Featured Stash of 200 Old Post Cards In Estate Clean Up

So I was doing an estate sale clean up the other day and much to my surprise upon pulling some rolled up carpet out of the rafters in the basement, an old manila envelope fell out right in front of my feet! I opened the envelope and lo and behold, it was chock full of old postcards, mostly American, some from the UK, one or two from Germany, Holland, some other areas, a couple of really old looking Japanese ones and an old Christmas card(my specialty!)

I don't know anything about old postcards except that some can be very valuable, especially postmarked cards with the right stamp and many of these are postmarked with very old looking one cent George Washington and Ben Franklin stamps, some have two and three cent stamps, some don't have any stamps. If there are any postcard experts/collectors reading this, I'm going to post a bunch of pictures and if you see anything spectacular or just interesting then feel free to share your thoughts, heck even if you don't see anything special or interesting, share your thoughts anyways, as a matter of fact, even if you don't see at all, share your thoughts! I don't care, I'm bored! Cheers!

 

Actually here is a link to a public album I just created in Google Photos, much easier than posting each one here.

Post card find
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8WNTdwLP5oKbfsG99

 

Viewers need an account to access...

 

I could view them, but so many are upside down or sideways that I gave up.

 

I started correcting them but realized that to do so I would have had to edit them in a separate app, then process them, reupload them and then I just gave up, but realistically it's only 6 out of 15 that are sideways or upside down and anyone that's really interested in old postcards that's not going to make any difference because they can literally just screenshot and rotate it yourself or turn the rotate feature off on your phone and rotate your phone to view them correctly not that big of a deal but cheers!

 

Do you have a Gmail account? If you do then you have a Google photos account and if you don't then create one you don't even have to use your real name or address it's so easy and so simple and it takes like 5 seconds then you just forget about it or delete it LOL cheers!

 

I don't see anything that appears be particularly valuable. The Disneyland postcards should have good demand though -- you can determine value by looking at completed listings on eBay fairly easily since they are so plentiful and have established track records. The big question is whether to take the time to sell them individually or lot them up into small groups, which would be quicker, easier but would realize less. The other cards would probably max out at a few dollars apiece with exceptions of course -- it can be hard to understand what has demand and what doesn't unless you search completed listings which can be a lot of work. Generally foreign postcards are very difficult to sell and don't have much demand. Hong Kong and China cards being a major exception to that rule.

 

Many people here won't click on links that require a login. But a few hardy souls have done so, I see! I'm not doing it, although I have a Google account. If I log in while I'm in the browser, Google has an even easier time of following my every move.

Good luck with the group!

 

Right on, I'll probably upload them here in a bit, there is one postcard that was appraised years ago at $100, it's a black and white Niagra falls postmarked in New York with a 100+ year old Benjamin Franklin 1 cent stamp, I cannot validate that as there is no certificate with it, just a paper that had a few evaluations written on it in pencil by who knows who from where over there down and around somewhere, so it's whatever, it is what it is LOL!

 

These are just the US cards and there's more than what is shown, the last one is the Niagra falls card.

 

A nice collection , as I too have hundreds. Most of yours are 60’s and later(very little if any value although they can only go up from there ). You do have some linen cards(1930-50’s) that can fetch around $1-$6 on average. And of course a few from earlier 1900’s. About same price range. Some rarer cards can be very collectible and will bring in much better sales, but these are often older holiday card and special events in history. Without seeing the stamps up close and personal, I would say that they hold little to no street value as those were printed by the billions. The value would be in the scarcity of a error or short run. Better to keep them on the postcard as there are those that collect postmarks. Just my humble opinion and you should hear from others.

I keep all of my cards in photo albums with postcard sleeves to help prevent foxing. as always, condition is everything

 

Yeah I didn't figure they were worth a whole lot, the Niagra Falls postcard postmarked NY with a 100+ year old stamp supposedly was appraised at $100 but I have no idea when or who even appraised it

 

I am a relative noob to postcards. However RPPC (real photo postcards) are probably the easiest to target and often hold pretty good value. Easily recognizable as they are just real black and white photos often with a couple word description of the photo on the front. Black Americana, mining, Hawaiian images, any risqué photos, and Japanese cards are good. As for the vintage 50’s and newer type cards I just sell them in lots. Still desirable that way if you get them cheap or in your case free. I bought a great lot recently, I’m excited to see what they will bring. That’s assuming I don’t get attached and keep them.

 

Well that's more than I know, sounds like you might enjoy these more than I ever would(they are literally just sitting in a box in the bottom of my filing cabinet) I've actually just recently added to them. Here is the entirety of what I have not including the postmarked cards that I already uploaded photos of.

 

Not a bad little collection for free. If it was me I’d probably break it into two lots and list them on a local marketplace or eBay. I sold a lot similar to the cards you have recently for $30 for like 130 cards. It sold quickly. So maybe try $40 for around that many? The Zeiss card may be worth listing separately. Hard to see enough detail to know if any of the others are worth selling on their own. I really only collect the ones with local interest to me or subject matter I personally find interesting.

 

Well there's also this....

 

This is the ziess postcard, it's a product registration postcard lol, seems odd to me.

 

Worth looking up. Some product literature can fetch really good prices. I saw an early Gibson catalog go for over $1k. Zeiss has a strong following. I’d guess some would want this.

 

Really? You think so huh? Where would I even try to sell it? I've listed postcards on eBay several times and got nothing, no traffic, no interest whatsoever.