Maybe someone can tell me, I have been collecting postcards for a couple of years now, and have always fancied the idea of becoming a postcard dealer.
How do I do That?
Whenever I go to the fairs the dealers always seem to be having fun and enjoying their work.
A few questions to ask..
How do dealers buy their stock, they always seem to have so many cards.
Do they deal full time or is it a part time job.
Or is it a hobby.
I would love to one day be sat there chatting to all the people with all my cards for sale in front, what a lovely job/hobby that seems.
Any answers to the above would be greatfully recieved.
Many thanks in advance.
Postcard Dealers
Moderator: MichaelDay
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kevinramsdale
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- Location: Lincoln
Hi - I'm afraid you won't find dealers willing to reveal too much about how they source their cards. My own preferred method is to buy cards in from other dealers, but other possibilities are to buy at auction, or to build up a network of contacts in the general antique trade (though increasingly they are finding it profitable to sell them themselves on Ebay)
Some dealers are full time, though most of these have been in business for 20 years or more, when original collections were easier to come by. To do this now would require a lot of capital, and to be honest the return wouldn't be that great - your phrase "they always seem to have so many cards" is hugely significant - many cards are very hard to shift.
However the very fact of being a new dealer would give you a useful initial boost, as both collectors and dealers would pounce on your stock for new material and (assuming you could replace what you sold) you could build it up from there.
Why not give it a try - but don't invest a lot of money until you have found out what sells in the area in which you are trading.
Best Wishes
Some dealers are full time, though most of these have been in business for 20 years or more, when original collections were easier to come by. To do this now would require a lot of capital, and to be honest the return wouldn't be that great - your phrase "they always seem to have so many cards" is hugely significant - many cards are very hard to shift.
However the very fact of being a new dealer would give you a useful initial boost, as both collectors and dealers would pounce on your stock for new material and (assuming you could replace what you sold) you could build it up from there.
Why not give it a try - but don't invest a lot of money until you have found out what sells in the area in which you are trading.
Best Wishes
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your reply, if i was going to give it a try would it be really worthwile turning up at a fair with only say 200 postcards, and only medioka ones at that ?
Thats interesting that you buy from other dealers is that single cards or bulk, do they mind ?
I take it you rub their price out and mark it up yourself.
Fascinating & interesting, it would be nice to be able to get a book - A week in the life of a postcard dealer.
Anyone else got any other input i would be very greatful.
Many Thanks
Thanks for your reply, if i was going to give it a try would it be really worthwile turning up at a fair with only say 200 postcards, and only medioka ones at that ?
Thats interesting that you buy from other dealers is that single cards or bulk, do they mind ?
I take it you rub their price out and mark it up yourself.
Fascinating & interesting, it would be nice to be able to get a book - A week in the life of a postcard dealer.
Anyone else got any other input i would be very greatful.
Many Thanks
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kevinramsdale
- Posts: 156
- Joined: Mon May 22, 2006 7:09 pm
- Location: Lincoln
davyj wrote:
Fascinating & interesting, it would be nice to be able to get a book - A week in the life of a postcard dealer.
Not likely to be a best seller I should imagine, could be a possible project for Picture Postcard Monthly's "Quester"
The week in question would need to be chosen carefully, as many are somewhat uneventful.
Kevin
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MichaelDay
- Site Admin
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Re: Postcard Dealers
The trade could do with some new dealers. Not that I've got any gripes about the present lot, but in the 11 years I've been going to fairs there haven't been many new faces. I would put the average age at early to mid fifties and some dealers are quite a bit older than this. When they retire, who's going to take their places? I admire their stamina, driving long distances and then hauling all their stock in and setting it out. After a long day, perhaps with little ion the way of refreshment, they have to pack everything up and drive home.davyj wrote:Maybe someone can tell me, I have been collecting postcards for a couple of years now, and have always fancied the idea of becoming a postcard dealer...
