I never thought of postcards as being valuable until I saw them at a collectible show. "What are these?" I asked. "They're postcards," the dealer replied. "Sometimes they can be valuable." I was surprised. My family had been sending postcards to each other since before 1900. These were valuable?
The answer, as you already know, is a definite "yes." More importantly, you don't have to be collecting postcards to have a valuable one. You might have a movie, political, sports, or World Fair collection, and it might include postcards.
Postcard values are based on:
- Age
- Condition
- Subject Matter
- Rarity
The price of a United States stamp gives you a clue to the age of a postcard:
- 1872 1 cent
- 1917 2 cents
- 1919 1 cent
- 1925 2 cents
- 1928 1 cent
- 1952 2 cents
- 1959 3 cents
- 1963 4 cents
- 1968 5 cents
- 1973 8 cents
- 1975 7 cents
- 1976 9 cents
- 1978 10 cents
- 1981 12 cents
- 1985 14 cents
- 1988 15 cents
- 1991 19 cents
- 1995 20 cents
Condition is judged by the amount of wear and tear. Is the card torn? Are the edges bent? Good condition makes a card more valuable. The areas of subject matter and rarity are trickier. Did a relative send your grandparents a World War I post card with the Statue of Liberty on top of the world? It is probably worth only $10. But, if you have another relative who got a postcard reminding them to vote for McKinley, that may be worth as much as $300.
The most valuable categories are old advertising and old travel. For example, a Dr. Pepper card offering a free drink (from the 1890s) is valued at $375. Even an Advertise With Color card from 1948 is valued at $175. Meanwhile, a card showing stained glass windows from Paris (1903) is currently valued at $400, and a card from the Czechoslovakia Exposition (1902) will cost you $200.
If this sounds too expensive for your budget, you can start collecting postcards for very little money. If this sounds too complicated, get a current price book and visit some dealers, without buying.
Meanwhile, clean out those closets and ask your family and friends to notify you when they find old postcards. Are you friendly with an active Republican? A President Eisenhower card (1953) is valued at $2 and a President Nixon and Family (1968) is valued at $10.
Know any Coca-Cola collectors who want to sell their postcards? Before telephones and the Internet, merchants would get postcards reminding them to reorder. Find one from 1910 and it is valued at $220. If you can find a Coca-Cola postcard from 1909 with the original art, be prepared to make it the highlight of your collection. It is currently valued at $2400.
From all over the world and for more than 100 years, postcards have brought messages. As the century comes to an end, collecting them can be fun, interesting, and maybe even profitable.
Deborah Miller has been a professional writer for 17 years. She saw her first memorable antique when she was four and started attending antique and collectible shows when she was six. She maintains a collection of depression glass, Jade-ite, flutes and recorders, and Wedgwood for her own personal use.
