The world is divided into two types of people: those who remember where they were when this happened, and everyone else. We do. Card is unused, but very heavily smudged on reverse. The front also has minor abrasions, but it’s still very clear. Plastichrome #10P73664. Serrated edges.  Grade: 4

Unused card, published in late 1990s, of this 1993 crash at the old Kai Tak Airport. Grade: 1

Unused card published in late 1990s. Grade: 1

Never mailed card published in late 1990s. Grade: 1

A good card of a dismal event. The fire was in 1996; the card was mailed in 1999, using three stamps of which only one was postmarked, and that mark is legible. There’s a blue tri-lingual airmail sticker affixed, and the US Postal Service has, again, graciously imprinted their orange barcode across the front.  Grade: 2

This was close to home, literally. Card was mailed in 1999, with three stamps of which one is bizarre by any standard; two full postmarks and also a blue airmail sticker. Grade: 1

We can’t read the caption, but we trust Andrew, the writer, implicitly and so we also know the card comes after 1923. But before 1984, when it was mailed, with three stamps and full Shiba postmark.  Grade: 2

Borneo Divers And Sea Sports (Sabah) issued a series of oversized (5″ x 7″) cards commemorating the various wrecks their customers explore, including this one, also known as “American Wreck” from 1945. Card mailed in 1996, has Wilayah Persekutuan stamp, mostly legible postmark, and minor postal creasing. Grade: 2

Borneo Divers And Sea Sports (Sabah) of Labuan issued a series of oversized (5″ x 7″) cards commemorating the various wrecks their customers explore. Card mailed in 1996, has two Wilayah Persekutuan stamps, legible postmark, and minor postal creasing. Grade: 2

Three as-new folios are available, from 1992, each containing nine cards and a historical summary of these locations. The cards can be used as postcards, of course, but the message sections are largely pre-printed, quite possibly to save writers from having to describe the wretchedness of it all.  Grades: 1

Unused B&W card, heavily handled.  Grade: 4

Unused Rosin & Co. card 867, minor corner abrasions, of damage from the famous 1906 earthquake and fire.  Grade: 2

From the “London under Fire” series, pubished by Photochrom Co. Ltd., this sepia card No. 11 in the series depicting World War II events.  Also noted:  “Passed by the censor.”  Unused but aged.  Grade: 2

Unused B&W card that had been pasted into an album, so remnants of that are still attached to the reverse.  Grade: 4

This is a Currier and Ives lithograph of the April, 1865 U.S. Civil War event.  The card is not so old, of course, being mailed in 2013 with stamp and unusually clear postmark.  Some minor USPS processing abrasion on the back, and faint orange barcoding on the front.  Grade: 3

This is an unused, Soviet-era (1976) card whose reverse is almost entirely taken up with the story of the event, in Russian.  It would be awkward but not impossible to mail this as a postcard in the normal way.  Grade: 1

A multi-faceted card, from the National Postal Museum of Washington DC’s Smithsonian.  A circular chop on the reverse attests that the card was posted from the Museum, and this is alongside three stamps, two postmarks, and a blue USPS bilingual airmail label–and barcoding on both sides.  Enough?  Grade: 3

“Schade” means “Pity” in German, and this card just goes to prove you don’t need to drink to have a road accident.  Mailed from Austria in 2014, with two stamps and indistinct postmark.  Grade: 1