Money on the line as international phonecard dealers show their hand

ERIC Elias was trying hard to grasp the subtleties of the Irish phonecard market. Jewish and a Cockney, he couldn't understand why nobody was buying the Pope.

"He's only £2," he said, pointing at a card featuring John Paul II, which rested beside an equally unsold series on President John Kennedy.

Eric was one of 25 dealers who took stands at Ireland's Second International Phonecard Fair, held yesterday in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin. But if the traditional icons of Catholic Ireland weren't going so well, he had an ace in his pack in the form of the fair's only pair of cards minted for a 1989 Irish Management Institute Conference in Killarney.

They looked innocuous enough, but their rarity - fewer than 250 sets exist - made them the most precious of Irish phonecards. More than £1,000 worth of precious, according to Eric, who was beginning to sound like Arfur Daley.

It's a serious business, phonecard dealing, and it's taking off in Ireland. In the last year alone, Telecom's mailing list for collectors has doubled from 6,500 to 13,000, although dealers are quick to acknowledge a high rate of multiple applications from those who would gobble up Telecom's limited editions.

As with all collectabilia, rarity is the currency, and the more of a limited edition you can collect, the more rarity you create. Yesterday's event had its own limited edition for sale - a £6 card featuring a Dublin bus.

Another of the stall holders yesterday was Jeremy Farrell, who produces customised phonecards on Irish history themes, and who could be set to make a killing with his series on Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan. A mere 21 years of age, he is about to embark on the international circuit, with a visit to a fair in Maastricht in October.

The charity sector has also woken to the possibilities of the humble phonecard.

Among the stallholders were people from the Greenhills Community Centre Building Fund, which is raising money from the trade. Their Green hills International Fair takes place on October 6th in Jury's Inn, Christchurch.