Why are pre-war postcards suddenly so popular?
 

I'm just curious. I know there is a hard core group who have always collected them but lately they seem to be more popular to run of the mill pre-war collectors. My own personal opinion, for what it is worth, is that the boom in interest escalated when the grading companies started slabbing and grading them and they became a more tradeable and sellable commodity. I would also opine that a number of collectors have finished collecting sets and are turning to other projects. Thoughts?

Tbob
 

The only reason I can think of is that you started collecting them :(.

There have been a huge number of them for sale lately, particularly in the most recent Legendary Auction. That usually draws alot of interest.

i think that there are such great imgs and you can get whole teams and they have such history like the cards

what Barry said, a lot of nice ones in Goodwin too.

LOL. For once, something has become popular and collectors going after something which I don't collect. :) I am tickled to death to see collectors going after them and spending their disposable income for something other than what I DO collect. :D
But seriously, no one thinks the fact that the grading companies have started slabbing and grading them has resulted in any increase in popularity? :confused:

Depends on what time frame you're talking about Bob. The grading companies have been grading them for awhile now. It no doubt helps their popularity! But as for the more recent spike in popularity, I think Barry hit it on the head with the Legendary comment. That auction was epic in terms of postcards and the best I've seen in a very long time. I think it attracted a lot of new pc collectors.

I think you're correct, Bob, in saying professional grading has played a part. I also think it's pretty ironic, because a lot of postcard collectors I know don't pay much attention to the numbers on the flip. Postcards get hammered for writing on the back, but many collectors welcome correspondence on the cards, especially if it's baseball related.

I love finding great-looking postcards that are on the low end of the TPG scale.

It could be that the mail delivery is so slow that a lot of the pre-war postcards are just being delivered and becoming available. I shouldn't joke, my father was a mailman.

In addition to the grading, I think with some of the good prices being realized, some collectors holding on to them are starting to let them go.

Pre War Post Cards
 

We have collected rare pre-World War II baseball postcards for more than 25 years. Many of the wonderful examples in our collection are one of a kind.
We limit our effort to the rare, expensive and unusual- and only are interested in player and team photos- albeit we own four different Federal League stadium post cards- a great companion to our Federal League tickets, programs and sheet music.

We attribute the dramatic increase in popularity to

(a) Grading- if it's not graded it's difficult to obtain large money
(b) Recent Legendary as well as the Iowa Auction
(c) Availability of significant Negro League Hall of Famers
(d) Provides accomplished collectors with an additional opportunity.

We have over 30 such post cards in our collection. Since we recently obtained the two ultra, ultra rare Harrison Studios post cards we are focusing our efforts on the Winthrop Motion Picture Post cards (less than 8 are known)

We look forward to adding to America's most significant type card collection
in the days and months ahead.

Bruce Dorskind
AMerica's Toughest Want List
bdorskind@dorskindgroup.com

postcards
 

I must say that the ones which team photos are very appealing to me.
I won a Hammon in an auction in the last year or so and was almost captured by the postcards in that moment. Thankfully, since i'm limiting myself to one card per type as a 'type' collector, i was able to distance myself from the seduction--
admittedly, there are sure a number of 'types' of gorgeous postcards which are doing their wooing.
best,
barry

The Danger of Grading cards
 

I have to agree with TBob, the same thing happened in the comic book industry. I use to collect comics in high school and the same thing happened to silver and golden age comic books that has happened to prewar baseball cards. The prices have skyrocketed and many avenues of collecting prewar cards are just not open to me because of the prices. Now it is not fair for me to say that it is destroying the industry, but I do think there are people buying these cards and treating them like stock market investments instead of loving baseball and loving the hobby. The same thing happened to comic books in the 1990's when grading books exploded. It drove many comic fans out of the silver age and golden age book collecting game. I can tell you that in the mid 90's when I was in middle school you could buy a Uncanny X-Men #1 for about 150-200.00 dollars. Now one that looks like it was chewed up by a dog goes for about 500.00-750.00 depending on the auction. Just a thought.

TT

Vintage postcards have all the physical attributes of a baseball card -- size, distribution, photographic imagery of baseball subjects -- except the name. Collectors perhaps are beginning to recognize that some of these postcards exhibit gorgeous images of players/teams that are not available in a "conventional" baseball card. So, recognizing that substance matters more than form, collectors are bidding postcards up to values that reflect their intrinsic collecting significance.

