''US outrage at 9/11 trading cards''

Florida manufacturer has caused outrage in the United States with his latest product - a set of trading cards featuring portraits of victims of the 11 September attacks.

The collection - called Heroes of the World Trade Center - is due to go on sale next month.

The media has accused the manufacturer of "desecrating sacred memories" and trivialising the tragedy.

The mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg said he had asked lawyers to find ways to prevent the sale of the cards.

"I think it's disgraceful, despicable," he said.

Trading cards - which began with portraits of baseball players - have become a craze among youngsters around the world and now feature almost anything - from cartoon or movie characters to dinosaurs.

Family approval

The cards' manufacturer, Kingsley Barham, has rejected accusations of cashing in on the tragedy.

He says he has written approval from the families of those whose portraits are on the cards.

"I am providing a service to these families. These people are being individualised and memorialised, and put into a position where they will be remembered and appreciated," Mr Barham said.

He said he is unfairly singled out.

"There's a lot of people cashing in."

Mr Barham said he didn't want people trading them.

"I don't want anyone saying, 'I'll give you two firefighters for an airline pilot'," he said to The New York Post.

"I don't call it a trading card. I call it a tribute card."

Range of subjects

The complete set consists of 202 cards - 170 of them with the portraits of both those who died and survivors of the World Trade Center attack, with a 300-word biography written on the back.

They include everyone from firefighters and policemen to New York's ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani and the current mayor Mr Bloomberg himself.

A further 32 subject cards address questions like - why the towers collapsed? or feature poems.

The cards are to be sold for $2.50 each.

The families of the victims featured on the cards are to receive an eight per cent royalty from the card sales.

Mr Barham said many decided to donate their money to charities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2496801.stm
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"There's a lot of people cashing in." - Emm, what? So now he thinks it's okay that he'll make money from it; because others are doing it too? :(
I'm sure he thinks giving 8% to the families is a good excuse, but where will the other 92% go? He is going to make a nice pile of money from this... So sad... [img]graemlins/confused2.gif[/img]

<font color="lightblue">Is there anything left that *doesn`t* have it`s own set of trading cards ?? :rolleyes: </font>

I'm sure that doesn't cash in the whole 92%, there's bound to be some expences.

On a sidenote, did you know that you can get Dictator cars too. [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="Deepskyblue">LOL
Thats low, dam dam low</font>

What a disgusting way to make monsy. But what I would like to see, and maybe you already have them south of the borde, is a memorial painting/picture of how it was before the planes crashed. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I know an American guy studying here who wears a 9/11 T-Shirt quite a lot. I don't know about you but I think if playing cards are a desecration of the memory and just a way to cash in on misfortune then I think T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, etc are as well.

A lot of 9/11 merchandise is sold, which is offensive and which is not? Does having the victims personally named make it offensive? Seems a bit weird to me...

Well, these people do anything to get their grubby little hands on some money. It does seem a but weird... I used to collect baseball cards, but I'd never want to have dead people cards. Pretty boring, I'd say... :\

what's next? the columbine cards?

I think it´s a good idea. You don´t have to buy them if you don´t want to, as usual.

I swear, there will be a lot more amazing (or amusing) card series to come.

IM(never humble)O I dont think that *ANY* cashing in on 9/11 is acceptable. A lot of the memorabelia is being sold by memorial funds/charities to continue to help the victims/families. That is fine IMO. But this guy...Now, you know that I'm a hardcore Capitalist, but you have to draw the line somewhere. "8% to the families"...Give me a break. I know several people who worked for WoTC of Borg back when they were still small(just starting out with M:TG) and they told me what their profit margins were like. Now, if this guy were to give about 40% of his profits to the families, then it would be more in line with a true 'charity' effort. As it is, this is just sick commercialism, no better than the media's constant cashing in.