Post Card Junkie

Today was my seasonal November shop-a-thon at the local postcard show in our city. It is the show that I treasure and bargain hunt for images to use for my holiday post cards, as well as potential holiday gifts for friends and family.  I also hunt for ephemera which I think is collectible to sell on eBay and Etsy, so that I can help offset the cost of the cards I buy. I like the small gambles that I take..trying to guess if an item is worth more than I have paid for it, and if there is a market for it. At times I have struck big, but mostly make a bit of money to cover my time and ephemera addiction;  rarely do I lose money.

Today's finds were a Victorian Trade Card album, and lots of cool Victorian cards and booklets. In the quarter and dollar box I found some damaged, but still cool postcards of what is now the Walkway Over the Hudson, and the railroad bridge over Abeel street, down on the Rondout creek. (above pics) I also made a connection with a collector who will give me some scans of his rare postcards of the Ashokan Reservoir building/flooding of small towns, which I am going to try and use in transfers onto canvas for my "Submerged" series.

Us postcard buyers are a strange sort.  We fret if you are looking at boxes we want to look at. We guard our finds with the resolve of a mama bear.  We try and get there earlier than anyone else to get to the good stuff first.  We don't really want to tell you when the show is in town until AFTER we have been through and bought all the good stuff. And after we are done, we go home to drool over the pile of paper that we have just spent this weeks and next weeks food money on.

All for the love of the image, the print, and the love of the hunt.

Patti