Search found 219 matches

by Moonraker
Fri Mar 01, 2019 9:29 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: used/unused
Replies: 5
Views: 10302

Re: used/unused

Perversely and conversely, to me (a subject collector) the condition of the card is important (provided this is reflected in the price), but I don't mind trading a crumple or two for an interesting message or postmark. About 15% of my cards show very visible damage, but I've yet to see duplicates of...
by Moonraker
Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:13 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: used/unused
Replies: 5
Views: 10302

Re: used/unused

I don't claim to be an "expert", but I've seldom noticed much difference in prices between used and non-used cards. The latter can be in better condition, but for me the former are far more interesting and often better value. Postmarks can give clues about the date of an anonymous scene- b...
by Moonraker
Mon Feb 18, 2019 8:58 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: Wiltshire publishers: Bott, Fred Wright, Fred West
Replies: 2
Views: 7700

Re: Wiltshire publishers: Bott, Fred Wright, Fred West

Thanks for that. I already know where they lived, though not precisely when. (I try to consult Kelly's Directory on-line but find the Search function a bit cumbersome.) I was hoping more for background and anecdotes. I have some about T L Fuller, one-time assistant to, and later rival of, Marcus Ben...
by Moonraker
Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:07 am
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: Wiltshire publishers: Bott, Fred Wright, Fred West
Replies: 2
Views: 7700

Wiltshire publishers: Bott, Fred Wright, Fred West

I have details of some Wiltshire postcard publishers of the 1910s, including T L Fuller, Alfred Vowles and Albert Marrett of Shrewton, but there are several other, less prolific, ones about whom I'm a little curious: Little is known about Albert Marrett’s local rival, Fred West. A R Bott of Orchesto...
by Moonraker
Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:55 am
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: Almyer Avling, Wilson Street, Finsbury 1914
Replies: 0
Views: 12286

Almyer Avling, Wilson Street, Finsbury 1914

I've just acquired a set of 12 cards featuring the First Canadian Contingent on Salisbury Plain in 1914-15. Some were not uncommon, but there were several "finds" (probably because vendors wouldn't recognise single cards with brief captions as relating to the Plain or Wiltshire - indeed I ...
by Moonraker
Fri Jan 04, 2019 10:58 am
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: To eBay or not to eBay?
Replies: 53
Views: 212502

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

A postcard of Stonehenge has just sold for £52 on eBay! As an iconic national monument it has featured in many, many PCs, and rather too often modern colour cards are listed on eBay. But this one featured Stonehenge just before the First World War, with two soldiers in a dog-cart riding eastward up ...
by Moonraker
Tue Dec 04, 2018 10:04 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: To eBay or not to eBay?
Replies: 53
Views: 212502

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Oh the irony. Early this year I won a couple of "military Wiltshire" lots at a traditional auction and got my money's worth from the cards I wanted for my collection - leaving me with about 25 surplus cards that I've been gradually selling off on eBay. One bonus was that, despite its Wilts...
by Moonraker
Sat Nov 24, 2018 4:13 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: Used postage stamps torn off cards - why?
Replies: 2
Views: 7851

Used postage stamps torn off cards - why?

Why did people tear used postage stamps off cards and envelopes? I expect that all of us have seen examples of this, with cases of the removal spoiling a nice postmark and of part of the stamp (often a few perfs on one side) being left behind. There can't have been much, if any, value in the removed...
by Moonraker
Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:32 am
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: To eBay or not to eBay?
Replies: 53
Views: 212502

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

I've just checked out the re-listing process and indeed one has to select the eight-times option. Nearly all my postcard listings are of common cards left-over from bulk purchases, and I didn't mind the old system of them being re-listed once. But I reckon that if no-one's interested after two listi...
by Moonraker
Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:18 am
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: New Collectors
Replies: 1
Views: 6101

Re: New Collectors

I used to collect stamps and in 1996 went to a small fair that included a couple of card dealers. I idly flicked though the "Wiltshire" cards of one dealer and was intrigued by several military cards and bought a couple - my very first one showed a railway line going past the guardhouse in...
by Moonraker
Wed Sep 26, 2018 4:05 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: To eBay or not to eBay?
Replies: 53
Views: 212502

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

Probably, but I've yet to explore the finer points of the latest eBay revamp. One small advantage of re-listing is that one can tweak the title to aim at different sectors of collecting interest.
by Moonraker
Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:38 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: To eBay or not to eBay?
Replies: 53
Views: 212502

Re: To eBay or not to eBay?

After my usual summer break I've resumed selling a few surplus cards on eBay - mostly left-overs from a couple of lots I won at a traditional auction in March. eBay has rejigged its selling pages and it now seems that an unsold item will be re-listed automatically eight times (though each re-listing...
by Moonraker
Wed Sep 12, 2018 6:26 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: Why is the Message Forum so quiet?
Replies: 11
Views: 23392

Re: Why is the Message Forum so quiet?

A decade ago I used to visit six or more fairs a year, but got tired of ploughing through boxes of very familiar cards. (Now I'm getting tired of ploughing through very specific eBay "collectables" pages and seeing the same old stuff, multiple copies of the same card, photographic copies a...
by Moonraker
Mon Aug 27, 2018 1:08 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: Why is the Message Forum so quiet?
Replies: 11
Views: 23392

Re: Why is the Message Forum so quiet?

Oh the irony – my being one of the most prolific posters! Nowadays my interest in postcard collecting just ticks over: I've been to just one fair in the last decade and I browse eBay two or three times a week – I guess that quite a few of my posts relate to that website. And my collecting interest h...
by Moonraker
Sun Jul 01, 2018 3:59 pm
Forum: Postcard Collecting
Topic: Reading postcard fair - road closure
Replies: 1
Views: 5781

Re: Reading postcard fair - road closure

I spent three hours at this event, my first visit to any fair for nine years :o . As always, it was very well organised and I think that an innovation since my last visit was the placing of table numbers on dealers' badges, which encouraged me to dot around the hall one stand to another, depending o...