A Lesson Learned

A few years ago I placed a frame of Black Americana postcards in the Minnesota State Fair; Sixteen well-chosen postcards to be displayed and judged at the Fair. It took me a year and half to fine the right postcards. In my heart, I was going to be rewarded with at least a 2^nd place ribbon for my hard work as a post carder. Well the big day came and I ran to the State Fair to see the ribbon I won for my postcards. I found the frame on display and nothing. There wasn't a ribbon to be found in the display case. WHAT! Are you kidding me? This is one of the best frames here this year. I demanded an answer to the question, “Why didn’t I get a ribbon for my frame of postcards?” I wrote emails…I made phone calls…but nobody answered me. My mind was on fire. They didn’t give me a ribbon because the postcards are of black people…the have there nerve. It took me a few days to calm down. When the Fair was over I went to pick up my frames and the man returning the frames said, “What, you didn’t get a ribbon on this wonderful frame of postcards?”, which reignited the fire in my head. I took my frames home and hung the frame to remember my hard work that was ignored.

Since then I have really studied postcards. I’ve read books and articles and talk with my friend Jerry who is the postcard master in the St. Paul area. I’ve learned about the texture of a card and what it’s called. I know about the printing companies and the designer that have created those postcards.

So last month I took the frame of Black Americana postcards off the wall to study them. I pulled the cards out one by one and studied each card; the printing company name and texture of the postcard. About ten minutes later I simply couldn’t look in the mirror. I was so embarrassed and upset with myself. Those judges knew what they were doing. It had nothing to do with the race of the people on the postcards or the race of the man that place the postcards it to the contest. It was all about the postcards.

I had mixed linen postcards with smooth, white board postcards. When I looked at what I had done…I had four different types’ postcards in the frame. For two years I blamed the judges for their actions; when I was the one totally at fault. A little education goes along way.

 Linen Postcards from Genuine Curteich-Chicago (Top Front, Button Back)

 Linen Postcards from Ashville Postcard Company (Top Front, Button Back)

  This white boarder postcard is from Phostint Company...produced in the 1920's (Top Front, Button Back)

  This postcards is from C.T. American Art...it's recreation of 1911 postcard from I.F. Company (Top Front, Button Back)

Now I know a white bordered postcard from a linen postcard. I know a Curt Teich vs a recreated postcard from C.T. American. Now don’t think for a moment that I’m expert yet, in many cases I’m just above a beginner. Collecting postcards is one thing, being a real post carder is another thing.

Happy post carding, no matter what type of postcards you collect. 

The Thrill is Gone!

I must stay I had to step away from post carding for a few months. Between my personal life and people playing games in the postcard trading world it got to be a little too much. This hobby can become few stressful and if stress is part of it then you need to back away because it's no longer fun.

We as post carders tend to turn this trading into a business in a great since. Wheeling and dealing for postcards...as if they were stocks. Here is the problem we're not making a dime on it. Even in so cases we're losing money with those losers that don't complete their trades/swaps. You spend $2.00 (the card and the postage overseas) and get nothing back. $2.00 or .75 cents, it's not cool being scammed on a post card trade; and if you do a multiple postcard trade… well…$$$. THIS HOBBY IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE STRESSFUL!!! There I got that out of my system.

So when it gets to be too much; stop for a while and let your poscard pals know that postcard burn out has set in. Shut down you Face Book postcard album down and go for a walk. This hobby which is so much fun should be just that...FUN! Trading should not be a downer...but something that brings a smile to your face when you open your mailbox.

Happy postcard trading!

 

Wings Over Vietnam

I love military aircraft, so every chance I get at a postcard trade show or when I'm at my favorite post card shop, I look for postcards that have military aircraft on them. Now when I'm searching it's normally a real chore to find these postcards that were made in the 1960's. Plus when I fine them, they're not always in the best condition, these real photo postcards are normally in good to fair condition. Most of them are standard size and have no boarders. I  have a small collection good condition but only have about 25 postcards. But that's joy in collecting; you have to hunt for what you like.

The planes in this blog where use in the Vietnam Air Campaign. The United States entered the war in Vietnam in the 1960's, it had the world's most powerful air force. But unlike past wars when the enemy was clearly defined, the nature of this war was unclear and there was hesitation on what aircraft to use to fight this new opposing force. There were 110 different types of aircraft use during this conflict; here are six of those aircraft from Air Recon to Bombers. 

Top to bottom: Vought A-7D "Corsair ll", Douglas RB-66B "Destroyer" 

and McDonnell Douglas F-4C "Phantom ll"

Top to Bottom: Grumman E-2C "Hawkeye", Convair F-102A "Delta Dagger"

and General Dynamics F-111

The School Teacher's Big Trip

On June 12, 1938 a school teacher from Minnesota boarded the S.S. Normandi in New York City. She was starting a 30 day trip to tour Europe. This was here first major trip from home. From the photos taken that day of her boarding the ship, she looked joyful, filled with smiles. She made a scrap book of her trip across Europe and I want to share this trip with you through the postcards she collected along the way.

