Posted By:
JKDaniel,
A little research on the web and I found the full paragraph that your numbers came from. The came from a website discussing the history of postcards and under the subheading "Undivided Back Era, December 24, 1901 - March 1, 1907". The particular paragraph states:
"At the end of this period in time, the hobby of collecting postcards became THE GREATEST COLLECTIBLE HOBBY THAT THE WORLD HAD EVER KNOWN. The official figures from the US Post Office for their fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, cite 677,777,798 postcards mailed. At that time the total population of the United States was only 88,700,000!" (emphasis added).
http://www.emotionscards.com/museum/historyofpostcards.htm
Why is it that you chose to leave out the collecting part of the paragraph? Regardless, how is it that collecting postcards could be the greatest collectible hobby in the world at the time, but you refuse to believe that they were specifically purchased to be collected?
Edited several times to try and fix the link.