Moonraker
If I could butt in again - not that I know more than the next person -I think you would need at least 3,000 cards to make it worth your while to attend even a small fair. As to how much to spend, some years a dealer in PPM revealed that he bought at one-third what he expected to get for the card, with another third of the price going on overheads and the third third being profit. But it's hardly going to be worth your while buying up cards in threes and fours. And if you buy in bulk there's bound to be some dross.davyj wrote:Kevin how much do you think i should invest as an initial outlay ?kevinramsdale wrote:Why not give it a try - but don't invest a lot of money
And buying stock- how much should i spend per card to go into my stock ?
Many Thanks
You could always offer a few cards on eBay, but my own experiences as a modest buyer and seller suggest that the results aren't typical of the general trade. Some bidders go way over the top for quite modest items, compared with what most dealers would ask (400% is the highest I've come across). And some quite desirable items go at bargain prices.
Last winter on eBayI sold some very average local military postcards and Welsh mining cards and got perhaps 85% of dealers' prices. (But how else would I sell them?) I also had about 50 "holiday" cards of Torquay c1910-20 and noted that duplicates of them weren't selling as singles. So I split them up into three or four lots, each with a starting price of 99p - no interest at all. I gave them to Oxfam!
Moonraker
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kevinramsdale
- Posts: 156
- Joined: Mon May 22, 2006 7:09 pm
- Location: Lincoln
[[/quote]
If I could butt in again - not that I know more than the next person -I think you would need at least 3,000 cards to make it worth your while to attend even a small fair. As to how much to spend, some years a dealer in PPM revealed that he bought at one-third what he expected to get for the card, with another third of the price going on overheads and the third third being profit. But it's hardly going to be worth your while buying up cards in threes and fours. And if you buy in bulk there's bound to be some dross.
[/quote]
Yes. I think those figures are about right overall, some "certain selling" cards can be bought and sold for a lower margin than that, with the occasional lucky find attracting a bigger margin. The sobering statistic is that you need to shift two thirds of them (to cover the cost of the cards and the overheads) before you even get into profit.
eBay has been a godsend to the postcard trade since it first began to make an impact around 1998, not just for those who sell on it, but for all dealers in creating an international market for postcards, including some types which were nigh on impossible to shift previously. Postcard Fairs became a happy hunting ground for Ebayers looking for stock to sell online, and so all dealers benefitted. I suspect that this practice may well be in decline though, partly because of the reduced visibility of cards listed in the UK on the American market (where many of the silly prices were realised) and also because the well is running a little dry, with many dealers now having been cleaned out of the type of card which does well online.
If I could butt in again - not that I know more than the next person -I think you would need at least 3,000 cards to make it worth your while to attend even a small fair. As to how much to spend, some years a dealer in PPM revealed that he bought at one-third what he expected to get for the card, with another third of the price going on overheads and the third third being profit. But it's hardly going to be worth your while buying up cards in threes and fours. And if you buy in bulk there's bound to be some dross.
[/quote]
Yes. I think those figures are about right overall, some "certain selling" cards can be bought and sold for a lower margin than that, with the occasional lucky find attracting a bigger margin. The sobering statistic is that you need to shift two thirds of them (to cover the cost of the cards and the overheads) before you even get into profit.
eBay has been a godsend to the postcard trade since it first began to make an impact around 1998, not just for those who sell on it, but for all dealers in creating an international market for postcards, including some types which were nigh on impossible to shift previously. Postcard Fairs became a happy hunting ground for Ebayers looking for stock to sell online, and so all dealers benefitted. I suspect that this practice may well be in decline though, partly because of the reduced visibility of cards listed in the UK on the American market (where many of the silly prices were realised) and also because the well is running a little dry, with many dealers now having been cleaned out of the type of card which does well online.
