Old postcard notes from a collector

What this blog is for

These are field notes from a postcard collector who buys whole collections. Many people who have old postcards are holding a box or an album they did not put together themselves, and they want to know what it is before they decide anything. The posts here are written for them, and for anyone else who has started to notice that old postcards are more interesting than they look.

You will find practical pieces on telling one kind of postcard from another, dating a card from its back, spotting the cards collectors chase, and caring for a collection while you decide what to do with it. You will also find stories about particular kinds of cards: depots, main streets, holiday greetings, work and workers, and the photographers who made real photo postcards in thousands of small American towns.

Start here

If you are new to old postcards, these guides cover the essentials and are kept up to date:

• What makes an old postcard valuable, the honest version, including why most are common and which ones are not.
• How to date an old postcard from its back, border, surface and stamp box.
• Real photo postcards: what they are, how to recognize one, and why collectors want them.
• Town and main street views, and why a crossroads village can beat a big city.
• Holiday and greeting postcards, with Halloween at the top of the list.
• Topicals: trains, early cars, occupations, advertising, disasters and fairs.
• Inherited collections, for families and executors.

A short history of the American postcard

Postcards arrived in the United States in stages. The government issued its own postal cards from 1873, and privately printed souvenir cards appeared for events such as the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1898 Congress allowed private publishers to print cards that could be mailed at the same low rate as government cards, as long as they carried the words "Private Mailing Card". A few years later the simpler "Post Card" was permitted.

The real boom began in 1907, when the Post Office allowed a message on the address side. Suddenly there was room to write a note and still show a picture, and Americans took to it with enthusiasm. For the next several years, hundreds of millions of cards were mailed every year. People collected them in albums, swapped them by mail with strangers in other states, and sent a card for every holiday. Much of the finest printing was done in Germany, where lithographers produced richly colored and embossed cards at low cost.

At the same moment, photography became something ordinary people could do. Kodak sold cameras that made postcard-sized negatives and photo paper with a postcard back already printed on it. Local studios, traveling photographers and amateurs began making real photo postcards of everything around them: main streets, schools, churches, businesses, parades, floods, fires, farms and families. Those cards are now one of the best visual records of small-town America in the early twentieth century.

World War I ended the German supply and the craze cooled. Postcards became more standardized: white borders through the 1920s, the textured, brightly colored linen cards of the 1930s and 1940s, and then the glossy chrome cards that are still sold in gift shops today. Real photo postcards remained popular, especially in rural areas, into the 1950s.

Why old postcards are worth a second look

Most surviving postcards are common, and there is no point pretending otherwise. But collections are rarely all common cards. A family album may hold a handful of real photographs of a hometown that no longer looks anything like it did. A box from an estate sale may contain a run of Halloween cards from 1910. A dealer's leftover stock may include depot views from a railroad line that closed a century ago.

Those cards matter to people: collectors who focus on one state or one county, historians, genealogists, railroad enthusiasts, and families looking for a picture of the store a great-grandparent ran. Part of what I enjoy about buying collections is finding those cards and seeing them go to someone who has been looking for exactly that view.

How to use these posts

Read them in any order. Each one is meant to stand on its own, and most link to the guides above when a topic needs more background. If a post raises a question about your own cards, the contact page is the place to ask. I answer every message myself, and you do not need to be selling to write.

If you are ready to find out what your collection is worth, the quote form takes about ten minutes. You describe what you have, add a few photos if you can, and I reply by email with an offer. Shipping is free and insured, payment arrives within two business days of the box reaching me, and if the cards turn out different from your photos and you do not like my revised offer, I send them back free. The whole process is laid out on the how it works page.

A short glossary

A few terms come up often in these posts. Here they are in plain words.

• RPPC: real photo postcard, an actual photograph developed on photo paper that had a postcard back printed on it.
• Undivided back: a back with room only for the address, used before March 1907. Messages went on the front.
• Divided back: a back with a line down the middle, message on the left and address on the right, used from 1907 on.
• White border: a printed card with a white frame around the picture, common from about 1915 to 1930.
• Linen: a card printed on stock with a textured, fabric-like surface and bright inks, made from about 1930 into the early 1950s.
• Chrome: a glossy, photographic-looking color card, from about 1939 and dominant after 1950.
• Stamp box: the printed rectangle where the stamp goes. On real photo cards it often names the photo paper maker.
• View card: a card showing a place, from a main street to a mountain lake.
• Topical: a card collected for its subject, such as trains, occupations or Halloween, rather than its place.
• Embossed: pressed so that parts of the design stand up from the surface, typical of fine holiday cards before 1915.
• Hold-to-light: a card with cut or thin areas that glow when held up to a lamp, showing lit windows or a moon.
• Postmark or cancel: the post office's inked mark on a mailed card, showing the town and usually the date.
• Commons: collector slang for plentiful cards that sell for little individually.
• Silvering: a metallic sheen that appears in the dark areas of old silver-based photographs, including many RPPCs.

A note on accuracy

Postcard history is full of approximate dates and exceptions. Publishers reused old images for years, photographers kept using old paper stock, and the eras overlap at every boundary. Where these posts give dates, they are the ranges collectors commonly use, not hard rules. If you spot something that looks wrong, tell me. I would rather fix a post than leave a mistake in place.

The same goes for values. Prices for old postcards change with collector interest, and any figure is a general guide rather than an offer for a particular card. When I quote a collection, I look at the actual cards in your photos, not at averages.

Caring for a collection while you decide

Whether you plan to keep your postcards, sell them, or simply have not decided, a few habits keep them in good shape. Store them somewhere dry, at ordinary room temperature, away from basements, attics and outside walls where damp and heat collect. Keep them out of direct sunlight, which fades color and yellows paper. Stand loose cards upright in boxes rather than stacking them flat under weight, and leave albums closed on a shelf rather than piled up.

Handle cards by the edges with clean, dry hands. Avoid rubber bands, paper clips, tape and sticky notes, all of which leave marks over time. Do not try to clean, flatten or repair old cards: well-meant cleaning causes more lasting damage than dust ever does. And if you find mold, keep those cards apart from the rest in a paper envelope and mention them to whoever looks at the collection.

About the author

I am Mike Ferreira, a passionate vintage postcard collector based in Sarasota, Florida. I buy old postcard collections by mail from every state, with real photo postcards of small American towns at the top of my list. You can read more on the about page, or browse the frequently asked questions if you are wondering how selling works.