Ok...auction just ended on this Rose Company postcard

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Posted By: Dave

Are postcards considered less valueable if they have writing on the back and have been mailed?

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Posted By: Paul

Yes, usually they are considered to be less valuable to most. Also, SGC is very harsh on postcards with any writing on them.

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Posted By: Dave

thanks Paul. does the type postcard make any difference? I'm assuming maybe some more rare type cards it may not make as much of a difference?

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Posted By: Paul

It wouldn't make much difference to me if it was a postally used Weiser Wonder Johnson, so I agree with that.

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Posted By: Dave

This is the auction I was inquiring about...it just ended...worth the price?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280095624246&rd=1&rd=1

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I prefer postcards that have nice, neat letter on back and postmark, in part because because postcards are supposed to have letters and in part the postmark helps date. I remember a Giants stadium postcard that had a vintage note about seeing Mathewson pitch the day before and dated by postmark. For me, the note should, if anything, raise the value.

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Posted By: Steve M.

I have never understood why the grading companies are so hard on postcards with writing on them. After all isn't that the purpose of a postcard, i.e. to write on? Why then should they be held to the same standard as a card that was not intended to be written on?

I personally like postcards that have been written on and mailed. I can be assured that the card is authentic and many times they contain contemporaneous baseball content that gives me a glimpse into the past.

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Posted By: RC McKenzie

looks like a good price for the buyer to me. Sometimes the writing can be very interesting. i.e. 'Cubs rally to win by 3' or the like. In this case the writing isn't legible from the scan. i'd have paid 360 if i'd seen it as these dont show up alot. regards

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Posted By: anthony

it is different and neat, and in my opinion i dont mind over paying for a card i really want... too many major creases for me

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Posted By: Steve M.

Rose are admitedly tough but considering the condition of this one price was strong. I expectd it to go in the range of $250 or so. A nice creseless one would probably fetch $600. (And the fact that it was written on has no affect on my opinion of value)

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Posted By: RC McKenzie

Steve, how much would a Keeler in nice shape sell for on ebay?

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Posted By: Joann

None of the postcards I have were postally used, but I think I would prefer if they were. This would be especially true if the writing had baseball content and/or an address in Detroit I recognized.

Most of what I collect is Detroit players, and the few PC's I've seen (but not won) that were postally used had some bb content in the writing, and addresses within Detroit that I vaguely knew.

Even such little things as the different address formats can be a neat little peek at the times. Addresses were much shorter, and more sparse, then.

Joann

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Posted By: Jerry Spillman

Goodwin's February 15, 2007 Auction:

http://www.goodwinandco.com/auction/baseball/vintage_postcards/97/

http://www.goodwinandco.com/auction/baseball/vintage_postcards/98/

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Posted By: davidcycleback

With vintage autograph collectors, autographed postally used Government Postcards are desirable. For those who don't know what a GPC looks like, it's just like a boring 3x5 index card except one side has the postal printing and, if used, the stamp and postmark. The postmark shows when the autograph and/or note was placed on the card. If you have a 1953 postmarked Ted Williams autograph, you still will want to make sig isn't secretarial, but you can be confident the handwriting is from 1953 ... Further, being able to date a Ted Williams signature to 1953 increases the value as his earlier signature will be more desirable than, say, an index card signed when he was 77.

Whether it's a 1975 GPC or a 1909 picture postcard, a postmark means the card was officially dated by the Federal Government-- and I don't see why that would be a detrimental thing

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Posted By: Martin Neal

I don't own have many baseball related postcards but I really enjoy this one. It appears the Anheuser Busch people have been baseball fans for quite a while. This one was mailed to Nellie Anheuser (Adolph Anheuser's only child.

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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

I'm not a postcard expert by any means, but I do have a lot in my collection. The impression I've always received from postcard collectors and dealers (not necessarily those who focus only on sports) is that postmarks and writing on the backs don't dramatically affect value. If a postmark bleeds through to the front, then yes, that's a problem. But typical usage isn't a big factor.

This doesn't take into account PCs slabbed by the all-knowing grading companies, who, as it has been pointed out here, have deemed writing and postmarks to be cause for severe downgrading.

Like others have said, I like postmarks and content on a PC. I think it adds to the collectabilty, if not the value.

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Posted By: Dylan

While we as individual collectors might value a postcard more due to content of someones writing, a grading company cant take that into consideration. While i agree that writing on a postcard shouldnt be detrimental, if i had pristine unused postcards i wouldnt want them graded the same as used ones, it goes both ways.

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Posted By: Joe D.

I most definitely prefer writing on a postcard and love when they are used postally.

If the writing has baseball content - then its an even bigger plus.



A pristine, unused postcard is kind of boring to me.

Give me one where the person calls it the "best team he is ever seen", or "the best bet in town", or "I just went to Thursday's game". Stuff like that - can't be beat.


My personal preference aside, writing knocks the grade down to an SGC 10 or SGC A (depending on their mood) - so the boring postcards do bring a higher value



Edit to say:
Look at Martin's postcard. Postally used just before the World Series between the Mighty Cubs and the Hitless Wonder White Sox. Yet the person states, "These are what all of Chicago is raving about"... and it is the Hitless Wonders Postcard - before they won the series against the mightier opponent! How anyone would prefer that to be blank is beyond me. Awesome baseball content.

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Posted By: Steev M.

I would suspect that a nice Keeler, together with a couple of nice commons, might go for $1,500 on ebay.

Seriously though a Keeler would probably go for close to $2,000 if not more.

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Posted By: Jerry Spillman

Joe,

Here's a couple of postcards where the writer didn't leave much open space on the card. They were both written by the same office co-worker as the addressee, Ruby Panton. Ruby must have been a popular personality at work that left to get married and leave "the old maids". Tough to read the crammed writing style but the sentiment of the messages are realized.

Have a couple of postcards that the writer mentions baseball. I'll try to post them later.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I think the essential grading problem is that postcards aren't trading cards. In many ways they're similar to trading cards, but they aren't trading cards. To start, a 1933 Goudey wasn't made to have a letter written on it and to be dropped in the mail box. So grading postcards exactly as if they are trading cards doesn't work exactly.

Whether a postcard is better unusued or with letter/postmark is up to the individual collector. A baseball card collector may collect them as cards, wishing them to be unmarked mint condition. Others collect postcards as historical artifacts, and a relevant letter about WWI or the U of Michigan football game adds quality. A collector may prefer a unique old postcard be postmarked and stamped so they can be confident of the age. Those are all valid bases for judging a postcard, and a PSA or SGC grade shouldn't be considered the arbiter for the question.

From a practical standpoint, one reason the hobby knows the Pinkerton postcards are from the 1910s, and not much later as some worried, is that a few of the blank backs were used as postcards and have the 1910s postmark. The postmarks/letters proved they were from the 1910s.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

Unlike most cards, post cards were designed to be written on. The writing on the back doesn't bother me and in some instances actually increases my interest. Like this one, in which the writer writes about the player pictured.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I collect Nebraska Indian postcards and much prefer that they have been mailed as often times there is something mentioned about the game on the card - this is often times the only written record that can be found about the games the NI played because many of the small towns they played in didn't have newspapers or the game just wasn't reported on.