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world war 1 postcards

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:13 pm
by andy20066
I have a photo binder full of world war 1 postcards some are to do with Yorkshire and some mixed ww1 postcards all English. are they worth selling on ebay or not

Re: world war 1 postcards

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 4:49 pm
by eastlondonpostcard
Taking them to a Postcard Fair will not happen for a while now... all depends what you are expecting for them ... there are cheaper online sites than ebay for listing as well.

Re: world war 1 postcards

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:00 pm
by andy20066
like which ones

Re: world war 1 postcards

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:20 pm
by eastlondonpostcard
eBid is a good example...

Re: world war 1 postcards

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:21 pm
by andy20066
is it good for selling postcards

Re: world war 1 postcards

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:27 pm
by eastlondonpostcard
yes :D

Re: world war 1 postcards

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 6:33 pm
by Moonraker
East London Postcards and I always politely disagree about the respective merits of eBay and eBid. I've just looked for "Salisbury Plain" on the latter and got 23 hits; there were 550 on eBay.

(Salisbury Plain was, and is, a major military training area, with tens of thousands of soldiers from several countries based there during WWI who wrote many, many postcards.)

Perhaps your album includes postcard photographs of local camps; these may be of more interest than "patriotic" and "comic" cards published nationwide.

If your album relates to an identifiable soldier belonging to an identifiable unit, it might be worth offering it complete as one item. (I say this partly out of sentiment, as it's a shame to break up a collection.) It's likely that some of the cards will be quite common,others may be almost unique. For example, a photograph featuring six soldiers might have been printed only on a dozen cards - not that an anonymous group would be of interest, but if it's possible to state who they are, which camp it is and which unit, that might interest some collectors.

If the card went through the mail, it may have a camp postmark on it. And the message may be of interest. Some dealers and private eBay/eBid vendors don't appreciate that these can add value to a card and don't bother to scan the backs. I've bought a few cards not for the image but what's on the back.

I can't see postcard fairs resuming for at least five months. In the meantime you might care to search for cards comparable to yours on eBay/eBid to get an idea of pricing.

Whether now is a good time to list on eBay/eBid is debatable. Some purchasers may be wary of receiving material through the post, some vendors prefer to obtain certificates of posting or send their sales by a "signed for" service, which means a trip into a post office, which might be seen as anti-social. (I have several small ones close to me, with queuing outside, and which, if their staff fall ill, are at risk of closing.)