Easy Collections: Reading The Past On Postcards
01.25.08 By The DeanHere’s a collectible you may already have without even noticing. 
A friend visits the Mouse House in California and drops you a postcard. It goes in the drawer behind the stack of white socks you haven’t used since your health club membership ran out on the same day your health insurance payment was due. It was stacked in front of all the cards 
your sister-in-law sent on her trip across the country with every campground, National park, river and moose in the sunset she could find. (The one without the stamp, you had to pay for, still galls.)
Postcards give the collector tons of reasons to search for a specialty that interests them. We have had customers for all sorts of postcards. If I could break down all the categories, we’ll be here all day. Some sellers, mostly at antique malls, have large quantities in box after box with all sorts of separator cards that identify the subject matter.
Let me give you a few examples of what we have sold to buyers and their specialty. Many have purchased cards depicting places they associate with, a town they lived in, vacationed at, motel or summer camp from their youth.
Others go for the history, buying the oldest examples of a city 
or place, showing buildings, modes of transportation and fashion of the day, that help in identifying the date of the card. Some will only purchase cards with cancel stamps, as it sets the date of the card, others only want cards with clean backs – no writing or stamp.
The subject matters to others. Seeking comical subjects, advertising, states or places, 50’s theme motels, Route 66 cards, risque subjects, holiday greetings, specific animals (pigs etc.), world’s fairs, transportation (horse & buggy, cars, planes, blimps, etc), real 
photos, linen look cards, war time (especially WWI), interiors and bird’s- eye views of scenes (towns, army camps, etc). Some cards feature known artists, or publishers.
When I quizzed one buyer, looking through a collection I was selling at the Elkhorn Antique Flea Market, he informed me he always looks at the back first to see the condition and dated stamp before checking the subject on front. I enjoy reading the notes, and have had a series of cards to one person that revealed much of her relation with several travelers.
Now if your collection started with Aunt Mame’s bragging 
where she traipsed in the summer of 1969, (her summer of love and it must have been some “trip” based on her illegible writing) and you’re looking to add to the collection with photos of VW buses, East coast scenes, or dairy farms in Bethel New York, there are plenty of places for you to peruse.
As you get serious about any collection, remember to pay attention to quality, condition and price. Corner rounding is less of an issue on very old cards that are rare, but hold off for the best example after nineteen thirties postcards. 
Places that were popular attractions for visitors in the twenties , (New York City, Niagara Falls, Train Stops in The West, Florida) still have ample examples available at bargain prices.
Mom’s Motel in Bums Rush, Nevada only bought 150 cards of a sunset behind her 6 cabin complex (in the form of tee pee’s) before the state shut her down on July 10, 1951. Now find one of her cards sent by world traveler Bob Hope to his wife in California while he was on location, shooting one of his “On The Road” films and you have a super huge prize.
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