How much are old postcards worth?

A common Edwardian topographical view in good condition typically sells for £2 to £6. Real-photo cards of identifiable streets, shopfronts or named subjects regularly reach £15 to £50. Genuinely rare cards - early aviation, disasters, political campaigns, named artists in fine condition - can reach hundreds. Condition is decisive: creases, album corners, thinning and faded ink each reduce value, while a clean, postally-used card with a readable postmark holds it.

How can you tell how old a postcard is?

Three clues, in order. First the back: an undivided back (address only, no message space) almost always means pre-1902 in the UK and pre-1907 in the US. Second the postmark: if the card was posted, the franking gives you the exact day. Third the stamp: the monarch's head, the denomination and the design narrow the issue period to a few years. Printing style, paper weight and any publisher's imprint on the back confirm the decade.

What does RPPC mean, and how do I recognise one?

RPPC stands for real-photo postcard - a photograph printed directly onto postcard-backed photographic paper, not a lithograph or halftone. Held to the light they have the depth and tonal range of a black-and-white photograph. The back usually carries a stamp box printed by the paper manufacturer (AZO, VELOX, KODAK), and those stamp boxes can be dated to within a few years, which is one of the most reliable ways of placing an undated card.

How should you display vintage postcards?

Display them out of direct sunlight, away from radiators, and ideally behind UV-filtering glass. The simplest museum-style display is a mat-board with a window cut for the front and a hinged flap behind the card so the message side can be turned and read. For groups, a shallow shadow box or a row of small clip frames at eye level keeps the cards readable as objects rather than reducing them to wall texture.

How do you frame a postcard without damaging it?

Use acid-free, archival materials throughout: acid-free backing board, an acid-free mat with a window slightly smaller than the card, and photo corners or a Mylar sleeve to hold the card in place. Never glue, tape or trim a vintage postcard - any adhesive will yellow the paper and destroy resale value. Sandwich the card between the mat and backing, then frame behind glass (UV-filtering for anything you care about) and hang away from sunlight and damp.

How should you store vintage postcards?

Store them upright, like books, in acid-free archival boxes or in polypropylene sleeves inside a ring binder made for postcards. Avoid PVC sleeves, rubber bands, paper clips and self-adhesive albums - all of them damage the card surface over time. A cool, dry room with stable humidity is ideal. Handle cards by the edges; the oils on your fingertips will mark the photographic surface of an RPPC within minutes.

How do you date a postcard from its stamp?

UK stamps usually carry only the monarch's silhouette and a denomination, so the head is the first clue: Edward VII (1902 to 1910), George V (1910 to 1936), Edward VIII (1936), George VI (1936 to 1952), Elizabeth II (1952 to 2022). The denomination then narrows the window further, since postage rates changed every few years. Foreign stamps usually print the issuing country (REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE, DEUTSCHE BUNDESPOST, HELVETIA) and often the year of issue.

Where can you buy or sell vintage postcards?

The traditional routes are postcard fairs, specialist dealers and auction houses such as Warwick & Warwick or Spink. Online, eBay remains the largest single market, with Delcampe a strong second for European cards. For research-grade or rare items, the Postcard Traders Association (UK) and the Postcard History Society (US) list reputable dealers. For ordinary cards, charity shops, antique fairs and estate sales still turn up better cards at lower prices than online listings.

A guide from the curator

Collecting vintage postcards

Q: Are vintage postcards valuable?

Most vintage postcards are worth between £1 and £10. A small number sell for significantly more: real-photo cards (RPPCs) of named people, places, shops or events; cards by sought-after artists such as Mucha, Kirchner or Donald McGill; disaster, suffragette or early aviation cards; and cards bearing rare or early postmarks. The written message can matter as much as the picture - a dated, located, clearly handwritten note often doubles a card's interest to a collector.

What they are worth, how to read their age, and how to keep them well.

Almost every postcard in this museum was bought for less than the price of a cup of tea. The interesting work, almost always, is knowing which one to pick up. A century of postcards covers millions of cards, made in many countries, in many printing processes, by people of very uneven talent. Most of them are decoration. A few of them are documents.

