If you order merchandise from alot of labels or stores online or mailorder, they send these cards that advertise for new releases,bands or other merchandise. The other day, I got my order in the mail with no less than 9 of these cards. They are nicely designed with some printed on cardstock and they are well informative.
I was wondering if you guys hold on to these things. For maybe they will be collectors items some day. Have you learned of any bands from this type of advertising literature? Which ones have you gotten?

I hold on to them, well... if you count letting them sit on my desk to rot, then I do.

I don't really want to through them out, so I just kind of hoard them.

Today I got three from Black Flame Records with my CDs. One side just advertises the label, website and stuff like that, and the other has four CDs they sell plus a little description of each.

May I ask which four records? I like that label.

Abysmal Gates - Divine Deception
Blood Stained Dusk - Continuance Of Evil
Magane - Mortes Saltantes (One of the CDs I ordered)
Moat - The Sun Is Destroying Us All

Last time I ordered from a distro I got 17 red sheets of paper advertising the release which I had just received in that particular order (Armoured Angel's 'Baptism in Blood') packaged in, along with some other flyers and what-not. I thought that was mildly amusing.

The more stuff that falls out of that media envelope, the better. That said, I usually give 'em a quick once over and throw 'em out. I have discovered a band or two off of them, though, so I reckon they accomplish what they were designed to do.

When I got the Anti-Goldof compilation from Totenkopf Propaganda they tossed in somewhere around 15 of those cards. Some of them were of great quality, in fact most were I guess, but a few were just photocopied. Every now and then I like to pull one out and look the band up; nothing too amazing thus far though (but not bad either).

I just learned about the punkish death metal band The Lurking Corpses on one of the cards I got and I plan to order a couple of their CD's.

I'm curious to see what some of these look like because I like cool designs that come with alot of them.

I almost always chuck them out without even glancing at them. I don't know why, but they never really appeal to me enough to look at the band they're trying to advertise.

In the age of the internet, that would make sense. But back in the eighties, you might not be so quick to do so. I actually owned a Black Mark Productions merch card from 1990. I wish I still had it. It got lost during a move a few years ago.

I understand what you mean. Pre-MySpace days, those cards would've been a goldmine.

I certainly think they've still got their place, as they're a very convenient way of passively finding out about new bands and releases.

Totally agree. Those things are the last bastion for old school communication for bands and what not. I still find out new stuff from them. I put them in a baseball card book in case they get value decades from now.

You guys are just talking about flyers right? When you order from the more underground labels you get a lot of them, mostly photocopied. They can be useful to find out about bands that don't have any info on the net.

I don't know if they're flyers because flyers are the material that is passed around at shows or posting boards. I'm talking about those nice little slip cards that fall out of the box or envelope quickly after you empty the contents. Alot of them are sized and formatted like business cards so that you can put them in a wallet and pass them to someone as a recommendation or something so maybe in that manner they could be considered flyers I guess.

Yeah they are mostly called flyers in underground circles, but I see how it could be weird calling them that if you only think of flyers as the things for shows etc which is probably how most people are used to hearing the word used. At least whenever I had traded or got packages from underground distros or traders etc they would refer to them as flyers.

I still have a merchandise card, not a flyer, that I got for the release of Sepultura's Arise. That's the earliest one that I held onto and remember getting.

I always keep them when ever i get them i never really look at the bands or nothing just leave them on my desk bit pointless really that i keep them.

The one I mentioned a two posts back is the size of a post card. The front is essentially the Arise artwork in full color and on the back it was advertising the release of the album and addressed to me.

I tend to get a lot of those, some labels send practically bucket loads of them. I keep them, but I tend to move a lot and I've never taken care to ensure they don't get lost so I definitely don't have anywhere near all of the ones I've received. Sometimes labels will send like 20 of the same flyer so I just end up leaving those around at local shows.

Hell's Headbanger's gives so much stuff, it's fun to look through as an extra bonus.

I remember discovering Olympos Mons through and advertising page in the booklet of one album of Rhapsody, does that counts?

i used to get them all the time 2 or 3 years ago. Most of the ones I got back then were for releases i intended to buy already, or eventually checked out somehow.

I like flyers, so i never mind them. The only extras I've received in my recent orders is a patch from relapse with a preorder, and a relapse sticker from my last order, otherwise orders from oversea distros and us distros hasn't come with anything. I guess it depends. Most mailorders I know if they get them in a package from another label, they'll stuff a few in some orders they ship out around the same time.

Hells Headbangers always sends our various cards when you order from them. I received a few cards advertising the label itself, plus a few advertising Nunslaughter. They were really cool cards, I'll be hanging on to them.

God, I have so many of these in a pile on my desk. I do occasionally pick up a handful and browse through them though mostly, the sit in the corner. I was considering scrap booking them at one point though I never really got around to that and I wanted to be able to see the backs and fronts of the cards and flyers. I didn't want to put a hole punch in them to put them in binders either. Possibly, I will go find a binder for them with clear plastic pages of some sort so I can see both sides. I don't want to throw them out for the same reason MTV and also because I am a pack rat with music related items.

That's what I do, except I put them into a drawer. For whatever reason I can't justify getting rid of them.