It makes us happy to land a stash of cards we know will add value to the site. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes borrowed (consignments), even sometimes blue. But we’ve stopped considering unsolicited offers from people we don’t know. We get many of these, usually well-meaning, like this:

“My parents had this box of cards and I was wondering what they are worth and what will you give me for them?”

Faithful Blog readers will know the answers. Part 2 of that query would establish the worth, but only to us. We can’t say what they’re worth to the world because we haven’t seen them. New/used? Condition? Stamps? Postmark? Message? Do we already have it? Try finding the same card sold somewhere else (Google is great for this), and see what they want for it. Remember, all old postcards are unique.

Recently we corresponded with a person who had a wonderful supply of old cards from Hong Kong. Of course we would have liked to have them. But his selling price estimate to us was already near or above normal retail, so it was impossible for us to justify the expense.

Where did we get our inventory, anyway?

* our own collection

* recent travels

* online auctions

* friends who bring or send cards from wherever they are, or go

* bulk purchases from other retailers (before, not now)

* postcard shows

* estate sales

* consignments

For now, no more consignments, and very unlikely to buy more cards sight unseen. Of course this isn’t to say more cards won’t appear in the site. They will! More are ready for scanning right now.

We can have the most ordinary-looking item, and then a message comes in from someone who’s been looking for that very card for years. Maybe our price is $1, but they would have paid $100. Guess what? Good luck for them: they found what they wanted. Good luck for us: we sold the card!

Until next time.