Anyone Collect Postal Cards?

I mean those things the Post Office sells, not the pretty pictures tourists send. I saw some used ones from around the turn of the 20th century on ebay. I bought them, thought they were interesting, and stuck them in a drawer. Then I got a bunch of mainly mint cards from the 1960"s to late 1980's. Also found some mint 1¢ cards in my father's desk. So I bought a couple more, and put them in an album. I was labeling them, so I looked them up in Scott. Most are valued at a quarter. Why? No Market? Just curious.

Don

Just a guess, reduced usage and over estimated print quantity resulted in a lot of mint postal cards.

I really like the early postal cards, going back a century or more. Mostly for their classic design. But the reason more modern ones are so cheap is the same reason mint US stamps sell for less than face value: too much supply and little demand.

Here are a few I picked up, mostly out of bargain boxes.

I have a couple of old Scotts albums just for Postal Cards, with cards.

Why so cheap? Not that many collectors out there in regards to the available stock. Simple supply and demand. The more modern ones mostly for that reason and people don't see that as an investment that will pay dividends in the near future. Some, like Coast Guard one in my pictures is priced in a catalogue at $35.00 used, and 50 cents in new/mint.

This early postal card is especially suited to my little collection of Humboldt and Mendocino postmarks as it was written by my great grandfather's grammar school teacher.
Love the fancy postmark on the Westport card.

Let's not forget ROTW (the Rest of the World) ... 44 pages & counting!

https://goscf.com/t/36613&

One of my special interests has always been postal cards with pre-printed commercial messages, especially message-and-reply ('doubles'), preferably GPU (Genuinely Postally Used).

I am astonished by the variety of purposes to which businesses put the humble postal card.

I was also astonished by the lack of collector interest; the Conditionistas treat pre-printed postal cards as badly damaged goods.

I recently acquired an auction lot that explained 'why'. About one-third of the cards were from FDC dealers, with prices for upcoming releases. Nobody values anything they get for free, right?

Meanwhile, I continue to find new (to me) uses to which postal cards were put.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I don't collect postal cards per se, though I am certainly attentive to them in my various postal history collections. The more modern ones are more of a challenge in some respects than the earlier ones - finding properly used examples of airmail postal cards (especially international rate ones) can be quite a job.

I collect unused (no printed backs) postal cards. I thought the 70-80s era had some really nice designs. It is fairly easy to get most of them. There are a lot more varieties than listed in Scott.

I've always been attracted to postal cards for many of the same reasons put forth by ikeyPikey. The variations in which they have been put forth is quite wide. Many fraternal organizations made extensive use of them.

Here's one from a firemen's association. Who wants chowder?





I've also found postal cards a good source of early machine cancels -

Here are a pair of odd, at least to me, cards I picked up.


I was especially surprised with the Official card. I didn't know there were official post cards, nor did I know they had First Day celebrations for post cards.

My dad always called the "Penny Post Cards," even after they had gone up to three cents. They were a good deal when I was a kid. No e-mail, and a telephone call, even to the next county, had to go through the operator and cost a fortune.

I can see why some collectors would find them fascinating. I'm surprised more don't. I do wonder why the USPS prints so many different ones, since they are hardly used any more. I can understand why if would be so difficult to find used ones.

Don

Some of my First Day of Issue Cards

More

And a couple more

Here are a few more postal cards, most includd because of the cancels on them, but this first card is a bit of a mystery. It was sent from the Mendocino Wells Fargo office, two miles north of Little River, where it was apparently canceled with just a mute killer, no originating office indicated, a local post? Meaning was it carried to Little River and mailed there?

I like them, especially the ones from the 70's onward that show historic sites and buildings. I'm a history geek and I work for an architect, so they're right in my wheel house. Wish I had more of them.