Newbie With A Huge Early Postcard Collection

Hi Folks, I'm hoping you can shed some light on a collection of hundreds of postcards I acquired a few years back. They date from the mid 1870's to the early 1900's. I've tried my novice best, to educate myself on the history of these cards.

Now, I presently know just enough about early cancellations "to be dangerous" as the saying goes, and I've researched the internet as much as one can, including your very informative site, as well as others, and I do have an idea what to look for in rarity, but only in a limited capacity. I understand that the first cancel machines originated in Boston, but that is about it, as far as what else to look for, in identifying important cards that stand out in the sea of cards that were produced. Almost all the cards are stampless.

I would be most grateful if your organization could steer me in a more productive and informed direction, of what to look for in determining special examples, or perhaps cancels that are unique that might add to your database.

I've scanned a few examples, but cannot get any of the down-loaders here to work. Even the free image optimizer is not working. I can send images through my email, and will, to anyone who would like to see some examples of what I have. If anyone can help figure out how to post my scans of examples here, that would be great!


Yours truly, Don Fenton

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

There are a couple of markets for postcards - postcard/thematic collectors and cancel/stamp collectors. Am I right in thinking that, by "stampless", you mean that these are cards with printed values on them - what is known as "postal stationery" - rather than that the stamps have been removed?

Postcards with pre-printed "stamps" no paper add on stamps.

A sample question of many: Is there a data-base with short lived discontinued post-offices out there, where I could compare what I have... with such a list? References such as that would go a long way in discovery. Right now I'm in the dark.

Are you referring to postcards issued by the postal authorities?
Postcards, also, would include picture postcards. The value of those depend on subjects, stamps used to frank them or cancels.

Don,

Welcome aboard,

It is clear from your posts ("mid 1870s..." and "stampless") that these are mostly postal cards sold by the Post Office Department, rather than picture postcards. So let's move onward.

Posting Images. Your image should be jpeg format and less than 200k. It is easier (for me) to adjust the size when making the original scan than using the Image Optimizer tool, but your mileage may vary. For something the size of a postal card, I tend toward 100dpi.

As a newbie, I would recommend re-opening your last reply to this thread as if you were going to make an edit. This gets you to a screen with many more options including "upload image". You should be able to link to one of your image files and post the edited reply.

Coming up with a retail value for any piece of postal history is an art rather than a science. It takes years if not decades of experience to develop a "feel" for retail values of most of the nuances one may encounter. In general, early U.S. postal cards were like definitive postage stamps, the same design was printed in huge quantities over a considerable span of years. Production quality was often lacking and plates incurred damage. This thread illustrates some constant varieties on one such card:
https://goscf.com/t/71326
Broadly, these early postal cards are common and readily available. Thus any premium value is most often in the postmark, the message, the sender/recipient being noteworthy, unusual destination, auxiliary markings, etc.

The most readily available website for post office date data is on Jim Forte's site. Click the "U.S. Post Offices" link in the left column:
https://www.postalhistory.com/
The length of operation is only a general indicator. Being a small, short-lived or discontinued post office does not necessarily mean valuable. Likewise with town-size. Boston, Chicago, and New York City are huge office open for ages, yet have some of the rarest markings (both handstamp and machine). Not all cancels have been listed or ever will be. No doubt there would be several million, but certain types have good documentation. Machines fall into that category.

And yes, a picture is worth a thousand words. It is most often better to discuss a specific item. I look forward to seeing images of a few items you find most interesting or perplexing.

Welcome
For a listing of all US postal cards, this resource can help
https://stampsmarter.org/1847usa/SSPostCards.html
Don

Well....I think I figured out the uploading thing....hopefully you all can get an idea of what I have....literally a few thousand.

The devil is in the details, so best to have 1 card per scan, and to post a second image of the reverse side if you think there is anything interesting there too. What you show is too grany and too difficult to point out a particular card to comment about.

Yes,Several of your cards have Leavitt machine cancels, which are well-documented in the machine literature as to towns, types, and span of use of each. Some are common, some very rare.

This card would be an interesting one to see an individual scan, an uncommon Barry machine:

Some Western examples...again, hope you can see them clearly. I'll get better at the downloading.

"The devil is in the details, so best to have 1 card per scan, and to post a second image of the reverse side if you think there is anything interesting there too"....ah, good point. Here is a close-up, front and back.....

And as requested...

That Weissport CO card is terrific. Quite likely a precancel; and the office was relatively short-lived. It would be several hundred dollars if I had it in my stock.

John is a machine cancel expert, but the Barry machine is an early experimental, quite scarce (but not necessarily a lot of buyers)

Many cards have advertising on the reverse....

Two more cool examples of advertisement cards I have.....and honestly, if anyone has a request for a specific card, I might have it. It's a huge collection and like I said, I have very limited knowledge of these.

Very nice. It is clear that you have a good handle on the concept that there can be far more interesting aspects to a postal card than the basic card itself. Now as a follow-up clarifying question. What direction do you see this going when you receive additional information? Does this help you mount the cards onto pages with the added information for your collection or is this feeding ebay descriptions?