I had the opportunity to visit Ebay in San Jose yesterday. There are definitely more vintage postcards on their web site than at their corporate office. Lots of other collectibles adorning employee's offices though!
We get a lot of folks that tell us they have a collection of postcards with "Rare Stamps". Usually they're referring to stamps like these: These are usually common Washington–Franklin Issues , issued from 1908–1922, Benjamin Franklin 1902 series issued from 1902-1917 and US Regular Issues issued from 1922-1931. Most of these stamps were printed in quantities that reach into the billions, so they are definitely not rare by any account. Just because something is 100+ years old, doesn't make it valuable. Scarcity and collector demand make things valuable. "But I just Googled these stamps and they're selling for $50,000!" you say? Perhaps you see something like this: First, it's doubtful that any of those stamps have actually sold for that much. You need to look at SOLD prices [ebay.com] , and even then many of those sales for common stamps may not actually be real. There may be a few of these there that sell for more than $1, but for
Author and historian Alice van Ommeren is teaching a 2 night online class in March: Vintage American Postcards for Historians, Genealogists, Collectors and the Curious Monday 3/7 & 3/14, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM Pacific Time Register Here [Santa Rosa Junior College]
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