Decide what kind of collector you want to be
I made a mistake in my first month of collecting postcards. I bought whatever looked old, and within six weeks I had 80 cards with nothing connecting them. A lighthouse from Maine sat next to a French advertising card from 1932 sat next to a Postcrossing card from Taiwan. None of it felt like a collection. It felt like a drawer.
Most collectors who stick with the hobby pick a focus early, even a loose one. That could be a place you've lived, a theme like lighthouses or trains, an era like the linen postcards printed between 1930 and 1945, or simply every card you receive through Postcrossing. Pick one lane to start. You can always add a second later, but a focus gives you a reason to say no to a card that doesn't fit, which matters more than it sounds like it should.
My focus ended up being small-town diners on linen-era cards. I have 34 of them now, found across four states, and each one has a story attached because I remember exactly where I found it.
Where to actually find postcards
Estate sales are the best source I've found, and it's not close. Postcards get boxed up with photo albums and sold cheap because most estate sale companies don't know how to price them. I've paid as little as ten cents a card at a sale in Kingston, New York, buying an entire shoebox for four dollars.
Flea markets come next, though pricing varies more. Antique malls tend to run higher, often a dollar to five dollars a card, because a dealer has already sorted and priced them. Postcard shows, held regionally throughout the year, put you in front of serious dealers who know exactly what they have, which is useful for research even if you're not buying.
If you want cards from places you'll never travel to, Postcrossing solves that. You register, request an address, and mail a card to a stranger. In return, someone else mails you one, sent from wherever they happen to live.
A simple system for sorting what you have
Once you pass about 50 cards, a shoebox stops working. I switched to archival sleeves in a three-ring binder after a humid summer left two cards stuck together. Here's the system that's held up for three years now:
- Sort by your collecting focus first (place, theme, or era), not by acquisition date.
- Use archival, PVC-free sleeves, four pockets per page.
- Pencil a small note in the sleeve corner: where you got the card and roughly when.
- Keep anything with handwriting or a postmark facing out, since that's usually the interesting side.
A postcard collection isn't really about the pictures. It's about picking what you keep.
Storing cards so they outlast you
Heat, humidity, and direct sunlight do more damage to postcards than handling ever does. Keep your binder somewhere with stable temperature, not an attic or a garage. Avoid rubber bands and paper clips entirely. I ruined the corner of a 1948 card by leaving it under a stack of books for a summer, and the crease never came out.
If you have cards worth real money, an appraiser is worth the fee before you decide to display or sell anything. For everyday collecting, archival sleeves and a cool, dry shelf will keep cards in good shape for decades.
Dating a card from the back alone
The back of a postcard tells you more than the front. According to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, U.S. postal regulations allowed a divided back, splitting the space into a message side and an address side, starting in 1907. Cards printed before that date, called undivided backs, only allowed an address on the back, meaning any message had to be squeezed onto the front image.
Once you know that one detail, you can date most cards within a couple of decades just by flipping them over. Stamp box design, printing method, and paper stock narrow it down further. I cover the specifics in our Stamps and Postmarks section, including how postmark dates confirm what the back alone only suggests.
Joining Postcrossing once you're ready to send
Collecting doesn't have to be one-directional. Once I had a system for sorting and storing cards, I signed up for Postcrossing and sent my first card to a reader in Belarus. Registration takes about five minutes. You request an address, mail a card with a Postcrossing ID number written on it, and the system logs it once the recipient registers it as received.
It's a strange, good habit. You end up writing to people you'll never meet about whatever is happening that week, and eventually a card shows up from someone doing the same thing on the other side of the world. Our Postmarked Stories blog covers specific Postcrossing exchanges if you want to see what actually shows up in people's mailboxes.
Common Questions
Do I need to spend a lot of money to start collecting postcards?
No. Most of my early cards cost between 25 cents and two dollars at flea markets and estate sales. The expensive end of the hobby, rare Real Photo Postcards or early advertising cards, exists, but you can build a satisfying collection without ever touching it.
What's the best way to organize a growing postcard collection?
Sort by what you'll actually search for later, usually place or theme, not by when you acquired the card. I use archival sleeves in a three-ring binder, grouped by country, with a small pencil note in the corner of each sleeve listing the source.
How can I tell if a postcard is genuinely old versus a modern reprint?
Check the back first. A divided back, a vertical line splitting the space for a message and an address, means the card was printed after 1907. Reprints often have bright white, coated stock, while genuine early cards usually feel thinner and slightly textured.
Is it safe to write on the back of an old postcard I bought?
Only if it's a modern reproduction, and even then, think twice. Never write on, stamp, or mail a genuine antique card unless you're specifically buying it to use. Treat anything printed before 1950 as an object to preserve, not send.
The Takeaway
If you're wondering how to start collecting postcards, the honest answer is smaller than most guides make it sound. Pick one focus, buy from estate sales and flea markets before antique malls, and store what you find in archival sleeves out of direct sunlight. You don't need money or expertise to start, just a shoebox and a reason to keep one card over another. Go find your first ten cards this weekend, and see which ones you actually want to look at again.