greeting cards

I know a lot of people look forward to Christmas simply because they can rotate their regular collections, swapping out the usual for holiday decorations. But some of us *cough-me* resist doing this.

Sure, it makes perfect sense, and more space, to pack up the usual collectibles, put them into the Christmas decoration boxes, and have hubby take them back to the attic or basement. But the way I see it, the holiday season is the time of year when you have the most visitors — and I want them to marvel at my stuff. So I’m continuing my Christmas decorating tips for collectors, looking for more ways to integrate our collectibles into our holiday decorating.

If you collect vintage or retro toys, of course you can pile them up around the tree to show them off (toys are so holiday), but what if you, like I, collect old paper?

Over at the Happy Holidays Blog, Len shows us how to decorate the tree using party horns, rattles and party hats from the 1920’s to the 1960’s.

Christmas Tree Decorated With Vintage Party Horns And Party Hats

Just how do you top that? With a vintage set of the classic fake nose glasses and a gold foil vintage party hat, of course!

Vintage Humor Shop Christmas Tree Top

Not only is this an awesome excuse to leave your tree up for New Year’s, it’s an amazing way to display ephemera for the holidays. How about a tree decorated in vintage postcards, antique trading cards, your retro baseball cards, or your bookmark collection? Add stars to your Christmas tree with vintage movie star cards! It’s simple: Keep each item in an individual plastic sleeve and hang them with ribbon.

But Len didn’t only impress me with his Christmas tree ephemera decorations; his holiday decorating was even inspired by ephemera — by a vintage magazine illustration! Gotta love Len; he might even get me excited about decorating my Christmas tree again!

Since we’re speaking of ephemera, I have to show you Annette’s idea for displaying holiday cards — the secret is the paper clip, which safely holds the card in place.

Safely Display Greeting Cards

Sure, lots of us have done something similar, but often the cards are taped or pined to the ribbon and that certainly doesn’t preserve them well, either for your personal memories or future collectors. And that yarn or string version in which you place the cards in a ‘V’ over the string, well, we all know how much room that takes up — and how well those cards don’t stay put. So try Annette’s suggestion and both your sanity and the cards are preserved.

Plus, you can do this to display your vintage greeting cards and other smaller ephemera items too. Just keep each piece of old fragile paper in a plastic sleeve, and let the festive silver paper clip show them off!

I’m not sure how many true post card collectors are out in the world, but I can tell you there are so many specific niches that almost anyone can add post cards as an augmentation to their collecting habit.

I have thousands of post cards, not a ton of thousands but several thousand. Most are acquired in batches at auctions, flea markets or estate sales. I’ll spot a stack, look through them to see if they have age or subjects that will interest me, then I count the cards and determine a price I would be willing to pay.

I have offered post cards on our Ebay site, in our mall store and I usually set out a box when we do a flea market. Flea market selling is always great fun, the thrill of the sale, bargaining with a buyer till both parties feel they came out ahead. Asking questions and talking with people about their passion.

From these conversations I have learned there are exactly 472 reasons or categories to divide post cards into. If you have ever visited a large antique mall or flea market you know someone always sets up a table filled with box after box of postcards. Often the cards are cataloged by state, with local states subdivided by cities and a stack of foreign cards somewhere in back. Some vendors with prior knowledge of customers’ wants will also stack special categories together. A 3×5 card sticks up with the subject title badly printed on the top.

These flea market chats reveal some interesting quirks collectors tumble into, and these are just a few of the 472 subgroups. Transportation (cars, horses, boats, planes, trains), interiors (often restaurants), birds eye views (large complexes, military bases), Holiday cards, greeting cards, special places (religious, theme parks, tourist spots, gardens, zoos, beaches, large buildings), 1950s motels, old hotels, small town main streets, comical or risqué cards (pin-ups). Advertisers have often used post cards, with car dealerships sending notes on the latest arrivals. Special types: Copper (Kopper) clad cards, real photo, linen look, embossed cards, glossy and leather cards interest other specialty collectors. Pets and small children always warm the heart, and display well in a home or office.

