Used Postal Card Question

I acquired a collection of postal cards perhaps covering all of the postmarks in our state. The are a variety of US Postal Cards. Almost all of them are blank with the exception of the cancellation. Looking at the Scott Specialized it seems to define used only by a "current cancellation." The used cards are almost all valued more than new and in the case of air mail cards the difference is substantial. OK - so is that all that is needed for a used card - just a current cancel even though there is no address, return address or content?

No, I think it has to be correctly used, not just cancelled to request.

To take it a step further, it has to be within the proper time period too.

To be fair to the catalogues, they can do nothing else. If you charge more for an addressed card, all people will do is write an address on the old cards. CSI Miami might be able to trace the fakes, but noone else will.

Yes, consider them favor cancels, or CTOs. As a history of post offices, it has some value, for sure, but as postally used, not so much.

To recite excerpts from the introductory paragraph from the Postal Cards section of the Scott Specialized Catalog of US Stamps:

Correct, which I assume can only be achieved without the use of add-on postage. So with no further ado, both of these I believe are "used" but example 2 will command less value than example one because it is not current with respect to postage - add on needed.

But here again we have yet another caveat in that both of the postal cards have no written address on them, so they are philatelically contrived and merely handed to a postal clerk for a postmark; not truly "used" in the sense that they saw postal use through the mailstream. That would diminish the value of both examples, in my opinion.

But then again, the value of much of this material is hardly etched is stone. If a motivated buyer and seller agree on a price, that's the true value of the item -- the catalog is merely a guide.

Well this is nothing I am losing a lot sleep over - more like a puzzle. Where I agree a willing buyer and willing seller determine ultimate value on these - just like other philatelic items, but as to the simple question of new or used they are "used" with no asterisks.

"Used" postal cards as valued in Scott and other catalogs are postally used, as in passing through the mail.

It looks like you came across a postmark collection.

It is common practice among postmark collectors to request a "favor cancel" on a postal card.

The goal is to get a good, clean strike of the postmark and not have it mauled by the postal service.

Depending on the depth and breadth of the collection, the whole collection may be of interest to a postmark collector.

Dan

I think this is a matter of different usage of the same word. I see nothing in Scott's that a "used" postal card for catalog purposes must be sent physically through the mail - only that it has a current postmark for that postal value. "Used" can also be used to describe "usage" for mailing purposes but that is a different train of thought. What one would choose to pay for such "used" postal cards is a matter of personal choice - but as a catalog descriptor, I think it can only be used.

Scouter,
Look to see if any of the post offices are no longer operating, (DPO's). Postmark collectors may have some interest, although most want postally used and not just the ones handed back unadressed. The first time I bought a box full of postal cards like that I thought that I must have every possible cancellation for my home state. When I did a little research I found that I was not even close. I have spent 25 years since I got that first box pursuing Minnesota cancels and I am closer, but there is still a long way to go.