Posts

Showing posts from 2021

How to Fix Your eBay Saved Searches for Vintage Postcards

Image
Ebay made some major changes to the Postcards category this month.  Here I show some of the changes and how to update your saved searches to filter the correct state, country or category.

J. Gilbert Smith Orchard, Los Altos, CA

Image
 Nice display at the Los Altos History Museum featuring fruit crate labels, vintage photos and a Linen-era postcard of the orchards in Santa Clara county.

"Rare" 1c George Washington & Benjamin Franklin Stamps on Postcards

Image
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