What information I collect when you use this site or send me details about your postcards, why, and what happens to it. In short: it is used only to quote, buy and pay, and it is never sold or shared for marketing.

The short version

I collect the information you choose to send me so I can look at your postcards, reply with a quote, and, if you decide to sell, ship, check and pay for them. I do not sell your information, rent it, or pass it to other buyers, and I do not send marketing email. This page explains the details.

IBuyPostcards.com is run by Mike Ferreira, an individual collector and buyer based in Sarasota, Florida. When this page says "I", "me" or "my", it means me. When it says "you", it means anyone who visits the site or contacts me through it.

What I collect, and why

When you request a quote

The quote form asks for your name, your email address, optionally a phone number, the state the postcards are in, and details about the collection: roughly how many cards, what kinds, what era, how they are stored, their condition, where they came from, any price you have in mind, and a description in your own words. You may also upload up to twelve photos. I use all of this for one purpose: to understand the collection, make you an offer, and talk with you about it.

When you ask a question

The contact form asks for your name, your email address, optionally a phone number, and your message. I use it to answer you.

When you sell to me

If you accept a quote, I need a shipping address to create your prepaid label, and payment details for the method you choose: a PayPal or Zelle email address or phone number, a Venmo username, or a mailing address for a check. I use these only to ship and pay. I never ask for bank account numbers, card numbers or passwords, and you should never send them to me.

When you browse

Like most websites, the server keeps standard technical logs, such as the address your request came from, the page requested, the time, and your browser type, for security and to keep the site working. The site does not use advertising cookies or sell browsing data. A small number of strictly necessary cookies may be set, for example to protect the forms from automated spam.

Your photos

Photos you upload are stored privately, not on a public page, and are deleted automatically 12 months after you send them. Each photo is re-saved when it arrives, which removes the hidden information a phone attaches to a picture, including the location where it was taken. Only I can see them, through the private admin area of the site and through private links in the notification email sent to me. I use them only to evaluate your collection.

Who else handles your information

A few service providers are needed to run the site, and each sees only what its job requires:

• Web hosting, where the site and its database run.
• Email delivery, which sends form notifications to me and, where enabled, a receipt to you.
• Spam protection on the forms (Cloudflare Turnstile), which checks that a submission comes from a person.
• Shipping carriers, which receive your address on the prepaid label when you sell.
• Payment services such as PayPal, Zelle or Venmo, or the postal service for a check, when I pay you.

I do not share your information with anyone else unless the law requires it.

Email

I email you only about your collection or your question. You will not be added to a newsletter or a marketing list. If you would like me to stop writing, say so and I will.

How long I keep things

I keep quote requests and messages for as long as they are useful for answering you and for my records of purchases, and purchase records for as long as tax and business record-keeping rules require. If you did not sell and would like your submission and photos deleted, ask through the contact page and I will remove them.

Security

The site is served over an encrypted connection, the admin area is password protected, and photos are not reachable at public addresses. No system is perfectly secure, so please do not send sensitive information such as financial account numbers or identification documents through the site.

Children

This site is meant for adults. I do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18, and I do not buy collections from minors.

Your choices

You can ask what information I hold about you, ask me to correct it, or ask me to delete it, subject to any records I am required to keep. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under your state's law, and I will honor them. Use the contact page for any of these requests.

Changes

If I change how I handle information, I will update this page. The date at the bottom shows when it last changed.

Contact

Questions about privacy can go through the contact page. More about how selling works is on the how it works page, and the full FAQ answers most other questions.

Last updated October 15, 2026.

Details, for those who want them

Information you give me versus information collected automatically

Almost everything I hold comes directly from you, typed into a form or written in an email. The only information collected automatically is the routine technical data every web server records, and the anonymous signals the spam check uses to tell people from automated scripts. I do not buy information about you from data brokers, look you up on social media, or combine what you send with information from other sources.

How a quote request moves through the system

When you press the send button on the quote form, your answers and photos travel over an encrypted connection to the site's server. The answers are saved in the site's database. Each photo is opened, checked to make sure it really is an image, reduced to a sensible size, re-saved without its hidden metadata, and stored in the same private database. A notification email then goes to me with your answers and small private links to the photos, and a copy of the submission is filed in the private admin area so it cannot be lost if an email goes astray.

Cookies and similar technology

The public pages of the site do not use advertising or tracking cookies. The spam check may set a short-lived cookie or use similar browser storage to do its job, and the private admin area uses a session cookie so I can log in. If the site ever adds analytics, it will be configured to avoid identifying individual visitors, and this page will say so.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Because the site does not track visitors across other websites or sell personal information, there is nothing for these browser signals to switch off. They are respected by default.

State privacy rights

Residents of some states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and others, have specific rights over their personal information, such as the right to know what is collected, to correct it, to delete it, and to opt out of its sale. I do not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising, and I honor requests to know, correct or delete from anyone, regardless of where they live. I will not treat you differently for making a request.

Verifying requests

To protect you, I may need to confirm a request comes from you before acting on it, usually by replying to the email address you originally used. I will not ask for more information than that requires.

Sellers who are acting for someone else

Executors, family members and others often sell a collection on another person's behalf. If you give me information about someone else, such as the original collector, I treat it with the same care as your own and use it only for the sale.

Visitors outside the United States

The site is run from the United States and stores information there. I buy collections located in the United States, so most visitors and sellers are here. If you write from elsewhere, your information is handled under the practices on this page.

If something goes wrong

If I ever learn that personal information held for this site has been accessed without authorization in a way that puts you at risk, I will tell you promptly and explain what happened and what I am doing about it, as the law requires.

Summary by type of information

• Name and email: to reply to you and send a quote. Kept with your quote request.
• Phone number (optional): only if you prefer a call about a complicated collection. I do not make sales calls or send text messages.
• Collection details and photos: to evaluate and price the collection. Details are kept with your quote request and deleted on request if you did not sell. Photos are deleted automatically 12 months after you send them, or sooner if you ask.
• Shipping address: to create the prepaid label and, if needed, to return a collection. Kept with the purchase record.
• Payment details: the email, phone number, username or mailing address needed for the payment method you chose. Kept with the purchase record.
• Technical logs: for security and troubleshooting. Kept briefly and then discarded on a rolling basis.

If anything on this page is unclear, ask. A plain question deserves a plain answer.

Why this page exists

A collector buying postcards by mail does not need much of your information, and this page is meant to show exactly how little that is. If you are ever asked for something by someone claiming to act for this site that is not described here, such as a bank account number, a password or a fee to receive a quote or a payment, it is not from me. Please do not respond, and let me know through the contact page.