Our eBay Business - Cabinet Photographs

You could write a book about what I don't know about Cabinet Photo's.   I've seen guides that say a Cabinet Photo is always about 4 X 6 inches (sorry, all you metric guys are just gonna have to figure it out), but distinctly remember seeing an expert on "Antiques Roadshow" (I watch it 'cause Patti Anne wants me to, honest) describe a panoramic photograph as a cabinet photo, and it was about 6 FEET long.  So I don't know.  I never trust the word "always", because there are usually exceptions.  

However I do know this.   Cabinet Photos became popular in the late 19th century, I believe late 1860's, which would make them post civil war.  I'm not sure when they stopped calling them "cabinet photo's", or even why they called them that in the first place.  But my assumption is that the vast majority of the pictures are from the late 1860's to about 1900.  Give or take.  

These pictures are mounted on a cardboard backing.  Sometimes just a single matting, sometimes, more elaborate.  Many times the photographer information is printed on the back, or on bottom, below the picture.  I feel lucky if someone wrote a name and a date on the back.   I don't know if it makes the picture more collectible or not, but I like it.

The classic cabinet photo size is 4 X 6 (in reality 4.25 X 6.5 or so), and to me that is the size of the cardboard backing.  Usually the picture is a bit smaller, but not much.  Sometimes it is significantly smaller.  

There are pictures from the same period, mounted the same way, that are much larger.   I'm not sure what to call these - I've been calling them cabinet photos, but I might should reconsider.  

These photographs are almost always formal studio pictures.   Sometimes it's just a head, sometimes its the whole body.  Frequently it's family groupings, and of course, babies.  

At this point in our photographic images foray,  cabinet photos have been our most successful sellers.   Having noted that, however, I must admit that I don't know why.   I don't have a handle on what people are looking for yet - I'm confident I will as I gain experience,  but for now it's a bit of a mystery.  Are people more interested in the image, or the photographer who took the image? Or the location of the photographer's shop?   If they're like postcards, there are almost as many reasons for collecting them as their are images, and I have to learn all these things.

Almost all of these pictures are of people, and I find people very interesting to look at.   19th century people, usually dressed in their finest.  It is just a very minute look into their lives, but I dig every detail out of it that I can.   I look at them and find them fascinating.  That works for me, but I'm not doing this just to entertain myself.  I need to know what my customers are looking for.  I'll get there.

Our eBay Business - Photographic Images (Intro)

A 1930's snapshot.

These posts might be a bit more coherent if I actually thought about what I was going to write before writing it.  As it was, I just asked Patti Anne what she thought I should write about next, so this is it.

It was either late last year or very early this year that we decided to start selling photographic images.   It fits with the kind of stuff I like anyway - visual.  However, this is not a decision to be taken likely, eBay tycoons that we are.   I don't know how much if any overlap there is between people who collect postcards, and people who collect photographic images.   I suspect there is very little overlap.

I'm very familiar with postcards, I'm comfortable with them.  I know how to go about pricing them, rating them, and I'm confident that over time they are profitable to sell.    I've even developed instincts about what is likely to sell and what is not likely to sell, at least as a class or group.  I have none of that confidence in photographs, in fact I'm still learning all the terminology.   In short, we are still very much in a learning curve when it comes to these items.

So, when we start plunking down dollars (even if it is just numbers out of a PayPal account) for inventory that is unproven in my experience, instead of putting those dollars toward something that is proven and that I'm quite comfortable with, it's a big deal.  It's a risk.  It's not a fortune, but it is significant.  This money could easily be lost.   But, the hope is that the investment in photographic images will pay off with consistent sales, hopefully at a bit higher prices that postcards go for, and will diversity our listings.  We shall see.  Right now, postcards are still king for us.

We've gravitated to these types of photographic images:  Cabinet Photos, CDV's and snapshots. We've sold a tintype & even a polaroid, but our major focus has been toward these types of photographs.

Cabinet Photos seem to date from the 1860s to the 1920s.  These are decent sized photographs, usually mounted on cardboard, and many times with the photographers information on it.  Sometimes people write information about the subject on the backing, but usually not.  These are mostly formal, studio pictures.

CDVs are small photographs, also mounted on cardboard.  All the ones I've had have been 19th century photos, usually formal studio pictures.  CDV is short for cart-de-viste, and I think people traded these.  

Snapshots are informal, candid, usually black and white photos, and they start showing up whenever instamatic cameras, 35mm film became popular - from the 1920s-30s on.   

Snaphsots are by far my favorite, but they are also by far the type of photographic image I've had the least success with.   Ironic, nicht wahr?

So, the next 3 eBay related posts will be about these types of photographs.   I suppose.

Our eBay Business - Postcards, used or unused?

