Whenever I see a museum exhibit I like to purchase a postcard showing the item that struck me the most in the exhibit. Sometimes I’ll see a card in my collection from an exhibit I’d entirely forgotten about, and all the memories will come flooding back.

Postcard collectors focus their collections in different ways, depending on their interests. Some people choose to collect postcards from their travels, a souvenir of trips to far away places. Others collect postcards from locales around the world, places they’ve never visited and might never see at all. Some build a collection of vintage and antique postcards.

The first postcards appeared in Austria in 1869. In 1873 they were introduced in the United States, but did not catch on largely due to government regulations. However, after the Private Mailing Card Act of 1898 was passed postcards zoomed to popularity. Printers began producing tons of postcards to keep up with the demand. Consumers were attracted to the fact that they required less postage than regular letters and used them as a colorful alternative to regular writing paper. The prevalence of postcards dropped off in around 1918, and today postcards printed between 1898 and 1918 are some of the most sought after by collectors of vintage postcards. Art Deco postcards created in the 1920s and 1930s are also popular.

Postcards tend to fall into a few specific categories, including view, holiday, photographic, and topics. View cards generally show a scene from a specific locale, such as a notable building or a beach, and are often collected by people who live in or have a tie to the area depicted. Holiday cards were sent as greeting cards for Christmas, Valentines Day, etc. and were usually drawn by an artist. Cards depicting specific subjects like movie stars, advertisements or flowers are called topic cards. Black and white photos were printed onto postcard papers to make photographic cards, which are some of the most valuable vintage cards.

When purchasing vintage postcards, keep in mind that the value is lowered by defects such as tears, creases, dirt and worn edges. Bits of glue left on the card from being pasted into a scrapbook can also bring down value.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 8:59 am and is filed under collecting fyi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.