Question About Valentine's Postcards & Ebay

I was wondering if some of the postcard gurus here could weigh in on how much one might expect these to sell for on ebay? Don't worry about hurting my feelings... Just a general idea is all I'm after. Thanks in advance.

If I can supply any other info let me know. ... They're all embossed. All 3 have been used...


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They might sell from 99 cents to $5 each if your lucky enough to get a bid. I have not had much success ever with postcards on ebay. So I avoid selling them. Unless they have a rare stamp on them.

Now that (if it holds across the board) (pun!) is an interesting difference.

Q/ Could postcard people be more social?

Q/ Could postcard people feel more of a need to feel their cards before purchase?

While stamp collectors will speak of freshness, for example, this quality is a whole lot more obvious in a postcard than a stamp, just because of the average postcard being ~20-30x the size of the average stamp.

What might be microscopic & barely noticed mold/mildew on a few percent of a stamp will really stand-out on a postcard.

Stamp collectors who want to handle their goods have options like approvals & circuit books which, while they exist for postal & post cards, are less practical.

Lastly, I would offer that it can be difficult to judge the focus/quality of printing from most scan of most postcards.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Thanks for the feedback. That is sort of what I'm looking for...

I'll cut to the chase. I have probably a couple hundred postcards to get rid of, and I'm trying to determine if it's worth the time to sell them individually on ebay, or if I should group them into similar themes and sell as lots, of if there's another way?

The reason I chose these 3 cards as an example is because, I tried a larger lot of 'Valentines' Day' postcards on ebay, and people contacted me about buying them individually. I declined, as it is my intention to sell ALL of them. Additionally, I wasn't sure what price to tell them. So I was kinda trying to get a better feel for a price on these three specifically, as well.

I feel your pain, JessEm.

I have more than a few hundred postcards to get rid of, and am not enamored of any of my options, to wit:

Single sales, thru ebay et al: the idea of listing 100 postcards to sell 10 postcards at 99c each leaves me cold. Fiddle that math as you will, it fails to excite. More money to be made by skipping one restaurant meal or, G-d Forbid, skipping buying one more auction lot.

Dealer bourse: sit at a fable for hours, watching people paw thru my cards? The worst of both worlds: not much sold and, even if I sell enough to make the table rent, the rejection is personal :(

Mass sale, thru IRL auction house: quick, easy; but yields begin at pennies per card for miscellaneous modern chromes; of course, they might reach dimes per card if I were selling the stuff that I'd really rather not be selling.

I've bought auction lots on the theory that I would cull what I want, and throw the rest back, and do the math to see what I was paying per card. Since the 'throw the rest back' part has not been happening, I've been re-considering at least testing the ebay route for cards that other people seem to like but are of little interest to me ... provided I can work-out the productivity issues, eg, how many hours to scan/list the cards, and how many hours to fulfill that avalanche of orders ;)

Meanwhile, I sit at dealer tables, trying to be more particular, so as to keep my burn rate (entertainment fee) down to U$D 20 per hour, at which point I figure the cards are free.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I'm pretty sure that ikeyPikey has covered all the options from the front of the cards, So lets flip them over and remember that there are other reasons to collect postcard other than the views. I collect them for the cancels.

Below is a link to Gary Anderson's website Town Cancels, where you'll learn about doane cancels, a type of cancel popular with the Post Office during the post card era. You'll also find links to Jim Mehrer's Postal History Auctions and Jim Forte's Postal history site, all of which feature have postcards. These sites do buy or help you sell your cards.

http://www.doanecancel.com/doane.html Gary Anderson

http://www.postal-history.com/auction.html Jim Mehrer

http://www.postalhistory.com/index.htm Jim Forte

Now, any of those cards mailed from Mendocino or Humboldt county Cal? I say Cal because I stop collecting the town when the IF is added.
I just bought a similar card off ebay, an embossed Best Wishes with a collectable cancel.

Well said, ikeyPikey. We share some of the same thoughts on this. I still think ebay is the best bet. I just have to find a way to do it efficiently... $1/hr is hardly worth the trouble... But then you might have that one, or two, that people want to fight over :) And then, of course, you would be helping out people with their collections, and sending them off where they're appreciated in the process. This is precisely why I will occasionally thank a seller for making something available, particularly if I know he didn't make much.

littleriverphil - Thanks for the links... I will keep an eye out for anything from "Cal".