One customer was looking for post cards with bridges, another wanted farm animals. I have had collectors only wanting cards without writing or stamps, and just the opposite from another with the stamp having the cancel mark over it to prove it was mailed on the cancel date. This one has an added sticker, and was the only reason I sold a stack with “Par Avion” to one person.

Let’s share my own preferences. I have a penchant for stamped and dated cards, giving me a place that it came from and the location of the recipient. I have enjoyed the sentiments expressed and the simplicity of the text. “Weather is warm”, “wish you were here”, “having a great time”, “Arrived today”, “Leaving Tomorrow” , “It’s so Beautiful”, “Many Happy Returns of the Day”.

Others were more conclusive.

From Green Bay to West Allis, Wisc. “I haven’t started to work yet, we did not get our tools so we can’t work”.

In a 1920 card from Brigham, Utah. “I’m in Utah now visiting my son, yes its awful – the young men here with arms and legs gone, hundreds of them. Do you like Utah cards, I will be here awhile.”

I purchased a batch some years back at an estate sale in Kenosha WI. The lady must have been special, with many friends traveling the West and South over a period of quite a few years starting in the teens. Each sending wonderful notes back to her home and wishing she had traveled with them. Then writing again at the next town down the line.

Now let me explain a quick trick I use often when looking at “lots” of like items. Post cards are easy, so are records. Count out ten cards, place them on a flat surface and match another stack to the first. Duplicate your effort and you quickly hold a stack of forty. Now use the forty to estimate how many forties are in the total box. From my experience, post cards are about seventy to the inch, so I often carry a ruler with my magnet and magnifying glass when shopping flea markets or estate sales. If you are a record collector, before you venture out again, measure how many 78 or 33rpm records fit within an inch. Harder to judge are boxes or containers filled with buttons, match books and the like. I try to count the top layer and the number of layers thick, to get a quick estimate of quantity and how much an individual item will cost.

As always, good hunting. The joy of collecting is three quarters in the hunt and three quarters in bragging about your successes.

Paper plays such an important role in the world of collecting. All types of paper objects are collected and for many different reasons. For example, a bank collector knows that his 1910 cast iron mechanical bank if in the original box, would double its price. Others search for a stack of trading stamps from an obscure retailer circa 1960. Books, magazines, posters, signs, paper labels, greeting cards, photographs, postcards, receipts, letters, advertising calenders, restaurant menus, playbills, maps, bus passes, sports and theater programs, blue prints, bar coasters, sheet music and newspapers are some of the types of collectible paper material I have dealt with in the antique business. If you check back through older posting here at Collectors’ Quest, you’ll see lots of references to ephemera and its importance to collectors, and you will find my own preference for old magazines.

We were promised a paperless world when the computer and Internet were introduced and while some paper items are going the way of the Edsel, others still remain. My local grocer has 187 magazine titles on display around the courtesy counter. Ninety-two have the same celebrity on the cover, the other 95 have 101 ways I can improve something about myself or my surroundings. So it looks safe for future collectors of that genre. Restaurant menus may be plastic coated paper, but that just means they will be cleaner when a collector displays them. Playbills are handed out at theaters and our local newspaper is still in paper form for now. Calendars look to be safe, books are plentiful, as are paper signs, posters and playing cards. Airline sickness bags are made of paper, (Yes, bunky, they are a collectible) and probably will be way into the future.

If I worry too much, it’s only because I’m concerned for the future ephemera collector. Will the printed newspapers die off completely? It’s already so thin I have to beg friends to save theirs so I have enough to wrap and ship collectibles to our buyers. Will electronic bill paying leave the future collector without a paper trail of receipts?

Today alone I received three emailed quotes on products I sell in my day job, that got sent out the same way they came in. Catalogs are showing up in electronic form, and take up no shelf space. Blue prints are no longer blue as CAD designing made the drafting table,T square and plastic templates obsolete. But who can argue with 3D designing. Record covers, if they can be referred to as such, are so small they make a very poor display. And what could you do, take 9 in a square to form a collage?

