Question on old postcard collecting

[BCauley]

I don't have any but have dabbled in trying to research these types of things a few times. I was always curious if anybody on here was ever lucky enough to stumble upon a bunch of them at an antique mall type place before as they always seem to have a basketful full or two of old post cards.

[riggs336]

I just like reading other people's mail. This message on a Wolverine News pc starts "Dear Pauline, Are you dead or married?"

[Leon]

Originally Posted by BCauley

I don't have any but have dabbled in trying to research these types of things a few times. I was always curious if anybody on here was ever lucky enough to stumble upon a bunch of them at an antique mall type place before as they always seem to have a basketful full or two of old post cards.

I go to antique stores and places as a pastime. I have looked through thousands of postcards and don't remember any I bought. Ebay and auctions have a plethora and they are fun to collect. This one is a rather common Indian team but a very scarce type of postcard. I was surprised I had to pay 500+ for it...but I liked it! It was written on the back by one of the team too. I would pay a little more for the cancellation and writing but that is just me. (and maybe a few others LOL)

[BCauley]

Originally Posted by Leon

I go to antique stores and places as a pastime. I have looked through thousands of postcards and don't remember any I bought. Ebay and auctions have a plethora and they are fun to collect. This one is a rather common Indian team but a very scarce type of postcard. I was surprised I had to pay 500+ for it...but I liked it! It was written on the back by one of the team too. I would pay a little more for the cancellation and writing but that is just me. (and maybe a few others LOL)

That's a great looking card! I agree with you, if I ever go looking to pick one of these up, I'd prefer to have writing on the back and the cancellation. Gives it a bit more of a story.

[BobbyStrawberry]

I started picking up some postcards last year and have had fun looking for them. I really don't know how to value them monetarily, but I love the writing and the cancellations on some of them. It's like a clearer window into the time period.

[nat]

I've shown it before, but here's a postcard mailed from Japan. In 1909 the University of Wisconsin sent its baseball team over to play a bunch of Japanese college teams. (Pro ball wouldn't start there for another 25 years.) The team sent two pitchers on the tour. One got injured in the second game, so Charles "Peck" Nash pitched all the rest of their games. Peck mailed this card back to a friend in Madison during the tour.

[JustinD]

I have plenty of more pricey RPPCs, but sometimes the most satisfaction can come from the least expensive.

This one was a cool fiver with free shipping and seems pointless -



However, the back is a write up on how they attended the opening game of the 1910 Cubs and Athletics World Series just the day prior.



Just fun stuff for pennies.

[GrewUpWithJunkWax]

I don't mind writing at all. Like already mentioned, it's a snapshot in time and can provide a glimpse of what life was like then. And if that lowers that item's value in the eyes of others, better off for us that can appreciate it.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Leon

I go to antique stores and places as a pastime. I have looked through thousands of postcards and don't remember any I bought. Ebay and auctions have a plethora and they are fun to collect. This one is a rather common Indian team but a very scarce type of postcard. I was surprised I had to pay 500+ for it...but I liked it! It was written on the back by one of the team too. I would pay a little more for the cancellation and writing but that is just me. (and maybe a few others LOL)

Hey Leon, the card was written by James E Beltzer, the owner/manager of the team. He co-owned the team with his brother Oren "Buck" Beltzer. They purchased the team from Guy Green around 1912. I got blown out of the water on that one. Not sure who your underbidder was, but it went for about $300 more than I bid, and $300 more than any Nebraska Indians postcard has ever sold for as far as I know.

[slidekellyslide]

I should add that James Beltzer is not shown on your postcard, but he is in this one. Far right in the dress suit. His brother Buck is wearing the regular Nebraska Indians uniform at the far left. Buck was an outstanding athlete at the University of Nebraska. The baseball field was named for him before we got a new ball park in 2001.

[steve B]

A nice one from the local stamp show.
The writing totally made it better.



And how I wrote it up with some help with images from members when I asked about it.




I've been doing similar pages for a lot of the miscellaneous ehemera I've gotten over the years. All of it stuff that was basically forgotten as to what it is and why it's special.

[Bigdaddy]

Not pre-war, but I picked up three Dormand Yankees postcards a couple of years ago off the 'Bay. All three were stamped and mailed to someone in the Bronx who must have requested them from the players. The J.Collins is signed on the back and the Rizzuto is addressed in his hand. Not sure about the addresses on the Collins and Bauer.

I would not trade these for nrmt copies without the writing and postmark/stamp.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Hey Leon, the card was written by James E Beltzer, the owner/manager of the team. He co-owned the team with his brother Oren "Buck" Beltzer. They purchased the team from Guy Green around 1912. I got blown out of the water on that one. Not sure who your underbidder was, but it went for about $300 more than I bid, and $300 more than any Nebraska Indians postcard has ever sold for as far as I know.

I like it so I went deep as only a collector does LOL....
As I remember you told me this one was valued around 300 and I paid 600 for it. ..... And I would do it all over again too.

[egri]

I prefer writing on mine. A couple of years ago, I was looking for old postcards of New England, specifically Rhode Island, where I grew up. I ended up with about eight of them. I enjoyed getting to read the notes on the back and see how my hometown had changed over the years, though not always for the better. One of them, depicting a boarding school nearby, had a note from a student to his aunt, another showed my church but before its steeple was built and some nearby buildings were torn down, and another showed the town's waterfront before it was built up.

[honus94566]

There are some really cool old postcards out there. The written text on this says "Your picture is on the wall of the Vendenn Cigar Store." Which was a cigar store in or near Weiser, Idaho, where he was playing when he was discovered by scouts from the Senators and promptly whisked off to the big leagues. So somebody who knew him in Weiser mailed him this postcard, probably not long after he left. Walter Johnson kept it and it was eventually sent to auction by his family estate. Super cool piece of history.

[jbsports33]

I really look at it this way when collecting early postcards, does the card have good eye appeal. Writing does not bother me too much and having the stamp is fine which helps date the postcard as well. If there is writing all over front and back, then I start to say may not want that at all. There are several issues, some of the higher end baseball ones that are most likely better with no stamp or writing if you will be grading them. The 1925-29 Exhibit Postcards are a good example! Good luck collecting!

Jimmy