Stamp Collector At Postcard Shows: What Do You Look For?

[I posted this question a couple of weeks ago on another stamp site, but wanted to get the perspective of folks here. Apologies to those of you for whom this is duplicative.]

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There are a fair number of postcard shows each year here in the Los Angeles area, and I attend them from time to time.

I rarely find anything in my area of "expertise", such as it is: Japan. Also, very little China, Vietnam, etc., so I suspect this material is being sold before it ever ends up at shows.

However, with Europe and especially the US, there's lots of material, both in bargain boxes and with better material.

Considering the other side of the card -- the philatelic side -- are there things I could be on the lookout for? Certain types of cancels? Certain stamp or stamp usages?

I realize this is a broad question, but would appreciate any information or education, articles or links, that anyone can provide.

What do/would you look for?

Thanks in advance!

How about "illegal" private perfin uses?




(I got this out of a dollar box a year or two ago)

Or maybe cards with Postage Due, like this one from Monaco?




(I spent a whole 25¢ on this one....)

Things I look for include, as mentioned above, perfins, Xmas seals tied to the card with part of the postmark, Doane cancels, early commemoratives like the Pan-Americans, RFD cancels, colored cancels, postage dues, there are others. I only look for U.S. stuff so all these apply to that area.

There are ALOT of postcards out there, so when I find a dealer with a large quantity, I just skim through them pretty fast. Most of the stamps and cancels start to look the same after a while, so anything out of the ordinary kind of jumps out at me. I'm far from an expert in any of those collecting areas so I'm sure I probably miss my fair share of goodies as well.

QSL cards from obscure places, especially polar regions. "Dear Doctor" cards sent by drug manufacturers. Cards from far off the beaten track - Reunion, the Falklands, older French colonies in Africa, Malay States, Australian States. Military mail such as Feldpost or APO/FPO. Signed cards, such as Jenny Nystrom (Sweden) or Ellen Clapsaddle (US) - dealers do not miss many of these! Real-photo cards of interesting events. Postage dues. CHINA!! This is my short list. I can look at postcards all day long.

If you collect local postmarks then the bargain boxes can be very useful.

I look for postally used older Guatemala and Argentina postcards,and postally used Chicago Century of Progress and 1939 New York Worlds fair cards as well as interesting combos of stamp and card..i always check the cards from the address side first not the picture side !

These are all great suggestions so far! Some of them are perfectly obvious now that you've mentioned them, but I don't think I would've thought of them on my own. (slapping myself upside the head) Keep 'em coming!

Doug: I'm assuming that dealers don't miss any of the "Dear Doctor" cards either? Or is that just a subcollecting field among stamp people?

-- Dave

I think the folks above covered much of it, but also you can include interesting machine cancels, some with interesting slogans. WWI soldier's mail is common, but look for "nurse's mail". It's usually handwritten. I also look for any other interesting postal marks like "Return to Sender" handstamps, censor marks and the like. Also oddly enough, coils of the Washington-Franklin series are getting tough to find as well. I can go through hundreds to thousands of cards and not find one coil stamp. On newer postcards from the 1980's to present, PNCs are possible. If you're going through older German cards, the Gruss cards from smaller towns are popular.

From what I've experienced, most postcard dealers sort their cards by category based on the picture side, and few pay attention to the back. You will however find some dealers that include a "STAMPS" category, where they put cards with what they consider better stamps (usually not).
Unfortunately for us stamp/cancel collectors, we have to go through every box, looking for an occasional nugget. Don't forget to look at the Xmas categories for cards with possible Xmas seals on them.

Sometimes the New Year's Cards have Xmas seals too! I've also noticed a general trend at the antique stores and flea markets -the more organized the dealer, the higher the prices per postcard.

Yeah, I've noticed that too. It's also irritating to find a really neat card, philatelically speaking, and find the price way too high because the picture side is apparently more valuable.

Try your hand at looking at postcards and recognizing some of the better material by searching ebay. It can give you something of an idea of the vast array of subjects out there. Right now, ebay comes up with more than 400,000 results of just the keyword "Vintage Postcards". Narrow it down by adding any subject of interest, whether it be a particular State, advertised product or mode of transportation (i.e. car, bus, train, etc.), etc. You'll be surprised what you'll find on virtually any subject of interest to you.

Perhaps it has changed now, but my experience from years ago was that postcard dealers HATE stamp collectors and got very upset when we looked at the postal side of the items. They don't know stamps or markings and they always seemed to feel that they were getting taken by us whenever we bought anything.

I like the looks on dealers faces when I pull up a chair at their table and turn the boxes backward to look at the backs of the cards, and then I go through EVERY box they have. They think they are going to make a mint off me, but I usually only find a pitiful handful of cheap cards (to them), and disregard all of their expensive cards. This is where knowledge is power.

Some "Dear Doctor" cards are worth as little as a dollar, but others are rare. They have their own website. Tom Fortunato gets the credit for making this a popular specialty.