I had a question a few days ago about about used vs unused postcards, which do we (and others) prefer?  It's a very good question, and goes to the heart of why people collect postcards.   From a purely selling to others point of view, it really helps if to have an idea of what your potential customers want, or why they collect.

People collect both used & unused cards, extensively.  I almost never ask anyone why they wanted a particular card, and on those all too few occasions when they bid up the price of a card to a point I never dreamed of asking, I never ask why.   Some people volunteer information about why they buy certain cards, and I've researched around a bit & come to my own conclusions, so perhaps I have the beginnings of an understanding about this.

For those that volunteer information, the most common reason is the card means something to them personally.  Just recently we sold a card that was a view of a lake in Washington state.  The person who bought it said her in-laws lived on the shores of that lake and would like the picture. Many postcards have sold for similar reasons, and the people who buy them for this reason usually don't care if they're used or not.  

Some people collect series of cards - we sold some Diefenbach Silhouette cards, Union Oil Cards, Advertising cards and others where there is a limited number of cards in the series.  People who collect things like this, are most likely are looking for a pristine version, but they'll buy a used one, or one of lesser quality as kind of a marker until a better one comes along.  

Some people collect postmarks - so they'd only collect cards that are used.  The postmark itself is important, the city, how legible it is etc.    There are many people who look for postmarks from post offices which no longer exist.    If I find a postmark from Bearville, Kentucky, for example, I just might hold on to it.  That was a little post office in a general store a couple of miles thru a mountain road from my Granny's house.   It took a bit of effort to get from Granny's house to the post office, but that's what grandchildren are for.  Just give 'em enough money to buy a pepsi once they got there, and they'd be fine.   At any rate, it doesn't exist anymore.  Whenever I get a card with an interesting postmark on it, such as Dalbo, Minn., I get my hopes up.   If it's a post office that no longer exists, I really get my hopes up.

There are hundreds of reasons for collecting postcards.  I'm sure there are reasons or methods I've never thought of.  In the overal scheme of things, used or unused doesn't seem to matter. 

Our eBay Business - Real Picture Postcards.

First, I can never figure out if its "postcards" or "post cards".  I've seen it both ways, and I've not been consistent myself. 

Its a small thing.

Real Picture Postcards (RPPC) are photographs that were developed on postcard paper.  You put a stamp on them and mail them.  Many were formal pictures taken in a studio, but a lot were the equivalent of early snapshots.  When I think of an RPPC, I usually am thinking of a one of a kind personal picture that was usually kept or sent to family or friends.  That's not always the case - many were mass produced.  I prefer the "one of a kinds".   

The example above was a formal studio photograph taken of a young woman a long time ago - based on the cards it came with, she may have lived in the Detroit area, but that is just a guess.  The back of the card looks pretty much like a normal postcard, but what is interesting about it is the stamp box.  On RPPC's the stamp box gives a clue to its age.  This stamp box, an "AZO" with a filled in box on each corner,  is classic.  I do not have my handy dandy chart available, but I believe this particular stamp box indicates the card was created sometime between 1925 and 1942.  At first glance, it looks closer to 1942 to me.

Whenever I have an RPPC I spend time looking at it, looking for details.  Trying to get a glimpse of a life, or of how things were a long time ago.  It's a little harder with the formal portraits, but I do it anyway.  This person is dressed quite nicely, and the one thing I notice is the necklace and the earrings.  Today they would be considered very retro or vintage if not antique, and I've seen necklaces that look very much like that for sell in antique malls and such.

RPPC's are highly collectible, people love them.  The ones that have brought the highest prices for us have been of geographic areas - something identifiable, but not necessarily a tourist area. I just now realized that our two best sellers (money wise) were of rivers:  an RPPC of a building on the Russian River in California sometime in the 1920s, and one of the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky,  frozen over during the winter of 1937.   I spoke to my father about that one, and he said that the Ohio River hasn't frozen over in decades - too many chemicals in it.  Both had white hand-written captions on the front. 

RPPC's are my favorite type of postcard.  It's a lot of fun to just imagine what is going on in them, what the people are like, what the life was like.

Our eBay Business - Early 20th Century Postcards

If you want to learn a bit about the way things were, take a look at early 20th century postcards. They cover a lot of subjects, can be very artistic, and are disarmingly complex.   I don't think  postcards have been as popular at any time as they were before WWI.  At the time they were beautiful slices of a different land or culture, now they document things which very likely no longer exist.  

Frequently these postcards were printed in Germany (this example was), and I don't know what process they used, but an early 20th century card in excellent condition would surpass a much more recent standard/chrome in pure technical quality.   They seem more alive.

Many of these cards are used, sometimes postmarked by both the sending and receiving post office, and many times these post offices no longer exist.  And these cards spanned a major change in postal history.  Before March 1, 1907 (I believe),  messages had to be written on the front of the card - sometimes there was space for one, sometimes not.  Only the address could be written on back.   So if you have an early 20th century card with a divided back (such as above), it was created after March 1907.  If it has an undivided back, it was created before 1907.    

