I’m curious to know where Postcrossers buy/find vintage postcards around the world. Please share your spots or finds! In my travels, mainly in Europe, I have come across some little stores or outdoor flea markets where they are selling many old knick-knacks, and sometimes I find some postcards (even unwritten/unsent!).
My guaranteed spot to find amazing vintage postcard finds is in the city of Orange, about an hour away (driving). The area called “Orange Circle” used to have many antique shops, but now they have been replaced by restaurants and cafes unfortunately. Some still survive:
Orange Circle Antique Mall
Antique Station
…there’s a few more
Other than that, internet shops do the trick (Ebay, EBTH, etc). There’s a bit of magic lost there since you can’t rifle through all the knick-knacks, but that’s just the world we live in now.
If this thread belongs to another post, let me know! I just haven’t found a dedicated thread about where people find their vintage cards.
EDIT please share original vintage postcard finds, not reproductions.
An interesting place to check for vintage cards is a local thrift store. I never realized how many people donate postcards. I found a bunch this weekend. Super cheap.
I have two favorite second hand shops at the city nearby. I actually visited one of them, called Robin Hood, today and scored some postcard although I am once again on Postcrossing break… hmm…
They actually moved into a bigger place a while ago and the place is so nice now. They don’t have that many postcards coming in (charity based so they have whatever people give them), but there is always something new once every couple of months and they sell postcards for 1 kr each. Today I found couple unwritten ones with a mint stamp already on so win-win
Other one of my fave second-hands is also charity based but they are located in a little bit hard to get place where there isn’t anything else interesting around so I visit there rarely.
And the Post museum in Stockholm sells re-prints of old postcards so I have got some from their webshop. Only minus is that they have quite small collection and they add new ones rarely, but the things they have are nice and been liked by Postcrossers so far!
Interesting difference. Zazzle, as far as I know, sells vintage designs printed on demand. So they aren’t real vintage cards that were printed 30+ years ago
Haha! I have no vintage postcards…yet. But after I read your post yesterday…I jumped on eBay and started searching for vintage postcards from sellers in Oz. I might now have four genuine, unwritten, vintage postcards en-route . I think you may have been integral in me finding a new ‘favourite thing’…but I don’t see me sending them through Postcrossing any time soon. They were NOT cheap (about AUD10.00 each…and that was on ‘sale’ on eBay). And that will also be without postage. If I then wanted to send it to Europe, the total would be AUD13.50 .
Do you find genuine vintage postcards somewhere at a cheap price? And do you just collect them…or do you actually send them off through Postcrossing?
@Tinkatutu that reminded me about the collectors. So the real vintage cards, especially the older ones, are really popular among collectors. Whenever I find a specially good one, I make it run through auctions to see if there are any collectors out there looking for it, and if nobody takes it after couple of rounds I will use it for Postcrossing. The most popular ones can easily go up to ridiculously big amount of money if there are several people bidding for it. If I recall right, ebay is also partly auction based and lots of collectors hang out there so vintage card prices go up.
Charity based second hand shops would definitely be the best place to look if you want real ones. They usually have no time to check value of the each item nor do they care to check so you get them low price if you are there before anybody else finds the cards. I had for several years a small scale rivalry going on with one collector who used to haunt the same places with me, but I haven’t heard of him for ages.
I also keep few good ones but I hate to have lots of stuff around so it has to be really exactly my taste for me to keep it.
The ones that I bought on eBay yesterday were just ‘buy now’. Not auctions. One is a postcard that is an actual black and white photograph itself. The other three are vintage postcard prints. They all date from the early 1900s.
Two are from Sydney Harbour, places I know and frequent and these I can’t wait to receive. I can see myself becoming heavily infatuated with such things. Maybe if I try and focus on a specific time frame and location, I can avoid it becoming too expensive.
I will most certainly keep an eye on the thrift shops. I have never seen postcards in our thrift shops before…I don’t think they’re very common…but I will try. I won’t be buying many online at $10 each, unfortunately. And yes…I saw others that were much more expensive too!
Do you have an eBay shop where you sell vintage postcards?
Good find in that case! Yeah, better to keep it on one specific topic. Many of the collectors seems to focus on a place they like, for example the city they were born or the area their family originates from, or something like royal family or cars or trains… Have to admit that especially the city cards are really nice view to the past!
I am on Tradera which is basically ebay but in Swedish and the auctions are the more popular form while “buy now” is on another popular second-hand platform. It is actually partly owned by ebay if I remember correctly. There would of course be wider public if doing it in ebay, but I like to keep it local / EU level, and I find ebay’s platform super annoying for some reason.
@Tinkatutu - I’ve been lucky at times when I have gone “antiquing” and have gotten cards at $1 each! Beautiful black and white ones are my favorite - especially architecture and land marks from all over the world. If they are at a good price - or if I am able to barter with the seller at a flea market - I’ll buy some that aren’t quite my taste but maybe a Postcrosser’s (like celebrities, or eeeearly 1900s). You never know when one requests a genuine vintage card! But otherwise I don’t really collect them - I just love the little hunt for them. I tend to buy very few for myself to frame.
If anything, the real hunt is for old/vintage mini-postcard sets (AKA souvenir cards) from Europe that are B&W. eBay has a few but I have had better luck in Europe in general at flea markets.
Edit: once I found a bunch of early 1900 postcards at like $3 and got a few for future postcrossers. I’m not one to resell or think too much of their value. I love to share, not sell
I’ll definitely keep an eye out then. I hope I can find some cheaper ones eventually. Either way, it’s so cool seeing places I know, and how much they have changed over the years.
I just picked up a pile of plastichrome postcards from a thrift shop from the 50’s and 60’s They intrigued me. But I can’t find anything about plastichrome cards in the internet apart from people selling them. Can anyone point me in the right direction. Apologies if I have posted in the wrong place.
Are you talking about the mini postcard booklets / paks? If so, they go by a few names! You/I can start a new thread on this since I myself collect mini postcard paks, AKA souvenir views.
. I think you may have been integral in me finding a new ‘favourite thing’…but I don’t see me sending them through Postcrossing any time soon. They were NOT cheap 
(about AUD10.00 each…and that was on ‘sale’ on eBay). And that will also be without postage. If I then wanted to send it to Europe, the total would be AUD13.50 
.