This guide is the practical part of the museum: how to date a card, what makes one valuable, and how to display and store the cards you keep so that they last another hundred years.

Are vintage postcards valuable?

The short answer is: a few of them are, and most of them are not - but the few that are can surprise you. A common Edwardian view of a English seafront, in fair condition, used, is worth a pound or two. The same seafront photographed in 1907 by a local photographer and printed on real-photo paper, with the shopfronts visible and the shop names legible, can be worth fifty.

What collectors actually pay for, in rough order of importance, is:

Subject. Named shops, named people, identifiable streets, disasters, suffragette and political campaigns, early aviation, ships, trains, named artists.
Process. A real-photo postcard (RPPC) almost always outvalues a printed lithograph of the same subject.
Condition. No creases, no album corners, no thinning where a stamp was lifted, no faded ink.
The message. A dated, located, clearly handwritten note adds historical weight; a card signed by, or addressed to, someone identifiable can add a great deal more.
Postmark and stamp. A rare or early postmark, or a scarce stamp on cover, can outvalue the card it is stuck to.

How to date a postcard

Pick the card up and turn it over. The back tells you more than the front.

Undivided back, address only. The card is almost certainly pre-1902 in the UK and pre-1907 in the US. The message would have had to share the picture side.
Divided back, no white border on the front. Roughly 1902 to 1915 - the Edwardian "golden age" of the picture postcard.
Divided back, white border on the front. Roughly 1915 to 1930.
"Linen" texture, vivid colours. 1930s and 1940s, particularly American.
Glossy photographic chrome. 1939 onwards, the dominant style by the 1960s.

Then the postmark: if the card was posted, you have the exact day. Then the stamp: monarch, denomination and design narrow the window further. Then the publisher's imprint on the back - Raphael Tuck, Valentine's, Bamforth, Photochrom - which often carries a serial number that ties to a known publication year.

Displaying postcards

A postcard wants to be seen from both sides. That is the small puzzle of displaying them: the picture is the gift, but the message is the document, and a frame that hides one half halves the card. Three approaches the museum uses, in order of how much wall space you have.

The hinged mat. A double-sided window mat that shows the front, with a flap behind the card so the back can be turned over and read. The most card-respectful option.
The pair frame. A single frame with two windows, front and back of the same card mounted side by side. Less subtle, but you read the whole card at once.
The shallow shadow box. Best for groups - a row of cards from one place, or one correspondent, or one year. The mass of small handwritten objects is what carries the wall.

Hang any of them away from direct sunlight and away from heat. Photographic surfaces fade faster than printed ones, and a century-old card with three years of strong south-facing sun on it is no longer the same card.

Framing without damage

The single rule is: nothing adhesive ever touches the card. No tape, no glue dots, no mounting putty, no self-adhesive album page. All of them will yellow the paper, transfer to the back, and reduce the card's value to nothing within a decade.

The museum's standard frame, in plain language:

Acid-free backing board.
An acid-free window mat, cut slightly smaller than the card so the card sits behind the window rather than in front of it.
Acid-free photo corners, or a clear archival Mylar sleeve, to hold the card in place against the backing.
UV-filtering glass for anything you care about.
A frame deep enough that the glass never touches the card surface.

Done this way the card is reversible: you can lift it out tomorrow, undamaged, and put it back in a sleeve.

Storing the rest

Most of a collection lives in a box, not on a wall. Use an acid-free archival storage box and stand the cards upright, like books, divided by acid-free card dividers by country, year or theme - whichever way you actually want to find them.

For working access, polypropylene sleeves in a postcard binder are excellent: you can read both sides without ever touching the card surface. Avoid PVC sleeves, rubber bands, paper clips and old self-adhesive albums - all four are silent destroyers of paper.

Frequently asked questions

The questions visitors send the museum most often about value, age, display and care.

Continue your visit

See real written postcards·How to write a postcard·A short history of the postcard·About the museum