Grading postcards with erasure marks

[Vintagedeputy]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

If there's a gently written dealer price on the back, Erase it. If it's anything to do with actually being sent. Don't.

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I have an antique dealer here who writes their four letter dealer code and a price on every piece of paper. They write on tobacco cards, postcards, exhibit cards, etc. I have asked them to stop doing that because they are ruining items and they just don’t seem to care. The funny thing is their prices are so high that they could certainly afford penny sleeves and a price sticker.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by Vintagedeputy

I have an antique dealer here who writes their four letter dealer code and a price on every piece of paper. They write on tobacco cards, postcards, exhibit cards, etc. I have asked them to stop doing that because they are ruining items and they just don’t seem to care. The funny thing is their prices are so high that they could certainly afford penny sleeves and a price sticker.

Dealers of every type do that for a reason. They find a 10 letter word where every letter is different. Each letter is 0-9. They use the letters to remember how much they paid for the item. A paper dealer may pick the word parchments. Therefore

P - 0

A - 1

R - 2

C - 3

H - 4

M - 5

E - 6

N - 7

T - 8

S - 9

If he paid $70 dollars for an items he would mark the back XXNP. This tells him how much he paid for the item with the X's being place holders. He could also use 2 numbers and 2 letters i.e. 15NM. This would tell him he purchased it in 2015 and paid $75 for it.

[BeanTown]

The secret has been out on postcards for years now, as they grow in popularity. IMO, having a stamp or period writing on them adds to the allure. Most postcard collectors could care less about the grade even though it’s a good idea to have graded to basically say it hasn’t been trimmed down. Lower graded postcards or cards with qualifiers on them allow for better buying opportunities and weed out the registry folks who just buy the holder grade.