Postcards…Big Things Come in Small Packages
(Click on Images For Larger View)

People who want to become either a collector or a dealer in a specific item could do a lot worse than postcards. As a matter of fact, postcards would be a fabulous choice! For years we have secretly dreamed of having someone leave us a safe in their will where, upon opening it, we would find thousands of vintage postcards. You think we're crazy, right? Nope, we're not.

We would rather find that safe packed from top to bottom with postcards instead of money because, in our opinion, the postcards will end up being worth more when all is said and done. Of course, as it is with everything, there are postcards and then there are postcards.

Let's compare what it would mean to be either a collector or a dealer of postcards rather than let's say porcelain. If you were to collect or deal in either Royal Bayreuth or Royal Doulton porcelain it would be wonderful just to be able to look at all the different pieces you have acquired. Many of the pieces they produced are just breathtaking but, in reality, how much of it could you really have? How big is your house or apartment?

If you were a collector, at some point you would have to stop adding to your collection or you would be continually faced with the impossible task of having to turn some of it over. Which pieces would you get rid of to make room for the new pieces you just purchased?

If you were a dealer instead of a collector and sold the porcelain online, your house would be overrun with a product that is easy to either break or damage. Any children living in the house would immediately have to be sent away to boarding school.

Selling a product choice such as porcelain means you will face complaints about high shipping costs, damage that you might not have noticed up front, breakage enroute and a number of other things that people will surely moan and groan over.

You would also have some serious packing to do which would require you to purchase expensive shipping materials such as bubble wrap, styrofoam peanuts, tape and any size boxes that the post office doesn't supply.

Now, let's think about postcards. They can be just as valuable as porcelain and, if you were to keep them loose and not put them into albums, it would take you nearly forever to fill up a single drawer in your bureau. You could take them out of the drawer, spread them all over the dining room table and enjoy looking at them whenever you wanted. When you were done admiring them, back in the drawer they would go and magically, later that same day, your entire family could actually be eating dinner at the dining room table.

With boarding school no longer necessary, the children could stay living in the house. There would also be no need for you to hide 40 pieces of porcelain in the bathtub until dinner was over.

It doesn't get any better than being a postcard dealer selling online. Wear is easily recognized, descriptions are pretty standard, damage in transit is almost non-existent and small padded mailers and small cardboard protectors are easy to store and don't take up much room. Then there's postage. No scale required, no complaints about excessive shipping charges and a single postcard costs the same amount to mail no matter where you send it in the United States.

Over the years, we have had some pretty nice postcard collections sell through our auction, some small and some quite large. At auction there is always fierce competition for them, especially the good ones, and they tend to sell for what appears to be very good money. For example, a binder of 100 postcards could sell for $1000. This sounds like a lot but is it really?

Some people will back off from bidding because they think the price has gotten way too high. That's because they may not have carefully evaluated the actual cards in the binder or they did not properly do the math. You need to be able to quickly calculate how much you would be paying for each card while you are bidding. Bidders should determine their price limit ahead of time. If the specific postcards in that binder are highly collectible then $10 apiece doesn't sound quite as shocking as $1000 for the lot.

If someone is a pro then they know exactly how much money they can get out of each postcard in that binder. If you are not a pro but you know some of the postcards are valuable then protect yourself when planning your strategy. We would recommend you presume that 20% of the cards in that binder are of no value. You would then decide how much you would be willing to pay for each of the 80 remaining cards. This gives you a little cushion.

If you are willing to pay $10 each because you think you can sell each for $30 then you are looking at a possible resale price of $2400 for the 80 cards. Your cost to buy them would be $800 plus an assumed 10% buyer's premium for a total cost of $880. This is a profit of $1520.

Don't forget that you also have those extra 20 postcards that you took out of the equation. There is a good chance that most of those, if not all of them, will also sell. They may not sell for as much but whatever they bring is all additional profit. If that binder in fact contains some really high-end or even rare cards then you could potentially be looking at selling some of them for anywhere between $100 to $300 each. Boy, do we love postcards!

Of course, every rose has its thorn. Evaluating the subject matter and the condition of a postcard can be complicated. To do well with postcards, especially the better ones that will require a decent investment on your part, you have to be sufficiently armed with the proper knowledge. In other words, you must learn all about postcards.

Real Photo Post Card

If you are willing to spend the necessary time then you will be amply rewarded. The first thing you need to do is buy an appropriate reference book. There are several of them out there.

We have provided some of the basic information you need to know in our corresponding article titled, "Postcards - A Crash Course", but nothing beats the experience of actually looking at postcards that are for sale, touching them and then watching what they bring at auction.

On the job training is always the best but you should stay away from really expensive postcard lots until you know what you are doing. You don't want to get burned.

Written by Anne Benedetto, Auction House Talk
 All Rights Reserved