Kevin
[quote]eBay has been a godsend to the postcard trade since it first began to make an impact around 1998, not just for those who sell on it, but for all dealers in creating an international market for postcards, including some types which were nigh on impossible to shift previously. Postcard Fairs became a happy hunting ground for Ebayers looking for stock to sell online, and so all dealers benefitted. I suspect that this practice may well be in decline though, partly because of the reduced visibility of cards listed in the UK on the American market (where many of the silly prices were realised) and also because the well is running a little dry, with many dealers now having been cleaned out of the type of card which does well online.[/quote]
This is straying slightly from the subject in hand, but, as a collector, after spending a year making purchases from e-bay, I am finding that, apart from the odd card or two, most of those available are duplicates, or similar to what I already have.
Furthermore, with e-bay, postage has to be paid FOR EACH CARD. This has deterred me somewhat, unless I see something of significant interest.
And anyhow, I enjoy the feeling of searching physically through dealers' stocks to find "treasures".
And digressing slightly further, I notice that within the Beginners' Guide, it has been mentioned that "no-one seems to collect postcards of castles". How wrong that is. Maybe that's why I find them cheaply.
Thank you to whoever posted that comment. It means I get more for my money. Of course, if dealers see me coming now, .....
This is straying slightly from the subject in hand, but, as a collector, after spending a year making purchases from e-bay, I am finding that, apart from the odd card or two, most of those available are duplicates, or similar to what I already have.
Furthermore, with e-bay, postage has to be paid FOR EACH CARD. This has deterred me somewhat, unless I see something of significant interest.
And anyhow, I enjoy the feeling of searching physically through dealers' stocks to find "treasures".
And digressing slightly further, I notice that within the Beginners' Guide, it has been mentioned that "no-one seems to collect postcards of castles". How wrong that is. Maybe that's why I find them cheaply.
Thank you to whoever posted that comment. It means I get more for my money. Of course, if dealers see me coming now, .....
... eBay has been a godsend to the postcard trade since it first began to make an impact around 1998, not just for those who sell on it, but for all dealers in creating an international market for postcards, including some types which were nigh on impossible to shift previously. Postcard Fairs became a happy hunting ground for Ebayers looking for stock to sell online, and so all dealers benefitted...kevinramsdale wrote:[
I buy about 30% of new items for my collection on eBay, but this includes other paper collectables that complement the cards. About half are from overseas. One consequence of eBay is that I'm no longer keen to travel far (more than 50 miles) to a fair - though this does reduce my "carbon footprint"; on the other hand occasionally I do buy at fairs more desirable copies (condition, postmark, message) of cards that I already have or cards that I suspect I might have because there's a good chance I can dispose of unwanted material on eBay.
Moonraker
Davydavyj wrote:Can anyone answer my question
How much do you think i should invest as an initial outlay ?
And buying stock- how much should i spend per card to go into my stock ?
Many Thanks
It's really not easy to advise on this without knowing more about you. How much money do you have to invest? Can you afford to make a loss overall on your venture? How many hours a week can you devote to trading?Do you want to do it as a hobby (in which case profit may not be important) or does it need to be done on a commercial basis? Are you going to specialise?
Two years' collecting is unlikely to have given you the experience of the values of cards outside your own interests. I've been collecting for 11 years, and I have no idea what's the worth of cards featuring ships, animals, cycling, nudes etc etc - in fact 90 per cent of the material available.
Kevin has agreed that my suggestion of an initial stock of 3,000 might be OK, which suggests a retail value of perhaps £17-24,000. On the "buy at third retail basis" that suggests an outlay of £6-8000.
As to how much you "spend per card", that rather depends on the card: 50p for a common holiday scene, £40??? for a Titanic or suffragette card.
(Incidentally yesterday I overheard one dealer at the Woking fair offering 50p each for some run-of-the-mill cards that he said he would offer for £1 - and he did look extremely honest.)
You might like to consider also how much of their stock dealers actually sell at a fair: 2%???
The big question is where will you get your stock from, and Kevin in his reply of April 26 has addressed this realistically. You could strike lucky and come across a small dealer who's selling up and willing to sell his stock to you. When you've acquired it, you could then work through it getting an idea of what different types of cards are worth.
Moonraker