Featured What is the story on postcard values & eBay?

Hello Folks,

Starting to collect and do some research on vintage postcards and I've been seeing a lot of completed sales on eBay where 100+ year old postcards sell for $0.35 and the shipping is in the neighborhood of a $1.00. How does the eBay seller make any profit in this instance in order to cover the fees and time they are spending let alone their product acquisition costs? There appear to be many large postcard sellers on eBay that have this business model. Are they comparable to the penny book sellers on Amazon that make their money on insane volume despite crazy low margins?

Thanks,
Joe2007

 

I lose fifty cents on every one

Make it up in volume

 

I don't get that either

 

Found this YouTube video a few days ago. Very interesting and seems to agree with my initial thoughts in this topic.

Has The Market for Postcards Tanked? - Antiques with Gary Stover

 

The market for a lot of things tanked after awhile because of Ebay. As soon as everyone dragged Aunt Hepzibah's collections down from the attic, there was a glut. There are lots of things back in my attic that I should have sold immediately.

 

Give it time...

 

Not sure of the economics of pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap.

By the time Ebay and paypal fees have been stripped out, there isn't much left to meet time and acquisition cost. Possibly they are loss leaders to attract footfall to the seller's more expensive cards?

We seldom sell a postcard below £4.99, and try to buy scarce topographical or social history RPPCs. The right ones can make good money.

 

I sent vintage postcards instead of new this Christmas, and it seems to have been a successful gambit. I probably could have bought a dozen brand new, boxed cards (one pattern fits all) for less, but they wouldn't have the character these exude. Buying individual new cards at any local store would have cost considerably more.

Even though the individual card price was low, caution was necessary to take into account the shipping cost. Some people wanted 10 or 20 times the cost of the card for shipping!

Using some words to weed out the majority of new stuff, early in December there were upwards of 30,000 Christmas postcard listings with about 600 new listings daily. (I was paying attention.)

I find I prefer the ones with messages written on the back and a stamp with clearly dated cancellation. One person told me it had been so long since they read any cursive script that they had trouble making out the message.

This was my favorite, and it was inexpensive both for purchase and shipping, dated through the stamp cancellation to 1909:

 

Yay! Nice that you do that!
I received 7 US Navy ship cards or related events and 1 Spirit of St. Louis hanging at the Smithsonian card (all pristine), 1 1939 USS California match book with sailors for matches and 1 signed welcome to Camp Dewey, CT. card for Christmas. I love to read messages on cards too. Some are quite frugal with words, others need legal paper sized cards to fit it all.
~
I lament the impending (what seems to be) full loss of writing in script.
Do they teach various ways to print an X in 'school' today?

 

I find it UNBELIEVABLE that they no longer teach cursive in school!!!!!!!!!

 

I was shocked and dizzy when I read that....then FURIOUS!
Who are the e-jits that 'thought' this up??????

 

imo it's the internet , you can be in contact with whom ever you want anytime you want ,why send a postcard . not just postcard , birthday/anniversary/ holiday, and births, greeting all come from face book and cellphones , not cards in the mail .

 

A shame indeed.
Eventually nothing sent since, after all, they know I care...right?

 

Hi,
It is horrible what the education system has done. My three youngest nephews can not write anything that is legible. My SIL makes them write you thank you cards for their presents but they look like they where written by drunken 3 year olds. I must admit that I do not write anything but print everything. I can print 5X as fast as I can write. I started to do that many years ago. Since everyone complained about the doctors handwriting being illegible, I started to print everything, everyone remarked on it and I have done it for years. The only weird thing I do is put a line through my 7s and a line through my Zs to keep people from thinking that they are 1s or 2s.
greg

 

Despite being taught to make two-piece 5s mine are one and was always in contention in grammar school. I always thought it was wasted effort. If in a hurry they may look like an S but that would be inappropriate where written so I don't worry about it much.
I've never crossed 7s or Zs.

 

When I was in the trucking business I was losing money so I got bigger trucks. Lost more money faster.

 

My mother only went to the 8th grade in a one-room schoolhouse in NH and then went to work in shoe factories as did her siblings. Certainly, no one in that milieu cared if or how they communicated. However, like many French Canadian immigrants in the early 1900s, girls were sent to live at the convent until they were 6 or 7 and she learned beautiful cursive from the nuns. My brother and I had to use proper grammar and write well. My children and grandsons all write in cursive even though they spend more time on the computer. I think it's up to the family to press the issue.

 

Postcards are worth so little that I use them as a cheaper alternative to buying new ones at the store.

I have a stack of random cards that I send overseas via Postcrossing. Cheaper than paying $0.75/pop at the UCLA store!

 

I remember when it was common to comment on a persons lovely penmanship..

nw i cnt evn reed a tweet....