She arrived in London on June 15, 1938 and stayed at the Regent Palace Hotel. In the coming days she and her friends would tour London’s grand’s sights. She collected more than a dozen postcards in her traveling around London. Here are four of them. The first two postcards are of the Westminster Abby. These historical postcards, standard size are black and white photographs with a flat finish.

A outside view of the Westminster Abby.   The inside view is of Henry VII's Chapel. 

The next two postcards are historical postcards, standard size; they are sepia photographs with a glossy finish. The glossy finish was a new type of postcard in the late 1930’s.

The top postcard is of Yeomen of the Guard also known as "Beefeaters"

The bottom postcard is the Tower of London

Flat or glossy, these 1930 postcards are treasures to view and store for another generation to appreciate. Our school teacher locked away a big piece of history on the 1^st stop of her European trip.

Movie Poster Postcards

When I was a boy sitting in the movie theater, there would be a certain music that would play,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye8KvYKn9-0

my little heart would skip a beat and the all kids in the movie theater would cheer. And man wearing suit and hat would walk across the screen, stop and shot his and screen would go red. Another James Bond movie was going.

                  

 Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever. So what does that have to do with post carding? I was in a little shop in New York City and on several racks there were postcards of movie posters. There were 100’s of them. I got so excited; I had never seen this type of postcards before. So this was the start of another chapter in my postcard collecting, movie poster postcards. I started collecting the James Bond movies poster postcards first and then moved onto what ever was there. The Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Frankenstein, the list is long. But there was a little problem with collecting these postcards. I could only find them in two places in New York City. I would find out that both places imported there postcards from Europe. I asked one of the owners what was going on with him being the only person having these postcards…he would just smile at me warmly. Then one day he explained. It was illegal to sell these types of postcards. I would then learn you weren't allowed to copy a movie poster of any movie poster in the USA. It was an infringement of copy rights. So I was purchasing black market postcards. I bought hundreds of them. When I want them now, I have to order them from London. But if you read the laws now, the copy rights for movie poster made between certain years have expired.

-  All movie posters created on or after January 1, 1978, are copyrighted.

-  Some movie posters created between 1923 and 1977 are copyrighted. Some have fallen into the public domain.

-  No movie posters created prior to 1923 are copyrighted. They are all in the public domain.

I will always love my collection of black market movie poster postcards, I chuckle. Who said post carding isn't exciting?

1920's Boxing Postcards

   About 20 years ago I came upon some postcards from the 1920's. There were two postcards of John L. Sullivan and James John Corbett; I was pretty excited about my find. These would be the oldest postcards in my collection and to this still is. The postcards are marked Copr. 1921.Ex.Sup.Co.,Chgo. What's makes the postcards even more interesting is that they fighter’s history on them; the postcards are also signed by each man. Here you have 1920's trading cards on postcards. I have no information on how popular they were in that era...but America loved these two boxers so I would think they had to be a big deal.

 

Boxers James John Corbett and John L. Sullivan

All you could have done in mailing these postcards is place an address on the right side of the postcard and find some strange place to sign your name. There really is no room on the left side of the postcard because of the history type in

. 

I would love to get my hands on a few more of these postcards. To bad we don have postcards like this of our modern day boxers. 

In My Beginning

Since I was 12 years old I’ve been collecting postcards. When I started it was just about making a friend in Puerto Rico or Australia through the school pen pal program, or having a friend going on vacation in some really cool place like London or California and receiving a postcard in the mail. I would keep my little treasures in a large book to keep them from getting torn. As I got into my teens collecting kind of fell at the waist side, I kept the postcards that I would get from friends that traveled, but it wasn’t a big deal. But one day a friend asked me to help clean out his aunt’s attic. What I found open a new chapter in me collecting postcards. There were post cards from the late 1800's to the early 1920’s. A WW l Dough boy, a west African woman, the boxer John L. Sullivan. These antique postcards I still have today, with the thousands of other I’ve found in antique shops, at garage sales and the ones friend and coworker have just left with me. It’s rewarding to have people assist you in your hobby with such joy. I’m always grateful when I get a bag full of postcards from a trip they took or something they found in grandma’s basement. 

I take this hobby of post carding seriously, but still keep it fun. I feel like an historian sometimes preserving these cards that are packed with so much beauty and information. I've entered some of my postcards into the Minnesota State Fair over the last four years and have been rewarded three ribbons for my collections. I love sharing my postcards, what’s the use in keeping them in books on the shelf. Now I want to write about post carding and share and learn from other that enjoy this hobby. This is My Post Carder’s Delight.

 Dough Boy

 West African Woman

Boxer John  L. Sullivan