I was back on the road again yesterday and visited an antique fair not too far away. 150-stalls selling everything and anything so hopefully I would find some postcards to purchase that allow me to make a margin. I think the entrance fee of £4.00 is too much, especially when so many postcard fairs are free entry these days. But, were here and as I walked inside the fair was bustling already and I was there 30-minutes early?
The first postcards I saw were a collection of Northumberland. No prices, many boring views of desolate landscape. Beautiful to the nature lover but not exciting enough for me as a postcard I could be interested in. But there were 5 real photographic postcards of villages which did appeal to me. All these stallholders are general antique dealers though some did specialise with old currency, jewellery and books, but nobody here was a specialist postcard dealer. Advantage me.
Many of their prices are misguided nonsense from eBay so their valuations on how much old postcards are worth varies. I asked the guy for his price for the five but he wants to sell the lot to me. I’m not interested and I tell him I’m only interested in these five. He goes into selling mode and spouts incredible prices on eBay for similar postcards and I just start laughing. I reminded him that a postcard is only worth what someone will pay for it and I have a price in mind. But he gives me his bid which is too much, so I offer him my take it or leave it offer. He shakes my hand and on we go to the next dealer.
The next stall was a handful of postcards, probably 30 postcards in all. I can see two that I am interested in purchasing. I ask the dealer how much they are each? She flicks through, can see that they are not that exciting and offers me all of them for £5.00. Deal done and I know I can get £20.00 from that £5.00 investment. If that dealer knew how much old postcards are worth she would have offered them for £10.00 and I still would have bought them.
I spent £20.00 on another stall for two postcards that were very good. I don’t mind spending money if there is a guaranteed margin in there for me. I was only in the antique fair a couple of hours and was happy with my purchases. When I got home I went through them in more detail and it’s amazing what you can see when you have more time. I missed a postcard in the batch and it turns out to be a real photographic postcard of the old Police Station at Brixham. This Devon Constabulary postcard was a real gem. It turns out this old Police Station is no closed and has been transformed into a museum. I would value this postcard at around £15.00.
It just goes to show that a seasoned campaigner like myself can miss things and get a pleasant surprise when something interesting is uncovered like this Brixham postcard. This makes antique fairs a great place to buy stock. Most stallholders are general antique dealers and do not know how much old postcards are worth. They can miss some real gems just like I did. Remember, valuation is only a guideline until it’s sold.
