Postcards are Fun Pieces of the Past

I have found postcards to be a great source of entertainment. They are collected for a lot of reasons and although I don't collect too many, I enjoy the history and family ties attached to them. Actually I sell them and have a lot that one day I will get ready to sell. I recently was researching some that were old French Actresses from the early 1900s and I wanted to know the publishers information. So, I Googled for the publishers and I found a great website that has a lot of them identified. It is the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City. I started a list years ago and tried to keep up with it, but failed miserably so you can imagine this in great news for me to find a great list.

As I learn about collectors and their interests in postcards I appreciate the many ways they collect. Some are only interested in a particular City or State, probably from where they came. Some like to collect holiday cards or specific greetings like New Years or Birthday. There are a lot of collectors for Halloween and Valentines Day cards. Santa gets good interest too.

Having your photograph put on a postcard was a polular thing to do in the early 1900s and it almost seems sad that so many peoples families are scattered all around and unless they are identified somehow they are unknown faces in the world.

Vacations have been recorded by the postcard collection for years. I think this has been popular since the 1940's and especially in the 1950's and beyond. Every town along the highway had a selection of postcards to choose from....and people loved them!

Personally I enjoying seeing the country and the world for that matter, by looking at the scenes in these old postcards. I also wonder who some of the faced belongs to on the photos and who would like to find them. I keep my eye out for some areas of interest and it tickles me every time I find one.

To see a few of my listed postcards please visit Vintage4U or Timeless Treasures

Buttons - Beauties of the Past

I have been listing some fun old buttons on my AllButtons shop and I just had to stop and vent a little about how under appreciated these little beauties are. They come in all different sizes, shapes, colors, textures and ages. Just a little like the people I know. Maybe they are under appreciated too. God made us all so unique and different yet like buttons, we have a distinct purpose in the world. Some are bright and cheerful, some are dark and mysterious, while others are just good old consistent workers.

OK back to my rant on buttons. I love to look at these things...they are unique in so many different ways. Some have been made from natural materials like bone, ivory or nuts. These are usually warm to the touch and seem to have held up well over all the years. I am a but partial to the old bone buttons that were used to hold up men's old long johns or underwear. Can you imaging getting up in the middle of the night and having to unbutton those things just to...you know. I especially like the ones that only have 2 big holes (the buttons had 2 big holes) and people used to make them into faces using the holes as eyes!

What I am amazed about is that they usually sell for so little compared to the new ones I see in the stores. I keep thinking I will go take some pictures of the new ones on the cards in the stores and post the equivalent on here....so you can see the bargains you can get. Maybe my daughter will do that for me since she has a website about ways to save! By the way her site is called The Mommy Trade - if you are into couponing....check it out she does a great job of finding the deals locally.

Well...I didn't plan to get off on prices...I was just enjoying the different ones and thought I would share. Take a minute and look closely at some of your buttons and see if they are special to you too.