Vintage Postcards

The only drawback about liking vintage cards for me is when someone sends me a card that says something like “because you like old cards I found this one that is super-old in my grandma’s closet. She got it in the 1990s!”

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Thank you @ColorfulCourtney for making me laugh!

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I adore vintage and antique cards
I am not sure why they are not more popular
But it could the vagueness of the term, Vintage I tend to lean to at least 50 and less than 100 but I have seen more and more 20 and 30 yrs for vintage

Ok not sure if 90’s as vintage is funny or depressing

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I personally don’t have a preference for old/new/vintage postcards. I’m more of a message person so I find what’s written more interesting. It’s a bonus if they can relate their message to why they chose a particular card, regardless of what the card is.

As for sending vintage postcards to other people, if it matches their wishlist and they don’t explicitly say they don’t want vintage, I’ll send it if it’s the closest matching postcard I have. If they explicitly write that they don’t want any old/vintage/yellowed cards, then I don’t send them. The worst thing that might happen is that someone throws a fit because I’ve sent them a vintage card. But then again, I can’t read minds. If you really hate vintage cards, then write that preference on your profile. The only instance where I can guess that someone doesn’t like vintage cards is when they state something elitist about “real” postcards and the only examples they list are modern ones.

My guess as to why there aren’t more vintage postcard enthusiasts on Postcrossing is that maybe some of them don’t think Postcrossing will fit their needs. There was one time I went to a vintage postcard fair and talked to some people about this and they were kind of dismissive about Postcrossing. I think it’s because they are collectors first and foremost. They don’t care so much about the connection with people. (When I told them I did this to connect with people around the world, they were kind of aghast.) And because people who join Postcrossing are from all walks of life and some may or may not have access to vintage postcards, it’s not a 100% sure bet that whoever will send a postcard to you will make it a vintage one–after all, who you send and receive from will be random.

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I believe, like so many others have stated already…I may have my special picks BUT LOVE all types of postcards. When my mailbox is full, I am happy! Vintage or new…old or even used. I just think, as I have seen on here over the years…a few people do tend to get picky. Gratitude means being glad for what you have , not wanting what you don’t.

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I’m relatively new at Postcrossing too, and so far have received a handful of what could be called ‘vintage’ (and by that I mean, older than a couple of decades). I think it might be because I mention I’m an archivist in my profile :smirk: Both are smaller than standard postcards but they held up well while traveling:

But one key point that hasn’t been mentioned is that the Postcrossing FAQs specifically say, do not send cards that have already been ‘used’. I take that to mean, any cards that have been written on, or posted, for any reason other than the Postcrossing exchange currently underway.

So I think keep those for your own collection, @Ravenofsunshine:

But clean, unused postcards that also happen to be old are fair game for anyone, I think!

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Hey Josh,
I, too, love the vintage card. They can be quite remarkable.
Vintage Christmas can be quite keen, and I put them in my Christmas tree.
I also like vintage art cards.

However, I’ve reached a point in my life where I need to part with my vintage cards. I’d love to pass them on to someone who would want them. Not all are gems, and most are not unusual by any means, but I do want to distribute out my collection.
I’m done being the forum postcrosser I once was.
:slightly_smiling_face:

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I’ve always assumed this request: no vintage has to do with low to no resale or philatelic value.

If a vintage card has modern stamps on it- the card is ‘outside of usage’, meaning it is artificial in cover collector parlance. Because the stamp(s), cancel, and card are not tied to one another.

Although, if this were the reason for the request, you would think they would instead say, “if you are sending a vintage card, please keep it mint in an envelope”.

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Not that I’ve done it before, but I think other people have suggested parting with postcards through the PC lotteries? I’m sure there would be lots of keen takers that would enjoy them like you did! :slight_smile:

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I don’t remember to have found a profile (yet) saying doesn’t want vintage cards.
But is not like I have vintage postcards to send.

