Real Photo Postcards

Many postcard collectors specialize in collecting real photo postcards. This has a lot to do with the image quality of the photos and also because they are a snapshot of history. A real photo postcard is just what its name suggests. It is a postcard made from a real photograph and instead of a printed lithograph. They are usually among the more valuable postcards to collect and the more costly to acquire. They also generally offer more detailed depictions of buildings, cities and people that might not even still exist. For that reason they make wonderful historical documents. Kodak brought forth the No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak camera in 1903 which many people used to make their own photo postcards.

Therefore, anyone with one of these cameras could take a photo of anything they wanted and send it anywhere in the world as a postcard. These postcards were truly one of a kind so you can see why collectors love them. Of course there were also many commercially produced photo postcards during that time period as well. The photographers would take photos of their local city and then sell them wholesale to the local store owner or druggist who would offer them for sale in their stores. Commonly, these types of photo postcards depicted Main Street, school buildings, churches, or other important buildings of the town. Sometimes a business owner would commission a photo postcard to be made and then send it off to Germany to be reproduced as litho cards. This practice was popular during the First World War.

Some of the most sought after and interesting photo postcards are termed 'boring' postcards. They were so named because they often made one ask - who would want to have a postcard of that? Examples of that would be a postcard with a picture of bacon and eggs on it, photos of road signs, and postcards of hotel beds or swimming pools.

Photo postcards are popular among postcard collectors and these are a good place to start if you are a beginner at collecting since you should always be able to resell them to other collectors. The draw back is that they can be more expensive to acquire. But if you have an appreciation of vintage and historical memorabilia, then collecting photo postcards may be the right choice for you.

Photo postcards enjoyed enormous popularity up until the 1950's. So not only are they collectors' items because they offer a unique and detailed look at history, they also have increasing value because of their age.