Collection Of Postmarks Cut From Envelopes Without Stamps

I recently was given a small ziplock bag full of cut squares from the USA 1960's mostly. The odd thing about the cover clippings is that they are just the circle date cancellation, no stamps tied to them. I was intrigued at first glance because the first town I saw was a small town located on the IL border along the Mississippi River and Route 66! It was Madison IL which is connected to Missouri via the unique old Chain of Rocks Bridge leading to St Louis. I spent an hour sorting out all the Route 66 towns I recognized and any from Illinois. I had seen late 18th century and early 19th century collections of just postmarks before, but hadn't thought about gathering contemporary postmarks. Especially when the cover is damaged, the cancellation does not tie the stamp to the cover, space constraints, or just for the heck of it. I may have a new collecting facet to work into my topical collections.

Does anyone else have a bunch of useless covers or trimmed postmarks laying around? Is there any value to this type of collecting?

Yes and No. Do I have them, YES! Are they worth anything, NO (at least not monetarily, but you sure do get a sense of history and geography by studying them.)

Every once and awhile I come upon a discontinued post office or some odd cancellation or date or whatever that makes the effort interesting.

Will it ever be valuable? Probably not. But stamp collecting is for the fun of the hobby and not for the idea of making money. There are many better investments available for making money, if that's the goal.

I wouldn't know how to search for it now, but Rod had posted in a thread how he dealt with stamps on piece and such. He just hinged them to an album page in two vertical rows. I think it would be valuable to the right person if presented nicely.

Not the most attractive...but it works .. and for only $1 or $2 for four of these organizers, it's cheap. It's really a plastic business card organizer. I typically cut the cancel to size to fit. If I wanted to, I could even insert an old business card in each pocket and isolate the cancels for a cleaner look.

I know it is all for fun and not investment, at least with me it is, for my hobby pursuits. I hadn't thought about business card holders. I selectively collect business cards so I am familiar with the pages that fit nicely in binders. Thanks for the suggestion. I put the ones I set aside in a stock book for now.