A Little Help

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone here can steer me in the right direction. I am not a collector but came upon some old post cards with stamps and cancellations of a post office that is no longer active. I know that some folks collect these sorts of things and by searching for such folks I ended up here. Now that I am here I do not know which forum to go in or who to contact to see if anyone may be interested in any of these things. Since I am not that good on the computer and really don't know much about forums, anyone that can offer some help may email me and I will get back to them quickly. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Eric

I am getting the hang of the site now and understand about reading the replies. if anyone has any help to offer I will read any replies, thanks,

Eric

Hello, Eric... welcome to the forum...

The best place to begin (here) would be by uploading
some scans for all to view, which would enable some
of us to offer advice...

Randall

Thanks Randall. I appreciate the help. Here are some photos of the backs of some postcards. Some of the dates are: 1906, 1911, 1916, 1919.

A few of these are from Houlton, ME, Patten, ME, & Discontinued Post Office called Golden Ridge, ME.

If you need any other information regarding the cancellation or stamps, just let me know what to do.

Thanks Again.

Eric.

Judging from your scans, there appears to be mild water damage on a few of the cards. This will, of course, subtract from potential value. As far as the stamps go, the all appear to be very common Bureau of Engraving and Printing issue stamps. They are not worth much in and of themselves unless they happen to be a rare variety (unlikely but still a small possibility). However, cancels from Discontinued Post Offices (DPOs) can at times be more valuable. However, it appeals to a small niche of collectors, so finding the right buyer can be difficult at times. I won't attempt to offer a value on them as cancels are not an area I consider myself incredibly knowledgeable in, but I will assure that they will be desired by someone for a collection

Thank you for the input Sportfanatic1, I certainly appreciate it. I am not concerned really on what I can get for these, but rather, who would be interested in them for their collection. I collect old telephone pole insulators and don't care if they are common pieces worth less than a dollar or a tougher to find piece worth $20-$30. So I figured the same would apply to collectors of postage marks and/or stamps. Thanks again,

Eric

Just a Reminder -- you're welcome to ask questions and learn -- you may NOT engage in buy/sell activities. Read the Forum Rules.

Moderator

Thanks for that heads-up Kirk, I guess I don't know what else to do for now as I only have $12 in my Paypal account. I'd like to stick around for 60 days until I am eligible to buy/sell/trade, but simply can not afford that at this time, perhaps I should come back when my bank account is a bit larger, thanks again for pointing out the rules of the forum. I'll try to come back when there is more money in my paypal account.

Eric

And while I realize rules are made to keep order and to try and prevent people from circumventing said rules, There just must be a way to allow for some circumstances. I realize that you don't want people just coming here and soliciting their wares. And though I am soliciting these items, I am more concerned about them getting them into the hands of a legitimate collector opposed to being the next fuel for the wood stove. I of course know these items are not worth much in the way of monetary value but to a collector it doesn't matter, collecting interests comes from within. So to "suggest" a "donation" of $X can be counter-productive for the hobby. Again while I am not a collector I do run into things that collectors within the hobby might appreciate, and I am not a fan of ebay, so I would rather pass them on to people within the hobby right at the source, and while not looking to make a great boon on what I may have to offer, I certainly am not going to pay people to take what I have to offer. I would indeed first see it in flames before that happens. So is it possible to reconsider your rules regarding posting in the buy/sell/trade area, or perhaps is there another way that I may get these things into the hands of interested parties without having to pay them for the convenience? thanks again,

Eric

Eric, please understand that the PC's shown above might bring $1 -$2 tops. Unless there is a very scarce stamp on them they are very common. Postcard rate was 1¢ for domestic mail and 2¢ for foreign mail and these were the most common stamps and produced in the Billions. The expensive stamps for the most part are the high value stamps.

I agree and that is totally understandable Stallzer, I will again refer to my hobby of collecting old telephone pole insulators, they served a utilitarian purpose much as stamps and cancellations did, therefore, though old, there may not be much value to them. But again that being said it is not about the money to me( or the collector of said pieces), it's about getting them into the hands of the genuine collector that would appreciate them. And per the rules of this particular site I can not justify spending the money to have the ability to sell/buy/trade here only to have the privilege of paying someone to take my items. I don't mind coming out even, but in order to do so it must be an even exchange of my dues to be rendered in order to have the ability to sell off these items. If dues can be "adjusted" for me to post these items for no more than $3-$5, so be it, and we can be done with it. To those who would be interested can have them at this amount and and such I would give that amount to the site for whatever they deemed right for the hobby. Or even if it were one dollar. But to have the site charge me more in dues than I would get in sale would be moronic on my part. And though I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, I have been used often and know my value. I want not much for my effort and if only to get this stuff into the hands of a collector would be more gratifying( well almost) short of winning the lottery than I can expect. I once again use my hobby as an example. If you'd like to unload a particular insulator, by all means do so on our site. Hold, on that last suggestion, perhaps I can not speak to our own rules and parameters and until I check that out...I guess that I should not ridicule this site for their rules and parameters...But given that I am in this position I have these views...

Eric

Getting back to the postcards scanned, I thought this period map might be interesting showing "Golden Ridge" as a location within the town limits of Sherman, Maine. According to Jim Forte's Postal History Website the post office at "Golden Ridge" closed in 1918, two years after the postmark shown on one of the postcards. Curiously, the post office name "Goldenridge" was spelled as all one word in post office documents and, it appears, in the postmark as well, even though the location is referred to as "Golden Ridge" (two words) on this map:



The set of postcards showing postmarks from Houlton, Maine is about 27 miles away from the Sherman/Sherman Station/Golden Ridge area, so they all appear to be postmarked within the same region of the State.

The addressee on some of the cards, Colby L. Estabrooks, was born in Linneus, Maine on March 4, 1885 and died November 28, 1964.

All of your info. is correct wt1. In fact nothing has much changed since this map of yous. Our place can still be sought on this map even today. Though Golden Ridge (and either spelling suits us fine and by the way..just south of that is Silver Ridge which again does not matter on the spelling) is about 3 miles from our current location. Mr Estabrook was in fact born in Linneus, which is much closer to Houlton than to us. But that all said, it all still is Aroostook County Maine in which you will see is one of the most rural of counties in all of the U.S. No matter where you live.

Eric,
A collector of Maine Postal History may have some interest in a couple of these cards. None are rare. The Golden Ridge is from a post office that closed in 1918. It would likely sell in the $1.00 to $3.00 range. The one from Cary is from a post office that closed in 1915 and it also has a Doane cancel from New Limerick. It is a type 3 number 3. That might bring a little more than the one from Golden Ridge. It is more legible and there are collectors of Doane cancels as well as collectors from Maine. Your best avenue for selling is to find a local club. Your next best is ebay and know you don't like that one. The rest have very minimal value. The last option from me gets you no money at all but if Aroostook County has a Historical Society I bet they would be very happy to receive them. I have donated to my local county historical society and have some other items out on loan.