Paper Shows and Postcard Clubs

My time with eBay led me  to the esoteric world of the harder core postcard collector. You can check out the major sellers on eBay and from there you can find  they often have other more elaborate Postcardy endeavours separate from eBay. Much of this specialized activity is done online with websites but over time I discovered  that the real finds are at Postcard Shows, Nostalgia Shows, Pulp Shows, Vintage Shows, Old Paper Shows,  Postcard clubs and at some of the more unusual second hand shops.

Here’s a snapshot from an Old Paper Show, with a standard floor layout. This show had 6 postcard specific vendors and 25 or 30 other vintage paper vendors, many of which had at least a few cards to sell. Postcard specific shows might have more than a dozen postcard sellers and at these shows they would bring a more comprehensive inventory.

oldpapershow

The demographic skews white male, 50ish, with Eastern European as a major sub group. There are quite a few couples (!). Younger women do show up in small groups, younger men do not show singly or in any group size. Depending on the show, you would see some other sub genres. For instance, mixed in with impressive collections of old postcards and 100s of early Playboy Magazines are large collections of vintage Fashion magazines – side by side. Each attracting their target audience.

Everyone is goal oriented at these events so chitchat is at a minimum and passive-aggressive browsing techniques are well developed. That might have to do with the rarity of the items on display but I think its at least as much to do with the natural temperament of most of the participants. Its an interesting crowd, not particularly collegiall  but well behaved and very willing to follow the arbitrary rules established at each show and each vendor booth.

What Happens at a Postcard Show

The guys (although there are a few women) who run these things have three characteristics in common:

  • They have unbelievably  large stacks of postcards to sell, trade, acquire and so on
  • They have been known to save the good stuff for certain customers
  • They all really want to sell you a postcard

Which turns out is a pretty good combination if you are looking to buy a postcard.

Access to 50,000 cards at once,  a few times a year, offered by motivated sellers actually works much better than looking at a few 100 similar cards sold passively daily on line. Which is why I now pencil several events a year that you may not have in your calendar.

When you go to a postcard or vintage paper  show there is a specific protocol that is established at each vendor.  Let me paint the scene for you:

  • The post cards will  be arranged on top of several largish portable tables. Altogether a vendor might have 5,000 – 10,000 postcards on display.
  • Each vendor would have 4 or 5 folding chairs for you to pull up to the table for relaxed access to the cards
  • The postcards are generally sorted by Location & Subject Matter and then often by Real Picture/RP Postcards vs the linen/lithographed vintage postcards most of us are familiar with.
  • After waiting your turn and finding a spare chair you pick your target area of the table and pull a chair up to it.
  • In front of you is a large corrugated card board box – the height of a postcard and likely 3’x4′ in size containing several thousand post cards.

now the real work (is that the correct word) begins:

  • I generally sit in front of biggish section that is called “Parry Sound”.
    • Although sometimes they have a section called “Beach” or “Automobiles” or “Bank Buildings” that I might browse.
  • 9 times out of 10 the Parry Sound section is a reference to the “District of Parry Sound”  or possibly  “PSD” – rather than the town of Parry Sound. Its a catch all for every possibly related Parry Sound item. My search for “The Town Beach” and “James and Seguin” postcards compete for space with Callandar/Dionne Quints, about 250 miles of Georgian Bay coast line, the Island Queen, Belvidere/Belvedre Hotel, every little town/hamlet/village/demised settlement for 1000s of square miles and so on. On average, each Postcard vendor would have 200-250 Parry Sound postcards.
  • They provide you with a handy Postcard marker to allow you to identify where you took the cards from so you can replace them properly and promptly.
  • Marking your place in the stack, you quickly sift through a handful of cards (40 or 50 of them), pick out maybe 1 (often 0) for further review and then grab another handful and repeat until done.
  • If you like a card, you’ll negotiate a price but most of them are reasonably priced and I’ve always been of the opinion that everyone needs to make a buck so haggling is at a minimum.
  • Out of that entire table you’ll find 1 card  that you’ll keep. 20 minutes and $8 later you’re on to the next table.
  • There might be half a dozen likely tables to spend time at (occasionally quite a few more) 2 or 3 hours later you’re out the door with a 2 or 3 new cards.