Today the lowly autograph of a long ago sports figure scrawled on the back of an envelope or bar napkin will fetch a very good price, but will that be true tomorrow when all these personalities “Sharpie” their names on clothing and unused sports gear, at “signings”, drawing in the masses.

When was the last time you wrote a letter, or for that matter can you remember sending a post card? With digital picture frames, how long before its to passe’ having the family portrait printed on paper and hung inside a wooden frame?

Now let me get back to the toy in its original box. I’ll only touch on this from my point of view. I suggest you need to see one of our other writers, Collin David, to really get into the subject of toy collecting. My prospective comes as a grandparent. Have you tried to get one of those new toy sets out of the box without a blow torch, wire cutters and sometimes a jackhammer? The parts are wired, taped and screwed onto the packaging. What future collector is going to find one of these toys in its original box? And if it’s a small toy it will be sealed in a plastic bag, or bubbled under cardboard that requires a straight razor to cut open.

So let’s all look twice before an old scrap of processed tree is put into the recycle bin and save a bit of yesterday’s history for future paper collectors.

A fellow blogger, Deanna, has piqued my curiosity with her latest article. She writes of finding unusual, and sometimes monetary, treasures in old boxes of greeting cards, antique books and vintage magazines she had purchased. Since we have copious amounts of all of these, it gave me the incentive to rush down to our basement and check out our inventory.

After several hours of scoping out ”old paper”, there were some treasures to report. Let’s see what I found.

First of all, Deanna is right – those old greeting cards are charming. While I found no money inside, I did discover a few cute notes; one friend berating herself for not remembering a loved one’s birthday! Another card from the 1950s was addressed to “Pookie” from ‘Hug-a-Bug”, awwww.

Inside a Ladies Home Journal magazine from the 1940s, I found a single playing card. It shows Uncle Sam with an American Eagle and streamers that read “Keep ‘em Flying.” Planes hover overhead. No doubt a reference to supporting our troops in World War II.

Inside a book by Charles Dickens called “Christmas Stories”, I found two ‘book-marks.’ One was a business card from the West End Tavern in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, boasting of “real beer” and sandwiches. It also reads “Table Service for the Ladies.” The phone number of BLuemound 9718, really adds to its age!

Further back in the book was a tiny envelope. It was from the Sheridan Motel in Cudahy, Wisconsin (a nearby suburb of Milwaukee.) This little envelope was left on a pillow with a welcome message and a “God speed on your way” sentiment. Presumably to leave a gratuity for the service people, this hotel guest chose to mark a page in her book instead.

Another book brought forth a cloth patch! It was in a Robert Louis Stevenson Reader, quite old, but the patch was for Winter Olympics in 1972 for the Boy Scouts. Not sure of the correlation there.

While scouring through a very interesting magazine from the early 30s called “Modern Priscilla” I found a notecard with “Your Omen for Today.” With a 1929 copyright by the Automaton Corp. of Cleveland, Ohio, it gave a ‘fortune’ to the reader.

A large book called “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” held a ticket stub from a Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus, in 1974. Further back I found a playing card with Joe Schmidt-Linebacker of the Detroit Lions (1953.) The original deck of cards was for all the NFL teams (some teams have changed locations, many their logos.)

A 1930s magazine called “Country Gentleman” held a surprise! Inside was a green ‘ribbon’ from a local high school. It reads “Don Bosco 1^st in State.” Nice shape too, even though it is vintage.

Probably the best came in a box of greeting cards for kids. Resting at the bottom of the box, was a post card from 1932, to a lady in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was from 20 Mule Team Borax (Pacific Coast Borax Co.) It is a typed card thanking her for her vote on their best radio program. The winner – by a landslide – was Death Valley Days. It was ’signed’ by “The Old Ranger.” He stands before a microphone marked “NBC.” Nice collectible!

I should mention that I also found a few dead bugs, a pressed flower or two, and a Kleenex, but those were tossed out! I will definitely keep looking for these ‘hidden treasures.’ Who knows what is behind the next page?

Images of sorrow, pictures of delight
Things that go to make up a life

These lyrics from Home By The Sea (Genesis, Genesis, 1983) always come to mind when at an estate sale. No where is this more evident to me than in those boxes of greeting cards which I compulsively drag home with me.

