mutty Wrote:
Head Gardener Wrote:
mutty Wrote:
So is there a large community of collectors for these, like comic books and sports cards? It seems like some of these must be worth a fair amount - they're pretty wonderful.
they are not my area of expertise really as I collect vinyl obviously, but I am sure some are
very collectible, but they were my dad's & he'd go nuts in heaven (though that is debatable!)
if he thought I'd even considered selling them. They don't take up much space as they are in albums
appropriately
I wasn't implying that you should sell them - I was just inquiring about the popularity of the hobby. Popular enough to have a name: Deltiology. And according to Wikipedia (and who doesn't believe wikipedia?) it is very popular:
Quote:
Worldwide, deltiology is thought to be the third largest hobby after stamp collecting and coin/banknote collecting.[citation needed] Postcard clubs may be found in many countries; and these clubs, as well as related organizations, frequently host postcard shows.
Good thing I already have enough hobbies.
I've been collecting for probably ten years now. It's certainly not as popular as it was years ago. It's heyday was the 70s and 80s (that is, collecting vintage cards--people collected them when they were new as well, of course). If you can find a postcard show (with dealers selling cards), it's full of mostly old white men. But go on ebay and there are millions listed, so who knows?
I'd say that some of the cards you have could be worth a decent amount, namely the executed pirate, maybe the theater one in Southend, and the hold to light ones (maybe the little girl pedo one too). With those comic illustrated ones, most likely the value will be tied to the artist. There are some highly collectible artists, but most of those didn't seem signed. That's not my area of expertise anyway, though. The thing is, collecting and sending postcards was incredibly popular before WWI, so even though these things are over a hundred years old, they can still only be worth 50 cents or a dollar. They basically served as twitter of the day. You could send someone a postcard saying you'd come by later that day and they'd get it ahead of you. Clearly there have also been changes to the postal system (I think that example is true of the Royal Mail, within one town, who knows about USPS). There are a lot of absurd prices on ebay from people who find a stack at an estate sale, have no idea what they're really worth, then ask ridiculous prices. Search the "sold" items though and it can be quite interesting to see what people WILL pay.
Keep it up, though! I post scans to flickr so I know it's a lot of work.
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