Featured Vintage RPPC Train Station value

An RPPC of the Sloan NY- East Buffalo Train Depot postcard sold for $416.11 with 14 bids. I have a nearly identical one of the C.V. Station Bethel VT. I am kind of astonished at the price and wonder if there is a chance that mine is even half that valuable.

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The sold one is the first image. Mine are the last two.

 

It all depends on who's looking and why they want it. Most post cards are a few bucks, but a defunct station on the right line .... jackpot!

 

So location may have something to do with the price. I'd hate to list it for 2.99 and not have it increase, but don't want to list it too high and get ignored. I don't think I want to be in the post card business, but with hundreds on hand, I'd like to generate some income to replace what we're losing with business closed.

 

There are more. Here's a train steaming into the station in Garwin, IA, also 1913

 

You might be able to lot some of them up if they're all similar subject matter or from the same location. I just listed a random card of a kid with a colt or pony. Horse-thing anyway. I've had it kicking around forever. There were also some 19th century photos of a Russian family (so said the original seller) with a pony. Those will go up separately. Instant ancestor stuff.

The good thing about cards is they're easy to ship.

 

Well, even if I got $1 apiece I'd make a couple of hundred dollars. We're going to be hurting if we don't get back to work, but I'm terrified of getting sick. It's a catch 22

 

Bev, you might want to research other train station RPPC sales on eBay, to see what the range is. Nice photos!

 

I found a picture postcard from your Bethel Station in color, in case you had not seen it before. Unfortunately, the link said ERROR

 

I found an interesting article about the "Traveling Mechanics" of C &NW railway
http://cnwvets.org/Ernest Koehn.html
They described the train in your photo and have it on the site.

 

There are some on Worthpoint if you have an account.
https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=bethel+vt+rppc+station&category=

Here are some like yours you could watch and see if they sell.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1910-Bethel...416378?hash=item26376978fa:g:j08AAOSwvshapaBJ

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/BETHEL-VT-R...102347?hash=item469016780b:g:5nsAAOSw8MxcDa52

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Bethel-VT-R...844315?hash=item461c14ed9b:g:Uo8AAOxykMpTG9Wx

 

Once upon a time I sold a RPPC (of an old building I think) that sold for about $70. The buyer told me that the building had burned a long time ago so I guess that's where the value came from.

 

I have had some good luck selling postcards, and many are hit and miss...but the age of the card is very important. I can't remember the criteria off top of head, but I think the ones that don't have a vertical line delineating address from message area, are pre-1910... I sold a pre-1910 postcard of a CA mission for hundreds, it was stuck in a book I bought. Now I look for similar and never find, ha.

 

@Bev aka thelmasstuff

That $400 realized bid is probably an one-off situation for an extremely rare RPPC (real photo postcard) and may be the result of a bidding war between two bidders that had to have that particular postcard to complete a set or such. That particular seller seems to specialize in railroad station postcards and perhaps has a following of diehard collectors.

Not many postcards, even really nice RPPCs ever get over the $200 mark very often although railroad stations are really good subject matter and in my experience often sell in the $30-$80 range per card.

I'd suggest starting the bid at $19.99 and hope for a few bids after that. Make sure to take excellent photos of both sides of the card and a few more showing details on the building/surroundings. Keywords in the listing title are important - I'd suggest something like "1913 Central Vermont Railway; Bethel VT; Train Station, Depot RPPC"

You should realize good money for these cards. RPPCs of stations and trains should do very well. This quality of card should be sold by itself and not in a lot.

Wishing you luck,
Joe

 

Most of these old train stations are long gone. There was a time that every town of over a few thousand had a depot. Today only a few remain in an area that had many dozen. It is amazing how many old buildings are gone, only remembered in postcards and old photos.

 

Although a nice card this is not a RPPC and would be worth $10-15 on a good day while the RPPC should be 3x-5x that amount at least. Fascinating to see the crowds of people waiting for their train.

 

This is about 1/4 of the ones that are loose and then I have two large albums full. Each of the sleeves has two cards back to back. I started sorting by location, but after looking at stuff online I'm thinking of changing it to theme - RR, Bridges, city and town streets, public buildings, ships. Some of the people in the postcard club only put their member number on the cards. Others put their names. There are also cards sent between family members but none of my kids or nieces and nephews want them. They'll just get tossed when I'm gone. . I am scanning them all.

 

https://stamporama.com/discboard/disc_main.php?action=20&id=3647
Here are a bunch of people discussing their collections and how to organize, categorize and store them...they do not seem to be focused on selling anything, however.

 

@Bev aka thelmasstuff - How did the sales end up going?

 

I haven't had time to list. It's a lot of work and right now we are in our busy season. My husband is a locksmith on Cape Cod. We are social distancing and only working at houses or businesses when people are not there or are in another room from where we are working, but we've been steadily busy since the beginning of June. I have three guys on the road all day and I run the office, do the bookkeeping, answer phones, schedule, etc. etc. etc. Unfortunately, when you have a home office with a business like ours you are at work 24/7 essentially. I'm too tired at night to sit in front of the computer listing. . Can't complain, though. We didn't have to lay anyone off. We cut hours back during April - June but went back to full time around the second week of June.

 

spam reported,busy little sucker.