Soaps Get Trading Cards

NEW YORK - It had to happen. There are trading cards of baseball, hockey, football players and even Batman, and now there are cards of soap-opera stars, too.

Star Pics, the Michigan company that produces sports cards in wax packs and sets, just mailed out millions of ABC-TV's "All My Children" cards in packs, the first of four soap-opera card sets (the next three are ABC's "General Hospital," "Loving" and "One Life to Live"). Raghib "Rocket" Ismail, eat your heart out.

The people at Star Pics, who had great success with a "Twin Peaks" card set last year, were eager to do a soap opera.

"There are 18 million Americans who watch daytime television every single day and that's an impressive market for any set of trading cards," says Judith Burch, vice president of marketing for Star Pics.

"We were also interested in soap cards because the overwhelming television audience for these shows is women. All other card sets, whether sports or movie cards, are all aimed at men. This is a chance for us to give women their own card set."

She's also impressed by the actors' popularity off the set. "I've been to soap-opera conventions and I've seen thousands of people get on line just to meet a soap star. It's amazing. These are loyal fans," Burch says.

In the 72-piece set are cards of favorite characters like Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) and Trevor Dillon (James Kiberd), plus cards depicting famous scenes from the soap's history. There are cards of couples, such as Adam and Dixie, Jeremy and Natalie, and, of course (this is a soap), love triangles, such as Dixie, Adam and Brooke. All the cards are baseball-card sized, slick, colorful and have extensive written background descriptions on the back.

The actors are thrilled to have their own cards.

"When I was a kid, I had thousands of baseball cards. I had all the regular stars of the '50s and '60s like everyone else - Mantle, Mays, Snider, but I also had some of my dad's cards, guys like Ruth and Gehrig. Now, to have a card with me on it, well, it's just wonderful," says Kiberd. "It's a real kick."

He would like to see one improvement.

"You need statistics. Ballplayers have batting averages and slugging percentages. Soap actors should have stats, too, like love triangles per season, kisses per minute, things like that," he laughs.

But will the cards sell?

"I think they will because there are so many soap opera fans. Movie cards sell. I think these will sell to a limited market, though," says Ilan Strasser, who owns Fat Moose Comics and Cards in the Morris County Mall, in Hanover, N.J. "I'll order three boxes of `All My Children' cards, but I'll order 300 boxes of baseball cards."

The real success of the cards will come when kids trade them. How about three Susan Luccis for one Reggie Jackson . . . ?