A new product has come out that appeals to both people who collect trading cards and people who enjoy reality-based shows like MTV's The Real World.
PeopleCards, which are dubbed the "official people trading card," are a new line of collectible trading cards that celebrate the oddities, quirks and interests of everyday people from around the world.
Yes, they have made a trading card that features pictures and statistics of ordinary Americans like you and me.
The front of each card includes a full color photo of the person doing something like sitting at the beach, along with their current state of mind, location and personal motto.
The back of each card is more detailed with such stats as the person's favorite movie, food, drink, hobbies and books. All in all, there are 120 PeopleCards to collect, and even a web site that displays information about the cards (www.peoplecards.net).
Todd Herman, vice president of sales and chief operating officer at PeopleCards, said his brother Brant, who is president and founder of the company, got the idea to create PeopleCards.
"Brant got the idea a year and a half ago when he was listening to the radio and some celebrity's brother got in a minor car accident — and the only reason he made it in the news was that he was related to the celebrity. My brother realized that celebrities are no more special that 99.9 percent of the people who don't get into the media so he got these ideas for a trading card," he said.
The cards were released in early January of this year. People can buy them from the web site for $2.99 a pack, and they are also sold at several stores such as Hot Topic in the Nittany Mall. Each pack of PeopleCards contains seven cards with people on them and one insert card with artwork.
"So you get seven people, one insert card and zero celebrities," Todd said.
The "zero celebrities" part is what makes these cards different and interesting, according to Todd. The people who are in PeopleCards were found online.
For the first edition, 2,500 people signed up and 105 were chosen. He said people of all races, ages and at least 40 states and 10 different countries are included in the inaugural set of PeopleCards.
In all, the first set consists of 120 cards —105 cards and 15 insert art cards. The insert cards are pictures of artwork that were sent in from independent artists around the country who are just ordinary people.
Brant Herman explained, "Our cards appeal to people who like to laugh or people who stare on a bus and wonder what the other people's stories are. Were not trying to make fun of people but people are naturally funny."
Brant has high hopes for PeopleCards' success. "People are more interesting than anyone realizes. When you open up a pack of people cards you get seven opportunities to be a voyeur into somebody else's life."
The second edition of PeopleCards will be coming out in the late summer with more editions to follow. If you would be like to be considered to be in a future edition of PeopleCards go to the web site for more information on how to apply or to purchase the cards themselves.