Single sales on ebay at 99 cents start, a lot of work, not much end result for one or two that might go a little higher. A lot of unsolds that would have to be relisted and keep going unsold. ebay fee to pay. The end result you will not make any money selling them one at a time start 99 cents on ebay. They take their fee and so does paypal. You have to pay with cash for the postage to if they all sell at 99 cents to different buyers. Your better off selling the lot as a group directly to a postcard seller on ebay or a stamp dealer. You could of course always list them on ebay as groups of fives and hope for the best. Although I would hold off til Oct - Dec as now is a very poor time selling on ebay, people paying their credit cards off from xmas spendings. Send them to an auction house as a lot for auction. But I don't recommend selling them one at a time.

Hello duncanvr - I follow what you're saying. It's a lot of work when they don't sell, or when they only sell for .99 cents.

I would build on the .99 cent start... $4.99 minimum. If someone really wants it, $4.99 is a deal. And if that's too much, then it's certainly not worth the trouble of packing it up and shipping it off. At some point you just have draw a line and say "it might not be worth this much, but this is what it costs." Take it or leave it. Sure, it will mean lost sales, but if you're not making anything, is it really a loss? This is my feeling anyway.

Thanks for input. You have some good points and different things to consider.

Have tried selling postcards in the past with no luck, tiring work all that scanning and listing one at a time. The simple part of it is with all the scanning and listing you have to do its easier to sell it as one lot or send them to an auction house. You may sell some at 99 cents but $4.99 each you would sell even less. i'm just trying to save your time. I have nearly 5000 feedback on ebay so am good at selling postal history but rarely sell postcards. You pay a listing fee for everyone you do it all adds up in the end when you have to pay the ebay bill. I'm at the point now where I often give a postcard away to buyers of my items.

Thanks duncanvr. You really sound like you know what you're talking about.

The approach I'm leaning toward now is listing individually just the ones I think have good chance of generating interest. These include main street photographs, antique ornate holidays, specific transportation interests, and other oddities with marketability. I will rely largely on gut feeling and experience for this. The rest will be sold in 10-15 different themed lots of roughly 15-50 cards.

Sometimes what a seller thinks is a good item buyers don't always agree its a good item. Often I find its the one you thouhgt would be of least interest that all the buyers want it all of a sudden. I once listed a common New York letter at $5 it went to $180. Others similar to it sold at $5 each. You just really can't tell which ones will generate more interest. But yeh go with your gut feeling. Offer world wide visibility on them.

Will do. As for the buying downturn on ebay at the moment, it might be a few weeks before I get them up so hopefully it picks up soon. Thanks again.

littleriverphil:

To borrow a phrase, we're actually on the same side of the postcard.

You are correct that selling GPU (Genuinely Postally Used) cards into the postal history market - if one could part with them - would often be at a very different price point than selling most used PPCs into the PPC collector market.

When I post a card to SCF, and its got a cds & stamp, I post both sides.

Since Jeff posted only fronts, I blew right past his words 'All 3 have been used...', and began talking about my piles of 'unused' PPCs, for which I need fireplace.

I've never thought of selling any of my GPU postcards or postal cards; they're the ones I smile & set aside, waiting for enough of a pile to make it worthwhile to start learning about, for example, US flag cancels.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I've been selling stamps, postal history and PPCs on ebay for several years. A few suggestions I would offer would be to add as many keywords into the Title and 'Item Specifics' as you can, including spelling variants such as 'postcard' and 'post card.' In the case of one of your Valentine cards, I would include 'cherub' and 'angel' as these tend to be popular subjects. Also the manufacturer is good to include as some collectors run searches specific to these. When I list PPC's that have been used, I'll list under 'Postal History' as the town cancels seems to be popular with postal historians (sadly, Doanes don't do as well as they used to, possibly because the market is saturated). The idea is to have as many searches latch onto your descriptions as possible: postal historians, postcard collectors, home town collectors, thematic collectors, etc. Unless there is a gink such as a mild crease in a card, I'll usually start mine at $4.99 ($3.99 for mild ginks) or higher in the case of hand-colored postcards. If they don't sell during the first cycle, I'll lower to $4.49 for the second cycle and a fair amount sell then. Also, undivided back postcards in general seem to sell better and faster than those with a divided back, depending of course on the subject and maker. Given all the free listing promotions ebay offers on top of the 100 free each month, its easy to sell without investing anything more than your time...although it can take away from the collecting side of my hobby at times :0)

Thanks for sharing all that great advice. I will try to remember to come back to this thread and update how it went. Maybe once they're up I will post a link here as well.

How does everyone ship postcards? Obviously, IF something should skyrocket, it's going to get special treatment. But what about the run-of-the mill, <$10 card?