And you do know by now that when I say ‘boxes’, I do mean real boxes, not shoe boxes, right?

These boxes of old greeting cards are gold to me — and they should be to you too.  But if I say that then you and I will be elbowing one another at the next estate sale… That’s not good for me personally.

But underneath this warrior-collector and hoarding fool beats a heart of gold. So, being the nice girl that I am, I’m going to ’show & tell you’ some secrets of collecting these boxes of greeting cards, Thursday Thirteen style.

There’s gold in dem dere boxes, and its not just the greeting cards themselves.

The first thing you must do when you get a box of old greeting cards is go through them and open each and every one of them. Yes, you are going to see a lot of Jesus cards, enough foil cards to possibly damage your retinas, and more ugly & boring cards than you can imagine. But it is worth it, as you will see.

You do this for several reasons.

The first being that you have to get the cards out of, and away from, the envelopes.

The glue on the envelopes and even the paper used for them is bad news for pretty cards. Not only will the glue stick to and rip cards, but the acid will tan the cards, as shown on this vintage Valentine.

(Yes, it tans and marks the inside as well.)

The other reason you open each and every card is to read and enjoy them.

Along with greeting cards — holiday cards, sympathy cards, get well cards, thank you notes etc. — people write their best wishes & their news. Reading the cards you get a real sense of the former owner’s life.

If that seems too voyeuristic for you, consider your reading a way of keeping that person’s life and memory alive. In that sense, it’s no different than reading a biography.

But what makes a box of old greeting cards such a treasure trove is that frequently people also sent along photos and other paper items. Clippings of births, weddings, deaths, and other events are common place.

In my first really big score (5 boxes of greeting cards from one estate), I found a wedding announcement from my then-husband’s family. It was from the 1940s or so, so it was on different branches of the tree, but my then mom-in-law was thrilled because they had no record of the wedding for the genealogy project she was (constantly) working on.

Also in that box we found a $50 bill. (Because, yes, people often include money in gift cards.) That paid for my five $5 boxes twice.

It hasn’t happened again since that time, but who knows? It makes opening each card sound that much more fun now, doesn’t it?

As a collector I’ve discovered another secret about these boxes of greeting cards.

Because this person saved these cards and clippings in ‘that desk drawer’, they tended to toss into that drawer other paper items such as souvenirs, clippings and even trinkets of their own. Perhaps for that ‘one day’ scrapbook. If you’re an ephemera lover, then these boxes of ‘junk paper’ that families are too annoyed with, or bored by, to search through can be boxes of heaven.

Here are few of those glorious ephemera finds:

A 1936 receipt or a money order from Security National Bank.

A check stub for the above Doris, for her work as a teacher at Howards Grove Public Schools. (I know some teachers who feel they make the same salary now.)

A program for The Community Players of Sheboygan, 1938. (For more on such things, see here.)

A 1924 Perfect Attendance Certificate — no wonder Phipps became a teacher!

Folded inside this several page packet of family history, was this photo Christmas card from the Calveys. (From this I now know that Lorraine Pool Maersch and I share(d) a birthday — the day, not the year, thank-you-very-much.)

A slick flier on the Japanese Exhibition House, The Museum of Modern Art, Summer 1954. (You can click this to see it in more detail, however it is cropped to show the diagram/floor plan as it was too long for the scanner — if you really must see it all or know more, contact me.)

Everyone of that certain age had clippings of those poor Dionne quintuplets; Phipps was no exception.

I can’t believe I scanned any part of this… It’s a six page typed tribute (eulogy) by Janice for her dead brother, Dr. Kenneth G. Weckel. I’ve never had the guts to read it past the start of the third paragraph & I’m only showing you the top portion because I don’t want to be insensitive. One day I will read it.

Lastly, this vintage pharmacy postcard (postmarked 1959).

From Grube Pharmacy, this postcard was mailed to physicians, promoting the virtues of their pharmacy services — which included the presentation of the pharmacists home number.

And with that, she fainted.

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