Collecting Postcards

Mar/Apr 2019 edition
Issue #3 AutoMobilia Resource Magazine
Bonnie Singer - Guest Columnist

There are few collectibles that offer as wide a range of options and availability to beginner, and advanced collectors than picture postcards.  Unlike other collectibles originally produced in limited numbers due to narrow interests or non-technological manufacturing methods, picture postcards arrived on the scene in the mid-to-late 1890s to immediate popular interest.  Postcard historians claim postcards printed and collected on a worldwide basis in the early 20th century created the largest collecting craze ever to have taken place.

While many of the early postcards were topical as tourism souvenirs or holiday greetings, the timing of public interest in collectible cards, development of high volume/high quality printing presses, and a burgeoning popular passion for automobiles, quickly created a demand for topical automotive picture postcards.

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