Vintage postcards have all the attributes of a baseball card -- size, distribution, photographic imagery of baseball subjects -- except the name. Collectors perhaps are beginning to recognize that some of these postcards exhibit gorgeous images of players/teams that are not available in a "conventional" baseball card. So, recognizing that substance matters more than form, collectors are bidding postcards up to values that reflect their intrinsic collecting significance.

I agree with Corey. To me they are the same as cards but offer many of the times one-off poses of players not found on the more "common" cardboard brothers. I think that grading has abetted the emerging collectability of them but not all that much. They are extremely attractive, fairly uncommon until they emerge from the woodwork and a tie to the history of the game we love.

[QUOTE
(a) Grading- if it's not graded it's difficult to obtain large money
Bruce Dorskind
AMerica's Toughest Want List
bdorskind@dorskindgroup.com[/QUOTE]

That would be incorrect. Just ask Jeff P.

grading shmading

I don't see any money without shmading these days.

I collect postcards and am not nearly as concerned about grading with PCs as I am with cards. This ultra-rare Cobb was purchased raw and was also ultra-expensive.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/calvindog/3084954078/" title="1908 Detroit Free Press PC 773-4 by calvindog65, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/3084954078_91616db3e7_o.jpg" width="475" height="882" alt="1908 Detroit Free Press PC 773-4" /></a>

postcards are cool.

1912 World Series RPPC
A 1912 Real Photo Postcard of a crowd assembled outside of cigar shop in Trinidad Colorado to watch the final game of the 1912 World Series.
'watching' the game amounted to watching a box-score-like chalkboard as the scoring updates are telegraphed in.

http://www.internetville.com/images/...eriesCombo.jpg

A collector can (or could) get a nice prewar PC for a lot less than many other cards. Just more bang for the buck.

Or the tbob collecting them explanation...I'd go with that one too.

I bought a near set of these from Lew Lipset about a year and a half ago. All were ungraded, and yet, seemed rather pricey.

Must have been the competition.

Sweet Jim!

It's all about the images. You can get real live pictures of players and baseball events versus some cards that just have etchings of the players. I've always liked Zeenuts because the images are real versus some cards are cartoons of players.

A relatively inexpensive way to get a Ruth and a Gehrig (among others). I think this was from one of Barry's auctions.

for me...its become an extension of my type card collecting...the exhibits got the ball rolling...the real photos and action shots..all play a part.

Ricky Y

You're right Alan, I recognize that one. I think I sold it on ebay.

And I agree that postcards have for a long time been underappreciated. Some of them are gorgeous, and quite rare, and deserve their place alongside more traditional baseball cards.

Would you mind revealing your bidding strategy when you were high bidder in that auction? What's your lifetime "winning" percentage in auctions, by the way?

See you on the battlefield!

My bidding strategy has always been to make sure my final bid is higher than anyone else's.

Buffalo Post Cards
 

Just went on E Bay for a bit over $3000, there were six bidders
at the $1000+ level and three at the $2000+ level

Wonder if the buyer (who has 1400+) E Bay purchases is a dealer
who will grade and resell- or a major post card/and of Buffalo collector.

Some Buffalo items- i.e. Federal League Pennant (last REA auction) exceed
every estimate by a factor of 3-5


Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List
bdorskind@dorskindgroup.com

Apparently, Barry, you and I have oversimplified the process.

My bidding strategy is to bid what I think items are worth, plus a level or two to account for auction craziness. As a result, my lifetime winning percentage is probably about .100.

Thanks for sharing this info, Bruce.
 

Bruce,
Thanks for sharing your expert opinion on this subject. Best wishes from us to you in adding these gems to your collection.

postcards suck. let's get back to REAL cards people!

I don't think Bruce won these (at least he didn't say he was the winner.)

I think what Ricky says above makes sense: when you collect cards eventually you are led into Exhibits which certainly leads to PCs. The PCs are usually cheaper (or at least used to be) than regular cards so that helps as well. As of today I've got 30 Exhibits and PCs of Cobb, which is a big part of my Cobb collection.

He didn't.

Loser in an auction, big winner in life.

But he does love the hobby more than most so I'm sure Bruce will be fine.

:)

A question for you Ebay sellers who list PCs, which category or categories do you list them in?

Bubba- Go to category "Collectibles" then click on "postcards" then "sports" then type "baseball" in the search box. That should get most of them.

Bob M.

That will get most of them, but many people put them in the Sports Cards section so that area should also be looked at.

I was wondering if they were mostly listed in the Postcards section or the Sports cards section. I guess I will need to check both places. Thanks guys!