However, thank you for this thread, because I’ve been reading about the differences between vintage / retro / old and how it doesn’t mean the same to everyone.

For example, I bought a few postcards at the Chocolate Museum of Astorga, a couple of years ago. Now I understand I can’t send those as “vintage” because they are only reproductions of old ads or packages of those chocolates. I got those cards thinking in having some stock for people who liked old style postcards.

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They may not be vintage, but lots of people like reproductions of older style cards/ad/packages.

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I also love vintage postcards and I have quite a lot, printed from 1960s to 1980s (can I consider them vintage)?
Not all of them are in a good condition, though, and some were printed on a very thin paper. I seldom see requests for such postcards, though.

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Usually what I see are things like “no old cards” and not “no vintage” but I would assume that “vintage” is a subset of “old” and therefore also not really welcome for these people.

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@chasingkites
I certainly don’t consider
post-1960 cards as vintage.
To me, vintage is 1900 through 1950.
After 1950 is a different era to me. Certainly old, but not vintage.

Yes, I hope to find a home for those postcards.
I liked them a lot when purchased them.

The back of the postcards has some info about the images and the original date of the posters / ads.

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When I have cards that I don’t like so much but aren’t really “bad,” I often send them as “extras” (written, of course!) So maybe for example if somone likes cameras I would send them your card of the woman holding the camera and mark it DE-XXXXXXXX EXTRA CARD! and then write it out. Of course this only works if you are sending in an envelope and the person’s profile is interesting enough that you want to send them something else. Or if you don’t write them you could include it blank and say on a sticky note “because you like cameras I’m sending you this extra card for you to enjoy or pass along” or something like that.

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I love vintage postcards, I find they are hard to find here in Australia & saying that I dont shop online either

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Josh - If I’m going to hazard a guess, it’s because vintage cards can be expensive. At least here in Virginia, when I go into an antique mall and find a vintage postcard booth, I can expect the cards to run in the $3-5 range, which gets expensive when you are sending out a lot of postcards. If I am lucky, I will find a 50 cent bin that I can go thru to fine nice cards, but on average, I spend $1 on vintage postcards, and more like 50 cents on more standard postcards.

I mail out about 200 cards a year, and at 50 cents a card, that’s $20.00. For ease of math, let’s say that 20 of those are mailed to members in the U.S., that’s $7.20, and 180 to International members is $216.00, for a total average spent of $243.20. Which may not seem like a lot, but I’m not as active as a lot of members. For the last couple of years, my husband has given me money for stamps as a Christmas present, which saves me some of my spending money!

Anyway, paying $3-5 for vintage cards could triple that amount, easily. Which is too bad, because I enjoy vintage cards as well. I do have some and I do send them out when I think they will be appreciated.

There are so many types of postcards to suit every type of Postcrosser! I have been amazed at the amount of creativity out there - from homemade, to vintage, to ones made by local artists and local businesses. My favorite coffee shop made postcards using photos taken for an Instagram contest! It’s wonderful what you can find out there.

I wish you many years of Postcrossing joy.

Happy Postcrossing, Christi

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Thanks so much for joining the discussion @cbayha as I never thought of it from that perspective- I’m coming at it from the opposite perspective. Where I am I have access to a lot of vintage postcards for 25 cents, and so when I go on Zazzle or one of these postcard sales websites it seems the more modern ones are a lot more expensive. So when I first started and I saw “no vintage cards” on a round robin, for example, to me I interpreted it as I needed to shell out for more expensive cards to be able to participate. It never crossed my mind that they would be more expensive (and yes, if it is some special antique card they can be quite costly, but there are many that do the job for 25 cents).

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GeoJosh

I need to visit where you live! Although, I am somewhat buried in postcards right now. The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley gave me over 2,000 postcards that they can’t sell because they changed their logo! I am hoping that ChaelaMonstah will be able to organize another DC meet up in the fall and I will give out bundles of them to attendees.

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