We like it when customers tell us why they want the cards they bought. It adds a human dimension to the process. It also, always, answers the question: who on earth would buy this card? So without revealing any personal details, here are a few of the reasons buyers have shared with us:

* Dad was the model for a comic card produced in Australia. The family lost its copy of the card in a typhoon, and daughter somehow found that we had another one for sale. Success!

* A Japanese company produced postcards of Hong Kong for sale in the Japanese market during the first half of the 20th century. Because we had listed publishers’ names, this company found examples of their old cards through a search engine.

* One Hong Kong customer found an old card of the exact site where he had lived before the building was demolished. He had no photos of that old building, now long-replaced by an office block. As it happened, we also had a card of the same site with the new building. Classic “before-and-after” opportunity!

* One piece of artwork, a couple embracing in a snowfall with the area around them melting from their warmth, reminded one customer of his own personal experience–and he said the couple in the card actually looked like himself and his girlfriend (the real couple), too. He knew of this painting before, and had been searching–until he found us.

* An art gallery owner bought several African cards to complement an exhibition of materials from that country.

* A Malaysian customer bought all the old cards from his hometown in Borneo.

* Another Hong Kong customer has enjoyed collecting model aircraft, until these overtook the available space in his home. This is a problem we definitely understand. He decided to expand his collection to postcards of different aircraft types used locally, then and now.

* A pastor in rural Norway bought a vintage card of his church.

Not everyone tells us why they buy, of course, and usually we don’t ask. But that doesn’t mean we’re not curious! There are as many reasons as there are buyers, and it does come down to the thrill of the chase, doesn’t it?