Help with Listing Postcards Please!

[cheryljr_1]

I'm trying to help a lovely couple in a real financial bind by listing some of their postcards. They have thousands of postcards, but which ones do I list? What's a fair price? If someone would kindly point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks in advance for your time!

[phoenixantiques-petworth]

I get totally absorbed in some of the cards that I am supposed to be listing. and instead of listing the usual 100plus a week it can dramatically drop, depending on how much I end up researching the card. Last week I was listing Edwardian Actresses etc. The early music hall performers had facinating lives, and I found myself spending hours reading about them, and trawling through different sites, and then I got all sentimental as I realised that these facinating folk are long since gone. But I think it fitting that all these years after their performances have ended that there are still folk that want to keep the memory alive, and the postcard is a super way of doing this. And then of course I find that I can't list them and start collecting them!

[dmhcollectibles]

Same happens with me. I've always been a history buff - minored in it in college - and I sometimes get so wrapped up in the research that I end up spending hours and hours reading about ONE tiny little aspect of one. Then I don't want to sell it. Ah well Diane

[neglus]

I also spend WAYYY more time doing research than is necessary but that's what makes this fun for me. I have become quite a geography "expert" and whenever I meet someone, my brain fills with images of postcards I have sold from his or her town! Tonight I listed a postcard from Portland Maine - a horse and buggy in front of Woolworths C1910 ....wait! It isn't FW Woolworth 5 & 10 it is CS Woolworth 5 & 10....I just had to take the 10 or 15 minutes to find out that CS was FW's brother! Probably no one else needs to know this but I HAD to find out!

[phoenixantiques-petworth]

I know exactly what you mean - I have a card listed at the moment which had a fabulous looking car on it. It took 3 days to narrow it down to a morris bullnose, It was listed earlier in the year and got no bids, but it has a couple of nibbles now. I had great fun trawling through vintage car sites - but eventually narrowed it down from corgi diecast models! As you say neglus, probably of little interest to anyone that is buying the card, but I HAD to know! I even did a blow up of the car on the liting page! Heres the link if you would care to see it! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2282898747&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

[dmhcollectibles]

Yep all part of what makes postcards so much fun! I got all wadded up doing research on a Nazi real photo card that I was trying to describe last night. Took me way longer than it should have from an economic point of view, but too cool for words to find out the story! Diane

[phoenixantiques-petworth]

Just had a look at your listings Diane - another leather postcard! and what about that poor cow! I hope that your Nazi card dosn't get pulled by the "easily offended self appointed ebay censors" that tend to lurk. I have a greetings card with a swastika and other symbols on it, but it is for good luck and dates to 1901 I will have to brush up on my history before I list it - more uneconomic research - but what great fun!!

[gad88]

I've been selling cards on and off for the last couple of years now on ebay - and I still don't really know what will sell outside of my specialty. I sell a lot of Philippine postcards and I have a tight group of bidders (almost always the same group of people) bidding on the cards. My suggestion would be to group your cards according to topics. Angel cards always attract some buyers. Railroad cards are great - if you have some of the rare depot/railroad stations and RPPC are always great. Children RPPC are great - esp. if they have something interesting in them (not just posing for a pic but has a toy, animal or something). Some areas are just too saturated - Clapsaddle's signed cards are a dime-a-dozen so only those rare cards get high bids. And Holloween cards sell big-time. Swastikas and confederacy flags also do well for me. But still, it is hard to find out what really sells. What I do is to dip my feet slowly into an area, until I find what works and what doesn't. I try to list a limited number of cards on a particular topic (maybe 2-3) and after a week of running the auction I can get a sense of whether it's working or not. I try to study the completed items, and sometimes it helps. But sometimes the buyers are just there, and sometimes just not. As for pricing, some categories like Philippines I start at $8.99-$15.99, and still get bids. But for US views postcards, if I start at $6.99, I get emails from onlookers saying my price is too high and they would bid if only I lowered the price. So now I start my US views at $4.99 as well as poorly looking cards. I have this one card that is in my "poor/damaged" card box and well, got scanned somehow because I was selling some Indiana train station cards last week. Never expected to get a single bid, much less 14 bids http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20208&item=2282245016&rd=1 You never really know (and that's the fun part). But it is good to cultivate a particular topic and if it does well, focus on it. Good luck Isabel (gad88)

[gad88]

As much as you try to research some topics, there are times that you will miss some details. Or make an outright error. When I started doing Philippine postcards, I thought the publisher was CSL, only to be told by a buyer that it is LSC. Sometimes an expert on the topic will email you. This morning I received an email that the 6-masthead schooner ship postcard I listed last night has only 5-masthead and gave me the history of that ship (which I then incorporated into my listing). But I love to research as much as I can. It enables me to travel to places without actually going to those places, and going back in time to the past.

[elephant*patch]

I agree, Isabel. I have learned so much researching my cards. Where else can you have so much fun making a few bucks. (It's a few bucks in my case for now. 🙂 ) btw, the card your got $25 for was a pretty card and interesting. It sure caught my eye. I think one of the problems we have is how to list them and not have them get lost in the sea of cards. If they have a city connected with them, it's easy to list. But if they are a work of art or an unusual card, they often don't get seen by bidders. I'd like to search for those type of cards too, but not sure how to find them. Becky

[phoenixantiques-petworth]

I agree Becky, It is very difficult to list some of the artistic cards - especially when signatures are a bit vague. All you can really do is browse by sub category - but then as not all the categories are linked worldwide you could miss some of the good ones! I browse on ebay.UK & .com to pick all the goodies up! as the categories are different, and we don't have sub categories for the USA view cards (topographical) etc, so they all get shoved in rest of world - so if you only browse on ebay.com under >states >Ohio for example - you wont find any of the cards that are in the UK! To find the ones in UK you would have to use Ohio as a search term. Sometimes you know you have got a really good card, but either can't find the words to describe it, or there are not enough characters on the title bar!At the moment I am listing some Canadian cards, I will have to put "Canada" and the area and town in the title to hope that the folk in Canada find them - something that if you are listing in Canada you don't need to do! I wish that all the options were availiable accross all the sites, but that would probably be be too easy!

[dmhcollectibles]

Sara, That poor cow (a bull actually) is one of the oddest cards I've ever seen. Poor thing. The Nazi card should be safe enough, I know what you're talking about when you refer to eBay censorship, but this will be the third or fourth I've put on this month with no troubles (touch wood). I've got more leather cards coming up :) Diane