CardCow Vintage Postcard Blog

Relocated from California to Massachusetts last month.  Took the dogs to the vet and they had this nice framed reprint from a postcard of the Harvard General Store in the waiting room: I only have a few views from the Town of Harvard , but will have to keep an eye open for my personal collection.

Spotted this nice Huld Dachshund Installment Set of Postcards at the San Francisco show last week: I love the way sets of cards (and even individual cards) looked framed.  This is a perfect way to display an installment set of cards.

The new user interface is live!  Nothing functionality-wise should have changed, just a new look.  What do you think? Still a few things I'm working on, but let me know if anything is broken or doesn't look right.

It's time for a site revamp.  If you're a designer, or know of one, consider submitting a design here: http://99designs.com/web-design/contests/fun-project-major-vintage-postcards-collectibles-site-44975

Some of my " Everybody Works But Father " postcards were featured on television spot done by KSPS in Spokane, WA this week. I had no idea where that phrase came from, but watch the video to learn more!

b Schafer sent me a photo he took of the Westerner Motel while passing through Lamesa TX.  It's interesting to see that the original buildings have changed very little in 50+ years. I've been thinking about adding a "Then and Now" now section to CardCow.com where people could submit current images of places that I have postcards of.  Do email me if you have a modern photo of one of our vintage views and I'll post it here!

Slightly misquoted, but that's ok: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/auctions-move-to-the-back-burner-at-ebay-2010-05-06 I used to auction quite a few items on Ebay, but it's not not worth it anymore.  Fees keep going up, and their feedback system is ridiculous.  Now with most sellers just listing store items auctions have taken a backseat.  There are currently 1,650,475 postcards listed on Ebay.  Only 88,148 are listed as auctions. If you're a seller on ebay, you just don't get the same visibility with auctions anymore.

I sent a postcard to a writer in France last month and they ended up using it in an article about "roadside" architecture: As Architecture Digest has illustrated, postcards are a great way to study 20th Century architecture - especially commercial buildings.  Here are some more views of the Brown Derby Restaurant .

Watched the roadshow last night as usual, and I think this was the first show I've ever seen them feature a postcard collection . Typically Antiques Roadshow chooses not to focus on collectibles, but postcards of course overlap many different areas. Especially true for Halloween postcards. If you liked what you saw, be sure to check out our Halloween collection - we have many of the cards shown:

 Now any postcard on cardcow.com can easily shared on facebook.  Just click the facebook share icon on the product page:

I seem to get a lot of requests this time of year from wedding planners. Old postcards make great "Save the Date" cards for weddings. For smaller wedding you might be able to get away with sending original cards, but a more economical approach is to reproduce the cards or incorporate the images into a new design. Here's the end result of easy wedding invitation project. I offer high-resolution scans of most cards for a nominal fee, which can easily be incorporated into Save the Date cards, or any type of graphic design project. There are tons of print shops that will do low-volume postcard printing - VistaPrint, printsmadeeasy.com and postcards.com are a few - but not all do matte finish, which is usually better for that "vintage look". Some printers can do different paper stock which can emulate the original linen cards.

The New York Times has a nice piece today on artist Zoe Leonard's exhibit " You see I am here after all" featuring 4,000 postcards from the famous waterfall. I sold some Niagara cards to Zoe back in 2008, so I'm happy to see they went to good use. If only someone would do some installment art featuring Washington DC postcards - I have a few I could part with...