Posted By:
Rob DewolfHi Alan,
A general rule of thumb and a good starting place in determining value of stadium postcards is that PCs of defunct ballparks have a higher value than those of current ones.
I've repeated this often, and it applies to memorabilia other than postcards, but I think that eBay has done a lot to bring down the price of vintage stadium PCs. I don't mean that in a negative way, either. It's just that eBay has made it clear that there are many more copies of certain PCs than was once thought. Only 10-15 years ago you couldn't hope to buy a League Park postcard at a Cleveland-area show or shop for less than $100, and often the asking price was $150-$175. These days there are few League Park PCs that would sell for that much, simply because we know now that they're more plentiful -- though still not common -- as once thought.
A book that I've found very valuable as a checklist and source of other info is Baseball Stadium Postcards, The Definitive Major League Ballparks Checklist and Price Guide, which was published (by the editor, Tom Crabtree) about 10 years. I have no idea how easy or hard it would be to obtain a copy, but my advice is to try. It won't help much on values of PCs, but I've never come across a League Park PC that's not checklisted in the book.
Here are a few of my favorite League Park postcards:
(Postmarked June 13, 1910):
(Postmarked Oct. 17, 1910):
(Postmarked April 14, 1915):
(Postmarked June 15, 1917):
(Pretty scarce because caption on front erroneously reads "Entrance to Base Ball Park, Detroit, Mich."):
