Need Advice: Collecting Vintage Postcards
 

At long last took a break from searching for cards at eBay and perused baseball postcards under Collectibles section. Astounded by the number of cool old cards from 100 or more years ago, often from obscure corners of USA. Just wondering what collecting these are like and who does it. Very few are graded. Prices are very hard to gauge (any price guides?). Is the market growing or declining--or for that matter you simply need to ignore monetary value or the chance for re-sale in a few years in these cases and just enjoy them? Any comments welcome.

I've been slowly collecting old stadium postcards over the years, which seem like one the best bargains out there — you can pick up several nice postcards for the price of one pre-war card. I've paid as much as $30 or $40, but most have been $5 to $10. Most of the nice ones seem to come from the tobacco card era, when many were produced in Germany, and the 1940s, when the colorful linen postcard era peaked.

As for early postcards of players and teams, they can get a bit pricey, depending on what they are. The team postcards from the tobacco card era show a remarkable diversity of teams. It seems like every small town in America had a team — and a postcard of it — in the years that immediately preceded WWI ...

From experience, my first piece of advice would be to talk with Leon, identify what postcards he collects, then collect something different.

We have cost each other quite a bit in our town ball fights.

PCs are another world. Maybe Jeff, Bicem, will chime in as the PC guru. I only have 1 and love an excuse to post it...absolutely love this card though:

That's kind of funny Scott. I remember a while back when you and I were talking and we compared notes on some generic postcards. I remember both of us cat-fighting over them without even knowing it. I don't really collect the ones that most others do (you are welcome :)) but do love the generic ones. They are usually cheap (maybe $10-$50) and have great scenes. I must have a few hundred by now. The more intricate and interesting the higher they can go. Here is one from Toronto in the early 1900s that was just laying on my desk from a very recent pick up.....I love these things...don't know if value is going up or down and don't really care... :).

http://luckeycards.com/ppcun1910scanadianscene2.jpg

Leon, don't you mean from Middleton, Nova Scotia?

Been able to pick up a few PC's lately, it is surprising how many small town teams produced these as a way to raise money. Just picked up a 1914 Ellensburg PC for $5. No one of note on the team except town forefathers.

The card was printed as a Canadian Prvate Postcard, so the back says....from Toronto.

Guess my Ellensburg, Washington PC is from St. Paul, Minnesota than :D . My bad.

I can certainly appreciate the "don't really care" if price goes up or down view but some of us have limited funds and at least like to have some idea about value before plunging into this. I never buy anything with aim to re-sell but on the other hand I can't afford to be cavalier about that. I posted this thread to try to find out in this strange new world (to me) of post carding, where there seem to be few graded cards, no price guides etc., if it's fairly easy to 1) judge what's a decent price to pay and 2) if you can sell cards at a decent price--if you have to some day. In other words: How different is this from collecting vintage baseball cards? Yes, I sometimes adhere to if-you-like-it-buy-it but more often have to keep at least one eye on enduring value...

I would say that the pre-war postcard market is a much thinner market, meaning more good deals to buy as your competition is much less but, on the other end, a much less reliable sell market as your customer base will be more limited. This excludes the big name players/teams which have risen in value significantly over the past few years and can sometimes top their traditional card counterparts in some cases.

I certainly wasn't trying to be disrespectful concerning the pricing. But if I pay $20 for a nice postcard, and it later sells for $18 or $25, it won't cause me to lose sleep. I think there is a heckuva lot less downside to these generic postcards than most of the baseball cards we collect....but that is just my opinion. I paid $11.61 and $2.00 shipping for that postcard I posted. If I put that in a well publicized auction, or on the BST (please see BST forum), I doubt I would lose much. In other words, I think these are a fairly safe and inexpensive way to collect really cool baseball cards. Hope this helps.

As with most things, rarity and desirability play a large part. The thing I like about postcards is that there is no guide. You can check recent auctions from Legendary, REA, Heritage and type in Postcard to see various cards selling and get an idea of what cards can go for.

Where do your interests lie? Since postcards can contain almost any subject matter and team and player, do you have your eyes set on any particular aspect? There are sets of postcards like the Cleveland Shop, American League Publishing, Topping & Co, Novelty Cutlery, etc. and then there are small run (perhaps even one off) RPPCs which are basically photos with a postcard back.

I think postcards, like with anything, dip your toes in the water and you'll see the lay of the land.

As mentioned previously, plenty of PC's can be had on a budget ($5-20). At $5-20 your margin for profit or loss are small. The occasional rarity with a known major leaguer can turn a small investment into a nice profit. My suggestion, just as in vintage baseball card collecting, would be focus to filter out the "noise".

What do you truly enjoy? For instance, sounds like Leon collects ballparks, I collect Washington semi-pro/minor league PC's; teams and fields from Central/Eastern Washington. If I wanted to collect PC's of the Ellensburg Rodeo I could buy 50 on fleabay right now, but narrowing the focus has kept my wallet on a chain so to speak. If I find 3 or 4 a year that fit my criteria I am happy. Best of luck on your new interest.

Yep, for non-pro postcards, price is based mostly on your own personal thoughts about aesthetics, as compared to that of others. I like that a lot.

Photos used to be the same way, and still are to some extent.

Baseball postcards are pretty much a popular subset of postcards in general. You can sometimes find them at antique shops in the postcard box for $1. It's usually more since sports are a popular topic.

Even with mainstream postcards there aren't many checklists. Mostly because the main companies used the same images over several years, and the postcard could have been "published" by the main company, or by multiple local businesses. A few years ago I saw the collection of a local collector who collected Lowell, Ma postcards. He had between 5-600 of them all different. And he didn't collect different backs. Nearly all of them were prewar.

The biggest producer was Curt-Teich. Their archive is online
http://www.lcfpd.org/teich_archives/...tion=home.view

Yes, that's 365,000 different postcards they show.:eek:
And just from one manufacturer. Detroit publishing was also pretty big.

Add to that sort of thing the probability that some from small towns were made locally.
And Real photo cards could be made from any photo negative by several companies including Kodak who offered postcards as an option.

Postcard collectors don't get as hung up on condition as we do. They have essentially the same grading system that was used for baseball cards years ago.
mint- not mailed and no wear.
near mint- not mailed only very slight wear
excellent- slight wear
vg
g
junk - The whole range of wear.
And with most dealers the condition won't matter much for pricing a common card. They just put them in the dollar box.

Mailed cards present a different range of challenges.
My brother collects West Point postcards. But has become less interested in unmailed ones or ones with the usual "saw this today" sort of message. The few he has with messages from Cadets are much more interesting. Just like a baseball postcard with a message from a player or about a game would be more interesting.

It's still a hobby that hasn't gotten too caught up with grading or completeness or anything like that. And although there are some expensive postcards- I know of one by Mucha that brought around $10K - there aren't many fakes. There are reprints of some really great images, but they're usually obvious.

Steve B

thanks a lot for lengthy and helpful reply....