#S.O.S #Surplus #Stuff #Amy #Moyer #Postcards #WorthPoint
If you have lived a certain number of decades and traveled abroad once or twice, you likely have a stack or shoebox of old postcards in your house (maybe attic). Do you wonder if these old cards have any value or whether they are worth saving? Read on to learn what to do with your S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Postcards.
Old Postcards Are Hot
As a reseller, I have recently discovered the joy (and cash) that old postcards can bring. Sure, there have been resellers and dealers for many years who carefully sort their stacks of yellowing postcards into shoeboxes by category and state, then plopping all those boxes in their antique mall booths for shoppers to sort through, searching for a treasure from their hometown, college town, or favorite vacation spot. The truth is, the real estate those shoeboxes take up doesn’t justify the return on one or two postcard sales a month (not to mention the wear and tear inflicted on all those plastic sleeves from customers leafing through them).
My solution? As luck (and a bit of sourcing skill, if I may toot my own horn) would have it, I stumbled across two lovely old general store display racks a few months ago. It was easy enough to buy a couple thousand antique postcards online and then stock the racks to bring to my summer (and now fall) shows and markets. I have not sorted the postcards at all (hooray!) and had a “Postcards $1” sign on the racks at first, which I quickly increased to “Postcards $5” after seeing the raging interest in my racks.
Who is buying antique and vintage postcards these days? Sure, one or two folks seek out that ubiquitous “card from my hometown,” but by and large, the postcard shoppers these days are artists, crafters, or collectors of all things weird and whimsical. I have just recently been culling those thousands of postcards I got for all the “weird” ones and then put those treasures in a bowl labeled “Weird Postcards $10.” No one has blinked an eye at paying ten bucks for a quirky postcard of some roadside Americana sight, funky 1960s restaurant interior shot, or “take my wife, please” type of vintage novelty card.
Used or Unused, Postcards Have Value
You may be wondering, what about the condition of all those S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Postcards? While you may think “unused” postcards have more value, in some cases, it truly doesn’t matter. I have seen shoppers perusing my postcard racks mostly interested in the paragraphs written on the back, sometimes even more so than the image depicted on the front.
Why is that? Believe it or not, “kids these days” are not used to seeing a lot of handwritten sentiments. With everything from schoolwork to regular work online from the internet to Google Docs, today’s younger generations can barely wield a pen or pencil, let alone actually scribe a sentimental note or diaristic few sentences to share with the world.
The realm of communication for young folks today involves acronyms such as “IDK,” “IDC,” “OMG,” and many more that I often have to search for myself to figure out the meaning. Spelling is also not the forte of younger generations. While they have no need for an old-fashioned dictionary, spell check is integrated into almost every program they need on their laptop or desktop. Don’t even get me started on AI!
The surplus of old postcards has become a novelty in today’s digital world. They not only serve as a way to share imagery from far-away places but also represent an outdated form of communication that is quite unfamiliar to anyone under thirty years old.”
Sell Individually or in Lots
At the end of the day, either hold on to your old postcards or don’t hesitate to sell them either individually or as lots. Simply leaf through the ones you have, and be sure to pull out the ones that may have more value, like true antiques, depict unusual sights or locations, or are obviously weird or unusual. Yes, there are plenty of collectors of vintage Halloween and even “post mortem” postcards.
You may get a good return on individual S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Postcards, and if you are a reseller, you can even invest in a couple of old display racks like I did. Either way, you will make a profit from your S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): Postcards and breathe new life into these paper mementos from the past!
Amy Moyer is the proprietor of Antmuffin: Art, Antiques & Collectibles. She holds a B.A. in Visual Art from Brown University and lives in Boston.
WorthPoint—Discover. Value. Preserve.
