Those are all reproductions, but I have come across profiles where they don’t mind vintage repros. I don’t mind receiving them at all.
Hello everyone!
If you’re in the US, Courthouse Square Antique Postcards hosts shows where you can buy vintage postcards for cheap. They also list local vendors if they have a show in your area.
Another good option is reuse art stores. My local one, the Texas Art Asylum, sell tons vintage postcards. I’ve also been to some in other cities and they sell vinatge postcards, usually <$0.50 each.
Hope this helps!
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I don’t think I’m saying anything new here, but in my town I typically find vintage cards at thrift stores, charity shops, used bookstores and antique shops. Note: cards at antique shops are usually much older, significantly more expensive, and often written on. Of course, if you’re collecting the antique ones to keep, that’s not necessarily a problem.
“Vintage” also covers such a huge area. Honestly, I’m never quite sure what people mean when they say they want vintage cards! Etsy refers to anything 20 years old and above as vintage; that’s a pretty low bar. I do come across quite a few vintage cards from the fifties and sixties in charity shops, but they are often fugly, poorly composed, and with the colours on the muddy side – whether they were that way originally or not, I do not know! One I found depicted a so-called “beauty spot” of British Columbia. I had to laugh because it looked like a grey-brown landscape of parched grasses and trees. I’m saving that one for an “ugly” RR 
as I’m sure not all the vintage card-lovers out there would welcome getting it!
Yep, I think to be officially vintage, and item needs to be at least 25 years old. Certainly makes stuff from the 90s vintage! 
I find quite a few grey-brown landscape postcards, too! Maybe that was the ‘it’ factor back then? 
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I bought a lot at a thrift store, just for the pics. Many are vintage photographs, some are promotional. All the ones I got are unused, part of my history collection as I also do genealogy.
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I love those sheets. I have a few in my collection.
Here are some of the vintage cards in my collection. The B&W ones are unused and are made with photos from the photographic collection at the Vancouver Public Library, no dates of publishing, but the photos are older than the cards. The colour ones are all used and from the 1950’s-1960’s. Most of these are British Columbia images, except the bottom left one, that is Edmonton, Alberta.
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In NYC, there’s the Chelsea Flea Market on the weekends. If you don’t mind wading through the boxes there are some beautiful cards. Depending on the vendor they can be either used or unused.
I was there last month since I was in the area and actually managed to find a night view of Manhattan from my own neighborhood. There’s unfortunately no date, since I would love to know the year of that shot, but it’s still really neat to compare it to the current view (half the skyline is “missing” and there are two working factory smokestacks that are no longer here). It’s genuinely one of my absolute favorite postcards.
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The gift shop at my local historical museum sells vintage cards from all over. She said she’s seen others do that as well. Because they get donated.
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Zazzle did have many to choose from! I found however the shipping was extremely high. Did anyone else have this problem?
On Amazon, I literally typed in vintage postcards and got a box of 20 for $10.98, so $0.55 a card. I didn’t think that was a bad price for a variety pack.
I shared the link just in case you wanted to look
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I live in a tiny town of 2,000. We had a new thrift store open and upon seeing it, I joked to my mom that the guy is just cleaning out his own house and tried to sell stuff - it’s that type of thrift store. BUT, good prices and I found an entire box of postcards, mostly blank, from the 50’s through to the 80’s. I buy a few every time that I go in, the box is too big to go through in one sitting. I’ve been using them too, not just keeping them. I mailed out a 1971 card from the Calgary Stampede to someone who said that they liked rodeos.
I guess it’s just pure luck what you can find at thrift stores…
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Perhaps you need to clarify what you mean by “Vintage Postcards?”
■ Do you mean postcards published 1900-1940?
■ Or reproductions of vintage images on modern postcards?
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I meant original published postcards, not reproductions. I’m enjoying what people share about their thrift finds!
I think to be considered officially vintage, an item just needs to be 25+ years old. (I think it should be more!) …. Unless there is a different classification for postcards? I’m no collector, so I can be mistaken.
You are on the right track. Many traders/collectors/dealers like to use “Vintage” when describing very old postcards. Sometimes the word “Antique” is used, but not often. There are several defined Postcard Eras; this link is a nice breakdown. Most of the cards you see on PostCrossing fall into the modern era. But here again, some collectors view Chrome postcards (especially the 3X5 size cards as vintage, but the larger Chromes (4X6) published after 1960 as modern.
https://exhibitions.lib.umd.edu/postcards/postcard-eras
There is a very brisk market for postcards published prior to the Modern Era. With many estate sales, there are sometimes postcards available. In earlier times, families kept postcards before photography became widespread. Even so, with photography, mobile phone cameras, etc. postcards continue to endure. And that’s a great thing!
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