Frequently Asked Questions

Or more realistically, other stuff you need to know about this site.

 

1. Postcard Condition

I use a condition grading scheme equivalent to that used by the Postcard Traders Association. The categories used are as follows:

Mint / Pristine (M)
Perfect in 'as made' condition. Almost all old cards will have some wear evident, perhaps a knocked corner or even indentations from being kept in an album which would exclude them from this category. In reality almost no vintage cards are 'Mint'. Also, anything that has been used or posted cannot be by definition.

Excellent ( EX)
Minimal damage. The card may show very slight signs of wear such as 'album marks'. Postally used cards could possibly be in this category if perfect in other respects

Very Good (VG)
Noticeable faults. Corners may be slightly blunted, other small marks may be evident, but pretty close to being excellent.

Good (G)
More noticeable defects - perhaps having worn/rounded corners, slight creasing, ink marks, postal damage etc. Damage will usually be described at this level. As this is a wide range, I tend to add + or - to give more precision. I may also show combinations, e.g. G/VG, or F/G to indicate borderline condition.

Fair (F)
Defects now which make the card less collectable as they detract signficantly and this is reflected in the value. Conversely, some views may still be quite rare.

Poor (P)
Severe damage such as a tear or missing parts of the card, possibly hard creasing.

 

2. Titles, Date and Description

In most cases, the card title shown in the listings will be exactly that shown on the card. I may reverse some of the words to bring the town/village etc to the beginning and I may cut out a few if these are unnecessary.

I will include a date if possible to give an idea of age. If the card has been postmarked, I will normally use that date (unless there's a signficant difference between manufacture and postmark). If the card has not been postmarked, I will estimate the card date based other indicators such as stamp used (if any), postage rates, card style, card picture content (e.g. vehicles, fashions,...), known manufacturer sequence numbers, manufacturer datecodes, and so forth. For many I may show, e.g. ~1910 which indicates it is an estimate and I cannot be much more accurate than +/-5 years or so (maybe a little more than that sometimes)..

For cards which have 'Real Photographic' images as opposed to any form of printing, I will usually denote this in the title with the letters 'RP'.

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