Postcards – A Crash Course

Hopefully you have read our article “Postcards – Big Things Come in Small Packages” and have decided to find out more about this great collectible. We are far from experts on this subject but we have sold hundreds of postcard lots through our auction house and have personally sold many single cards online. Some of them were basic run of the mill cards that brought $4 or $5 each but some of the really good postcards brought in excess of $150 each.  

Here you will find some important facts that we had on hand at the time we were selling these postcards. We have inserted a few notes labeled “AHT” (Auction House Talk) which contain information that we figured out for ourselves, information that you might find helpful.

Condition and Grading

Postcards are graded just like coins, stamps and books. A serious collector is much more interested in condition than the recreational collector. Many times you will find that a vintage postcard you have is actually part of a set or a series. If a collector is missing just one postcard out of an entire set, he may not be as concerned with the condition as he is with completing the set.

AHT: If you are not confident that you can correctly identify the proper grade of a postcard you are about to sell, we would recommend leaving it out of your description. However you should give a very detailed accounting of every mark, crease, bend or stain.

Show a picture of both the front and the back of the postcard. Let the buyer determine the condition. We always found postcard buyers to be courteous and understanding of a seller’s lack of knowledge. As long as you are up front about being a novice when it comes to postcards and you show them that you are being as transparent about the condition of the card as you can, you should do just fine.

M – Mint. This means the postcard is absolutely perfect. There are no flaws of any kind. Mint cards are not common.

AHT: It would be our personal opinion that you never refer to any postcard as “Mint”. It is a statement that is nearly impossible to defend.

NM – Near Mint. Like mint but with slight discoloration from age.

AHT: We would not recommend using this grade either.

EX – Excellent. Like mint in appearance with no bends, creases, rounded or blunt corners. May be used and postmarked on the reverse/address side. No writing on the front. Picture side must be pretty much perfect.

AHT: Make sure if the card is postmarked, the ink from the back has not bled through to the front.

VG – Very Good. Corners may be slightly blunt or rounded. Almost an undetectable crease or bend is allowed as long as it does not detract from the overall appearance of the card. May have writing or postmark on address side.

G – Good. A much used grade that pertains to a large percentage of postcards. Corners may be lightly blunt or rounded with noticeable bends and creases. May have writing or postmark on address side.

FR – Fair. Card is in one piece. Many things may affect the picture such as stains, dirt, creases, writing on the front and ink that has bled through from postmark.

AHT: If a card is hard to find, scarce or rare a collector might still pay good money for it even if it is only in “fair” condition. The philosophy is “a bird in the hand…”. Even though a collector will buy this card it doesn’t mean that he is done looking. If the same card in better condition comes along later the collector will probably purchase it to replace the sub-standard version he already has.

Determining Age

Postcards are broken down into seven different eras:

Pioneer Era – 1870 to 1898. This era represents the very first postcards, which are hard to find today. Various combinations of the following factors determine whether or not a postcard is from this era:

Undivided back
“Authorization by Act of Congress” is missing
Grant or Jefferson head mark
Multiple views on the front
“Souvenir of” or “Greetings from” will appear on many but not all
If postage is on the card it will be two cents
May say “Souvenir Card” or “Mail Card”

Private Mailing Card Era – 1898 to 1901. Private printing companies were given permission to print and sell postcards in 1898. All such cards actually say, “Private Mailing Card.” Today collectors refer to them as PMC’s.

Undivided Back Era – 1901 to 1907. The words “Post Card” on the reverse side were added in 1901. There were no lines or separations of any kind on the backs of these cards. The backs were strictly used for mailing information only. Personalized messages had to be written on the front. Many of them had a blank space under the picture for such a message.

AHT: It would be our opinion that postcards designed to show the message on the front, and in fact do have such a message, can never be given a rating of “Excellent” even if the card is in perfect physical condition.  Although the grade of “Excellent” allows a card to have writing, it states that there can be no writing on the front. Perhaps exceptions have been made for this particular situation. We don’t know.

Divided Back Era – 1907 to 1915. In 1907, messages and mailing information all appeared on the backs of postcards -- messages on the left and mailing addresses on the right. These cards usually have a dividing line down the center or there are lines placed on the right hand side for the address.

White Border Era – 1915 to 1930. The beginning of this era represented the end of the “golden age” of postcards. This happened with the start of WWI when imports from Germany ceased. Until that time, the majority of postcards came from Germany. At this time, publishers in the United States began printing postcards. The cards produced in the U.S. were not of very good quality and many were reprints of earlier postcards. It is easy to tell the difference between an original and a reprint because of the addition of the white border around the front of the card.

Linen Era – 1930 to 1945. During this period postcard quality in the United States improved. Cards produced during this period were on linen-like paper and are easily identified because of it. Although the ink quality was poor, they are now very popular with collectors.

Photochrome Era – 1939 to Present. Photochrome is a term derived from Kodachrome. These cards were of really good quality and easy to produce. The colors are absolutely fabulous and it is the same technique used to produce today’s postcards.

Real Photo Postcards

This is not an actual “era” since real photo postcards started being produced almost right from the start in 1900 and are still being produced today. Early real photo postcards were either done in black and white or in sepia (brown tone). Today these cards are called RPPC’s. They are highly collectible and some of them, depending on the subject matter, bring hundreds of dollars.

AHT: You need to be very careful with real photo postcards. Many have been reproduced and, although they look like real photos, they are just prints and therefore have very little value. Here is how you tell the difference. Take a strong magnifying glass and get a very close look at the photo image. Give your eyes a few seconds to adjust. You are looking for little black dots or specks. If you see them, the postcard is a print. No dots or specks and you have a real photo postcard and a few extra dollars in your pocket.