I can estimate that this card of the Court House in  Kissimmee, Florida was created between 1907 & 1918.  Most likely before 1914, because of disruptions caused by WWI.  

The stamp box is interesting, and is also typical of the era.

I like these cards, but this is all I can think to write  about them.

My next post will be about RPPCs, and then maybe I'll write something about why I think people buy or collect postcards.  Then, I'll perhaps I'll get into other aspects of the business.

Our eBay Business - White Border Postcards

White border cards date from WWI era (I like to think 1918, but could be a year or two either way) to the early 1930s.  They have a flat non-glossy finish, and of course the white border around the picture.  These cards represent an overall drop in quality from the cards which came before them (the early 20th century cards).   The main reason the border is there is because the printers didn't print the image all the way to the edge - this was to save ink.  

Think of the cartoons and how they were drawn & all the detail that went into them in the 1940s & 1950s, then think of the 1970s era cartoons.  That's similar to the difference in printing quality between the early 20th century cards and the white border.

Like other postcards, the white border subjects could be anything under the sun, but seems like buildings and landscapes predominate.  

My example is an industrial site near Salinas, California, and I chose it because it brought back a memory to me.   When I was in the Army, I had a rather long and arduous advanced individual training (AIT) at the Presidio of Monterey.  Salinas is not far at all from Monterey, but it might as well be in a different world.   Monterey was beautiful, right next to the ocean, very pleasant in the summer time, my barracks was up on a hill with a million dollar view.  If I hadn't been in the Army, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more.  Salinas, on the other hand,  was surrounded by industrial agriculture, and even though it only a few miles inland it was very hot compared to Monterey.  It looked like the kind of place people would leave if they could.  At least the part I saw.   The communities are geographically close, but may as well be on different planets.

What does this have to do with postcards?  Well if I tried hard I could make up something, but in reality, not much.  It just got me to thinking.

Anyway, many linens also have a border around them, sometimes it's tan, other times the border is white.  More than once I've thought a card was a white border, and it turned out to be linen, and once I didnt catch it until someone bought the card.  I let them know immediately and offered a refund, but the person really didn't care - he wanted it for the subject, not for the card type.

Even though they may represent a bit of compromise and lowering of standards, these are old cards, they can be quite collectible, and I'm always happy when I buy a bunch of cards and there are some white borders in the group.

Our eBay Business - Linen Postcards

Linen postcards are very common.  

They were printed on rough stock paper, usually you can see criss-crossing lines.  They are the same size as the chromes, and were created between the very early 1930s to the very early 1950s, so there is some overlap with the standard/chromes. Their subject matter was pretty much anything under the sun.   Unlike the chromes where the colors seem to more or less reflect reality, the coloration of the linens is somehow different, perhaps just a little brighter than normal.

The two cards I've displayed are both typical and atypical of linen postcards.

The "Staked out a claim" card is a comic, but it is also considered (by me at least) "cowboy/western motif".   When you list a card for sale on eBay, you have to choose a category - and this could rightfully go in either comic or cowboy/western.  You could pay extra and put it in both, but it's usually not worth it to do that.  So you go with your feeling, and in this case I put it in cowboy/western.   Its published by E .C. Kropp out of Milwaukee, a fairly well known publisher.  I don't know the exact date, but it looks in the 1940s era to me - its a 60 to 70 year old postcard

The second postcard is a highly collectible type (at least for those who collect them).  It is a Large Letter linen card published by Curt Teich.  In this case I know the exact year the card was created, because I've somehow managed in my postcard travels to decipher the little serial numbers on Curt Teich cards.  In the lower right corner of this card, there is a two character alpha-numeric followed by a dash & a 4 character alpha-numeric.  The two character group tells you the year the card was published.  The second character of that group is a letter, and it represents the decade.  A = 1930s, B=1940s, C=1950s and so on.  The first character is a number, and it represents the year in the decade.  So on this card "3B" = 1943.  Its a 66 year old WWII era large letter card advertising Camp Beal, California.  There are tons of these Curt Teich large letters, but there are a finite number of subjects.  Checklists exist, and if someone wanted to they could certainly attempt to collect them all.  That would be interesting.

Like the comic before it, this too presents a classification problem.  My first inclination was to put it in the "US States, Cities & Towns>California" category, but I decided instead to put it in the "Military" category, since it obviously has a military theme about it.  You could make a case either way.

Both these cards are typical linens, because there are hundreds of linens similar to them.  But they are also atypical, because they are not the most common types.  The most common are city street scenes, buildings, lakes, roads and other landscape type scenes.  

People like linen cards a lot.