Friday 28 May Frew Publications announced some important changes to their subscription service. Back in January 2017 Frew announced that for every subscription they will give them a pack of 9 phile cards for free.
The announcement is that from now on, these cards are not free with every subscription.
These Frew Philecards are trading card-sized collector cards, showing the cover to every single Phantom comic that Frew has produced, starting at #1. On the back are all of the relevant information about that issue.
The announcement from Frew reads:
Philecards have become a major expense which the business can't continue to provide for free. We are going to ask all subscribers who wish to continue collecting Philecards to pay $1 per pack in addition to the regular subscription price, which will be $26 per year for subscribers who want the philecards.
This is a cost price, as we just need to cover expenses to continue providing these cards to collectors. This change will appear on your next renewal notice if you have a current subscription we will continue to provide cards until renewal time when you can opt-in or out!
Some phans find the Phile cards confusing and others love them however at the end of the day, they were free and who does not love something for free?
With the original announcement of free phile cards, it caused many phans to ditch their local comic shop and newsagent which means Frew get more money per issue. Now with many phans subscribing for life, Frew can change tact and the phans who never got the concept will stop getting them. That saves Frew money.
Frew also save money for the completist who will continue with their Phile card as they will now be charged cost price. It is a smart business decision but will phans see that or will they see that they now have to pay for something they used to get for free?
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