a little over a full deck of HOTEL/MOTEL KEYCARDS

Several months ago I posted an assortment of DO NOT DISTURB door signs from various hotels that I've collected over the years, which (then) prompted me to wonder about how many actual hotel *keycards* I might also have laying around here ifn's I gathered 'em all together. Turns out the answer to that question is "almost a full deck", if one counted them as conventional playing cards. <LOL> At least as of today I think there's 55 actual (magnetic-stripe) keycards here for the pictures, not counting the 3 VingCards also shown.

Hotel brands include (from roughly top LH down) Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Doubletree, Motel6, Knights Inn, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, LaQuinta, Best Western, and Holiday Inn/Holiday Inn Express. Many also feature assorted restaurant branding on their fronts (mostly Domino's Pizza) or other 'local attractions", some of which also carry a hotel logo on their backside.

OF THEM ALL, the most interesting ones might actually be those on the bottom row in the pics. The most bottom-left shown is curious because it appears to be a completely blank white card on both sides -- only having a room number written on it w/sharpie marker by the desk clerk when it was issued to me. I presume there is some kind of 'magnetic strip' or something within it (like the others, just not showing?) but truly don't have a clue how it might work -- and I've never encountered others like it anywhere since.

The next one in that bottom row is also interesting because it actually advertises "TESA Electronic Locking Solutions" instead of any hotel/restaurant. Maybe (?) this one is actually one of the older of the magnetic stripe cards, having the name of the (a?) company that made the (then brand new hi-tech?) "lock technology" advertised on it instead of any Hotel/restaurant/etc name. (slightly before some traveling ad man somewhere realized that he could print/sell ads on the then newfangled 'security key cards'., too..??) The middle three in the bottom row are also 'generic', with no branding at all beyond their maker's small print on their backsides.

The bottom RH three are VingCards, VERY different creatures than all the rest, representing a tiny little niche of 'improved hotel room security' that happened for a minute in between conventional metal keys/locks and all the rest of these magnetic-stripe keycards on the overall timeline of history. VingCards/locks mostly solved the "pick-able" security problem that had been growing with common hotel locks/keys -- but still worked mechanically (unlike the magnetic stripe keycards also being developed at the same time) and were *not* re-programmable/disposable...thus they didn't catch on.

[EDIT] -- why was I somehow thinking that a deck of playing cards was *58* pcs...? <headdesk> But of course it's only 52, so I guess I've already got more than "a deck" of keycards here?? <lol>

Also a further recollection about that odd lower LH side 'blank white card' mebbe...seems to me that it (very much unlike any of the others) also worked correctly no matter which of its sides/ends was actually stuck into the slot on the door. It was notably VERY COOL (not to mention very *convenient* when one otherwise had armsful of luggage or etc?!) for that aspect. I still don't really have a clue what hotel it might have come from, where, nor when (as I sleep in *way* too many hotel rooms during the course of an average year) but wish I did...mebbe like the Sony Betamax, I could guess this one was the 'hotel lock technology' that really *should* have caught on, instead of the (cheaper, probably) magnetic stripe card mechanisms...??