Saturday Market: Purchasing Postcards at Postage Stamp Shows and Sales

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seapex-stamp-show-2016_02I recently attended my first stamp show – SEAPEX 2016 – and I want to share my experiences as a postcard collector.

First off, the show is about 3 times larger than the postcard shows in Seattle.  And let me clarify, when I say “show” it refers to show AND sale.  The stamp vendors have slightly more elaborate booth setups than the postcard dealers, with tall standing wall systems of small drawers and shelves to hold all of the sorted stamps.  Think library card catalog, but 6′ high.

Secondly, there are fewer boxes on the tables to just browse through – it’s more like the New York Central Library where you tell the librarian which book you want, and then wait for it to be pulled off the shelf and delivered to you while you wait.  At postcard shows, the boxes of postcards are all arranged on 6′ long tables and you pull up a chair and start flipping through the cards.

You will find stamp enthusiasts come to stamp shows complete with lists of stamps they are looking for, a magnifying glass, and possibly an iPad or other device which contains a digital catalog to help identify the intricacies of the stamps.  Whereas I have seen postcard collectors with lists – even in one case a 3-ring binder – but that is not commonplace.  I have my collection on Flickr, so I can reference it from my phone to avoid duplicates, but it generally isn’t necessary.

Thirdly, no surprise, but the focus at a stamp show is on the postage stamp and/or postmark.  What the stamp is attached to is secondary.  Just a warning.  There are postcards available at stamp shows.  If the dealer has a sufficient amount, they will be sorted into boxes for you to peruse.  There were even 2 postcard (as opposed to stamp) dealers at SEAPEX.

In addition to the various dealers selling stamps, etc. there was a silent auction, an appraiser booth, and many exhibits.

I ended up purchasing about 20 postcards (including my first Hold To Light!) and some letters from 1892.  The dealers and customers were all very friendly at SEAPEX and I did not feel out of place at all, in fact I felt quite welcomed.  I struck up many a conversation about postcard collecting.  I also met 2 collectors (seperately) who invited me to the Pacific Northwest Postcard Collectors Club (PNPCC) meeting tomorrow!
seapex-stamp-show-2016

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About the author

Heidi
I started collecting postcards when I was about 5 years old. My only Grandfather lived in Germany, and it was a fun way for us to correspond and have some sort of relationship. I adored the "Hilde" postcards, and he soon started sending me a different one each time he wrote. I had a special bond with my paternal Grandfather, although I only met him a few times. A few years later my adopted Grandparents in Denver started sending me postcards from their vacations, which were mostly road-trips around the USA. My collection continued to grow and eventually filled two binders. As my collection grew, my mother, who also collected postcards when she was young, started adding postcards to my binders from her collection. I had so much fun dreaming of traveling to exotic places! I would sort and re-sort the postcards by type, location, like/dislike, etc. It wasn't until I was in my 20's, when I sorted the postcards chronologically by sender, that I realized there were a few postcards from my maternal grandmother to my mother. One such postcard was sent to my mother as a teenager who was visiting family in Berlin. My Grandmother wrote and asked her to come home early because my Grandfather's illness had taken a turn for the worse. My Grandmother died a few months later of an unrelated disease, and my Grandfather several weeks after that. I also found a postcard from a ship that my paternal Grandfather sailed on to immigrate to the USA. He sent it to his parents and explains that when he got seasick, the crew told him to eat rollmops and drink beer and hot cocoa (yes, pickled herring + beer + chocolate). My current postcard collection is divided into two sets. One set is the pictures I like sorted by theme - exotic places, animals that make me smile, costumes that I dream of making. The other set is from family and pieces together our story. I still send postcards when I travel and am an active trader.

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