interest - yes, WW II did start in 1939 just as we Canadians thought.

They were sold as encyclopedias in card form.  My mom had a subscription when we were kids; the US version of course.  She stopped the subscription when she realized it was a very slow and expensive way to get a set of encyclopedias.

Bump.  Maybe some slept through Sunday.

The proper way to do these would be as a set with no base set but as Related sets. That requires Admin to manually set it up that way. 

Yes, since they renumbered them starting at one they are different. 

I believe this is the same company that issued the SportsCaster multi-sport card set. 

Another thing that has changed recently - Get the set entered here, add only parallel sets, no base set - then submit an IR to have the set listede as one with no base set. That's something that can be handled in the IRs now. (And yes, Billy, that is a fairly new thing.)

Not sure I understand 100%.

What I am getting is

Step 1 - building 106 parallels with the cards in each numbered "dd-01 thru dd-24", dd being the deck number.

Step 2 - an IR to get them all joined together as one set.

Would it not be easier to have them built as one set using the sequential decck numbering system?

And yes Billy, I beleive they are produced by the same company as the sportscaster series though these are shorter and I think not as wide (I haven't compared them though I do have some of the sportscasters).  There is also an animal series; some were also on auction, a much larger collection than the WW II that I won.  I just wasn't interested in the animal cards.  At about 200 cards, I never knew that I was only getting a fraction of the cards from the set.

I remember my cousins were receiving animal subjects cards. We got something to do with geography or countries.  I guess our parents thought they could share and save money.

No, they would not be all one set. They would be a set with no base and scads of related sets, not inserts or parallels. I forget what the wording states when it's a set with no base. I think it's something along the lines of "This set is composed of" and then a list of the related sets in alphaebtical order. 

Here's a set that shows how it would look: 2019-20 Leaf Superlative Collection Hockey - Trading Card Database (tcdb.com)

Here's I set that is formatted the way Chuck & Billy are describing:

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/184486/1910-American-Tobacco-Company-National-Flags---Silks-(S33)

Edit...Billy and I must have been looking for examples at the same time.