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A Quick Guide to Buying Vintage Topographical Postcards for Next to Nothing and Reselling Them For Two and Three Figure Prices on eBay
Postcards are among the most popular and profitable products on eBay and represent a business open to anyone, even without specialist experience, subject to a few simple rules you’ll read about here.
That’s because you can very easily make money if you stick to postcards you know will almost always sell, and at a profit. They're called 'topographical' postcards (sometimes ‘topo’, sometimes ‘view cards’) and they depict geographical locations like towns, cities and villages.
They're among the most collectable items and they virtually sell themselves. Postcards rank third most collectable item worldwide, just behind coins and stamps. So they’re not the bits of worthless paper many people imagine, in fact some amazing prices can be fetched for postcards, notably on eBay, where items you can pick up for pennies or cents at flea markets where sellers are unfamiliar with selling online can fetch two and sometimes three figure prices on eBay.
In the early days of postcard collecting – called ‘deltiology’ – almost every family had its own album, sometimes several. These heirlooms were cherished and passed through the generations, postcards were rarely destroyed or lost. Consequently many very early postcards remain in undamaged condition today, usually still in their original albums So you can buy hundreds or thousands of postcards in just one day at specialist postcard auctions and non-specialist sales.
Postcards are usually very small and can be stored safely, close together, side by side in boxes, boxes stacked high one on top of the other. When I traded at postcard fairs, my entire postcard stock, once the biggest in the North of England, occupied a tiny corner of a spare bedroom. Compare this to space needed by eBay sellers of larger, more fragile, unusually shaped antiques and collectibles which need to be stored separately, surrounded by bubble wrap and plastic chips, in varying size boxes which must be placed separately on the floor, not stacked one above the other.
Postcards are usually all the same shape, roughly the same weight, making them extremely easy to pack and very inexpensive to post. So you won’t have to waste time looking for boxes of varying size to pack and post your products, as happens to eBayers selling oddly shaped items. All you need are a few cardboard backed envelopes or you could make your own envelope stiffeners from empty breakfast cereal boxes. Postcards also fit into any local post box so post office visits are few as happens for larger more fragile items that need to be individually weighed and postage calculated.
Because so few listing details vary between postcards – usually just location, age, publisher, postmark - you can create a template to suit every postcard you ever list from now to forever, where only title and illustration need changing each time. That save time and means you can list postcards very quickly compared to listing many very different items on eBay.
How to Know a Card Is Valuable Even Before You Buy It
Ask this question before you buy any postcard to resell on eBay!
How often could this view have been created since postcards first appeared about 1870 and up to 1939? (At the advent of the Second World War postcard collecting fell into decline and only in the past thirty years has it regained popularity). Most collectors consider 1939 the deadline between what should be called ‘old’ or ‘vintage’ and what is better called ‘modern’. In time that 1939 deadline will shift, to the 1960s, or 1970s, but with a wealth of really fabulous postcards still existing from the late 1800s and early 1900s I recommend you stick to that 1939 deadline at least until you gain more experience of buying and selling for profit.
Here’s that question again:
How often could this view have been created since postcards first appeared about 1870 and up to 1939?
And here’s the answer: If the view could be captured hundreds of times, even thousands, the postcard is not rare and could even be worthless. So churches, parks and beaches that look almost exactly as they did in the late 1800s will not fetch high prices unless some other profitable factor exists alongside.
It’s an altogether different matter if the view could be captured just once, because the postcard depicts the day the church caught fire and burned to the ground, for example, or it shows the royal family who visited there once, or it features police arresting an infamous criminal or an eminent suffragette being released from prison. In reality a really rare view may have existed for minutes or a few seconds only and few artists and photographers were likely to be present to record the event. On occasion you'll find the card is very rare, even unique, as where something unusual and very unexpected happened which only photographers close to the scene may learn about and record the event. Good examples are railway accidents, colliery disasters, tram crashes.
But it doesn't always happen that way and sometimes a card can fetch a high price because so few images were taken of a specific location which has since been changed beyond all recognition. And that means very few people have access to a view that was once common but today is non-existent. Like the hotel in the following card, for example, which was demolished a few decades ago leaving very little evidence of how it once looked.
I bought this card for a few pennies and sold it for £155, more than two hundred dollars. Incidentally, don't worry about that pound sign, I simply live and work in the UK but I can, and do list my postcards on other eBay country sites, notably the American and Australian sites where I regularly enjoy unexpectedly high finishing prices.
Tip for Buying Cheap and Selling at High Prices
* Try always to attend auctions in person, not only to view but also to bid. Opinions vary and it's not unusual for an auctioneer to describe something as 'old' in the catalogue which in collecting terms is better called 'modern'. You can't always afford to bid on items you haven't viewed, and you must not trust another person's opinion no matter how qualified that person is.
* At offline auction try to check lots immediately before bidding starts. This is because lots are sometimes tampered with, often mistakenly, usually deliberately, and what you viewed yesterday may be totally unlike the lots you'll bid on today. You might also find postcards you viewed yesterday have since been stolen or damaged. More often postcards are moved between lots so an album that contained rubbish yesterday is packed with high value collectibles today, Consequently that previously rubbish album will go for next to nothing, and those once quality albums, now worthless junk, will be a big disappointment to someone who viewed yesterday and buys today. If this happens to you, it’s essential that you contact the auctioneer right away, voice your concerns, suggest you should not be charged for the item. Most will agree if the lot no longer compares to their catalogue description but it’s vitally important you check at least some of the expected contents while auction staff are present and see the problem first hand.
* Sometimes high price items are concealed in old fashioned hinged albums behind less valuable postcards so all most people see is rubbish and low value pieces and bids will be low. It’s hard to spot this sort of scam unless you look very closely. It usually happens in albums packed with low value cards, which in itself means this is unlikely to be a genuine collection, namely one that was compiled decades ago. That’s because virtually all genuine early collections contain at least a few better specimens; they will also reveal little difference in recipient and delivery address. An album with lots of grot, lots of recipients, lots of delivery addresses, is more likely to be a dealer’s rubbish stock, placed in a vintage album to look like a genuine collection to tempt inexperienced bidders. Those concealed high price postcards have been moved from better auction lots and replaced behind poor quality cards in low interest albums. The end result is the album sells for a very low price but include several high value gems that could fetch record high prices on eBay.
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