Postcard Categories

There are many categories such as nudes; Greetings which include major holidays such as Christmas and other days of celebration; Santa cards (which is its own category separate from Greetings); Advertising; Topicals which represent particular places or special people; Transportation to include railroads, ships, airplanes and zeppelins; Fantasy such as fairies, nursery rhymes, dressed animals that demonstrate human like qualities, golliwoggs, mermaids and much more; Sports representing baseball stadiums, baseball players, professional prize fighters and sports related cartoon characters.

Although there are very valuable cards out there that fall within all the categories we have just mentioned, such as highly sought after vintage Halloween cards, we have chosen four other categories that we think require further discussion:

Artist Signed

Artist signed postcards are the favorites of just about everyone. A card is considered artist signed if the initials or the signature of the artist appear on the card. All copies of the same postcard are considered signed even if the initials or the signatures are not original. Many different subject matters can fall under this category. Some of the most collectible artist signatures are Ellen H. Clapsaddle, Frances Brundage, Esther Howland, Raphael Tuck & Sons, Bessie Pease Gutmann and Samuel L. Schmucker.

AHT: Artist signed postcards usually bring more money than unsigned cards but the signatures alone don’t determine the prices. The subject matter is very important. There can be a vast difference between a signed card that has a rare subject matter and a signed card that is just common in nature.

There is also the possibility that a signed card with an average motif can be worth a lot less than an unsigned card that denotes a rare subject.

The popularity of the artist is also part of the mix. Nothing is really etched in stone in this medium – there are exceptions to everything. We would recommend that you write down the names of the most sought after artists on a piece of paper and carry it with you.

OPF

This stands for Osnabrucker Papierwaaren Fabrik. This was a German publisher of top of the line postcards during the years between 1900 and 1912. The initials OPF will appear on their cards inside little three-leaf clovers. This is not to be confused with artist signed. Nonetheless they are very collectible and you should keep an eye out for them. OPF covered many different subject matters to include animals, children, coins and stamps, fantasy and special occasions.

Sets and Series

Selling postcards in sets and series was one of the most profitable decisions ever made by the earlier publishers of postcards. The never-ending desire of a collector to find the last card needed to complete a series or a set turned out to be a great advertising tool. Some sets went so far as to have each card within the set represent a single part of the same picture.

AHT: There is a vintage four-card Uncle Sam set. I’m sorry we don’t have a picture of this one for you. We did have it at one time. The four-cards line up top to bottom and each card represents a piece of Uncle Sam. Top card is his head and the bottom card is his feet. If you were a serious collector, how much would you pay to finally have the fourth card in this set?

Views

View cards are the most important motif in the world of postcards. People want to own postcards that show what their own towns looked like many years ago. The main driving force behind postcards of towns, cities and buildings is the nostalgia. It is great fun to find a card that shows the actual street where you lived as a child and what it looked like 100 years ago. The postcards of big tourist attractions such as Niagara Falls or the Empire State Building have very little value because they were so overly produced. They are just too easy to come by. The views of small towns are the most sought after.

Other Design Factors

There are a couple of other considerations that can have an influence on the value of a postcard. The first is called “Hold to Light”. This card can have one or more cutouts in the top piece of the card and colored paper layered underneath. This effect would sometimes be used on the drawing of a window, a candle or the lights on a Christmas tree. When you hold the postcard up to real lighting the candle, window or tree will look illuminated.

The other is what is called a “mechanical” postcard. This means the card has one or more moving parts such as a wheel that can be turned to change the date. An example of this would be the twelve days of Christmas.

Miscellaneous

AHT: We recommend that if you are dealing with vintage postcards, especially very old ones or foreign ones, that you don’t ignore the postage stamps that appear on those that have been postmarked. There are stamp collectors and dealers as well as postcard collectors and dealers. We want you to keep in mind that while you may have a high-priced postcard in your possession, that postcard could have an even more expensive postage stamp on the back. The chances of this happening are slim but it is a possibility.

We mention this because we would hate to see you get $75 for a nice Christmas postcard from Germany when it was the $200 stamp on the back that you should have been selling instead.

If you buy postcard lots you may come across postcards that have had their stamps removed. Now you will know why.

When we owned the auction house, people who only dealt in specific items would ask us to call them if we received any items of interest to them. We would tell them that with a weekly auction there was no time for us to keep track of a “customer wish list”.

If you were to decide that postcards are something you want to deal in we would recommend you offer such a service. It could make you a lot of extra money. In addition to buying your regular postcard inventory at estate sales and auction houses, you could be on the lookout elsewhere for special request cards.

For example, you could come across such a card at an antique mall. Normally you would walk away from that card because it might be too expensive or it is just a single card and not worth the trouble. However, if you knew you had a buyer for that card and had an idea of how much the buyer would be willing to spend to get it, then you’ve made a great find and will most likely make a handsome profit.

You will need to use whatever book you purchase to determine the monetary value of different postcards. Be sure that the one you choose is also advertised as a price guide. While most book values in this business are greatly exaggerated, the book will still give you some idea as to what you can expect. For accurate pricing you must consider current economic conditions and how popular the item you have is at the present time.

Also, reference books are only updated every so many years. The book that you purchase may be the latest edition but it could still be 8 to 10 years since it was last published. Remember an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it today. Realistic values can be found online.

Keep your eye out for any postcard lots if you attend an auction. It could really pay off for you. Happy hunting!

  Written by Anne Benedetto, Auction House Talk
 All Rights Reserved