How to recognize a chrome card
Chrome cards are smooth and shiny, with color that looks photographic rather than painted. Many have white borders in their early years and full-bleed images later. The backs usually carry a printed caption, a publisher's name, and often a code number. If a card feels textured and looks painted, it is probably a linen from the 1930s or 1940s. If it is glossy and photographic, it is a chrome.
The Union Oil Company series of 1939 is often cited as one of the first widely distributed chrome postcard series in the United States. After World War II, chromes quickly took over, and they are still the standard postcard today.
Why most chromes are common
Chrome cards were printed in enormous quantities for a booming tourist trade, and collectors and travelers saved them by the shoebox. Many survive unused in mint condition. With so many identical cards and relatively few collectors seeking them, most sell for very little.
It is honest to say that a collection made up only of modern chrome tourist cards is worth a modest amount. That does not mean it is worthless: the right subjects are collected, and in quantity even common cards have some value.
The chrome subjects collectors want
Roadside America. Diners, drive-ins, motels with neon signs, gas stations, tourist traps and roadside attractions from the 1940s through the 1960s. Specific, long-gone businesses are the most wanted.
Route 66 and famous highways. Anything clearly identified with a historic road has a following.
Amusement parks and early theme parks. Defunct parks, carnival rides and early cards from major theme parks attract collectors, especially from their opening years.
Mid-century cars and transportation. Cards where period cars, airliners, streamlined trains or bus stations are prominent.
Advertising. Business-issued cards for products, restaurants and hotels, especially with the business name on the back.
Architecture. Mid-century modern buildings, shopping centers and motels attract design enthusiasts.
Small towns. Just as with earlier cards, chrome views of small towns and main streets are scarcer than big-city skylines.
Chromes in a collection
Most collections include chromes, often from later family trips added to an older album. I count them in every quote, but they are rarely what decides the number. If you are sorting through a box, the useful thing to know is that the older, non-glossy cards are usually where the value lies, and those deserve the closer look.
Continental size
From the 1960s and 1970s many chromes were printed in a larger size, roughly 4 by 6 inches, often called continental size. Older standard-size chromes are generally of more interest to collectors than later continental cards, though subject still matters most.
Why chromes still matter
It would be easy to dismiss chrome postcards altogether, but they are now old enough to document places that have vanished. A 1950s chrome of a downtown department store, a drive-in theater, a bowling alley with a space-age sign or a motel pool surrounded by period cars shows mid-century America as it saw itself, and some collectors focus on exactly that. Cards of businesses that closed long ago, towns that changed beyond recognition, and architecture that has been demolished are the chromes most likely to interest someone.
The key, as with older cards, is specificity. A chrome of a generic beach sunset will always be common. A chrome of a named diner on a two-lane highway in a small Nebraska town might be the only color picture of it anywhere.
Unused sets and souvenir packs
Many chrome cards were sold in souvenir packs and folders and kept unused. Large quantities of unused tourist cards, especially duplicates, are common and have little value individually. If a collection includes boxes of identical unused chromes, mention it; I may suggest leaving those boxes out entirely to save you the trouble of shipping them.
A quick way to sort chromes from older cards
If a box mixes eras, a fast first sort is simply by finish: glossy and photographic in one pile, everything else in another. The non-glossy pile is where the older and generally more valuable cards will be. You do not need to do this before getting a quote, but it can help you describe the collection: "about a third chromes, the rest older" is a useful sentence for a buyer to read.
Photographing chromes for a quote
You do not need to photograph every chrome card. One picture of a stack or a box shows the quantity, and a few close-ups of anything unusual, such as a named diner, motel, gas station, amusement park or mid-century car, show what stands out. Spend the rest of your photos on the older cards in the collection, which usually matter more.
Questions people ask
What is a chrome postcard?
A glossy, photographic color postcard, made from around 1939 to today.
Are chrome postcards worth anything?
Most are worth little individually. Roadside businesses, defunct parks, early theme park cards, mid-century cars and advertising cards are the exceptions.
Are old Disneyland postcards worth anything?
Early cards from the park's first years can interest collectors, especially in fine condition, but many were printed in large numbers and are common. Specific early attractions and unusual cards are worth a closer look.
Do you buy chrome postcards?
Yes, as part of a larger collection that includes older cards. A box of only modern chromes I usually decline, because the value is too modest to justify shipping both ways.
How can I tell a 1950s chrome from a recent one?
Older chromes are usually standard size with white borders and period cars or clothing, and their backs often carry older publisher names and divided-back layouts with stamp boxes. Recent cards are larger, full-bleed and printed on heavier, glossier stock.
Sources and further reading
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