Patent attributes
Disclosed is an electronic ticketing system (100, 200) and method (60) utilizing a smart card (31) The smart card can be loaded with pre-purchased tickets which are then booked at a subsequent date. Alternatively, the booking and payment for the ticket can be made at the one transaction. The smart card is customizable by a user (100) who would normally be a promoter or organizer of an event for which tickets are required. Also disclosed is a multiple purpose card (70, 91, 141, 151, 161) which is both a smart card having electronic data stored (78) therein and a conventional business card having information (72) printed thereon for use by a reader. The donee of the card is able to insert same into a card reader (12) to obtain detailed information from the computer (100) of the donor of the card. The multiple purpose smart card may also be used as a trading card (506) as part of a set (500) of similar cards each offering differing levels of user access to a database (526) related to the set.