Collecting Vintage Halloween Postcards

When it comes to Halloween memorabilia, vintage Halloween postcards are my favorite. While I'm frequently tempted to get into collecting other types of memorabilia, such as toys and decorations, ultimately I find my mouse pointing towards the bid button for a postcard instead. It's the artwork that always grabs me, but there is also a lot to be said for the fact that postcards are simply an easier item to store and protect. Also, while prices in the vintage Halloween collectibles market have soared remarkably over the past several years, the postcards still remain one of the best values. While there are plenty of postcards fetching prices in the hundreds of dollars, there are deals to be had under $25 and I've seen plenty of Halloween postcard auctions on Ebay go to the high bidder for around ten dollars.

If you're just starting to collect vintage Halloween postcards, my advice is to simply set a budget for yourself and then buy the cards you like. You can either set a maximum price per card or set yourself a monthly spending allowance, so if you see one card that chews up your entire monthly budget, that might be the only card you buy that month. If you find yourself with a lot of hard decisions due to budgetary constraints, I always recommend using themes to limit your collection. Once you get to know what types of postcards are available and what cards you find yourself drawn to, there are a lot of opportunities to create tight themes since there are several different iconic images representing Halloween. For example, you could limit yourself to purchasing only cards that feature Jack O'Lanterns, black cats, or vegetable people. There are also witches and ghosts , and black crows and owls are some other common images for Halloween postcards as well.

Another direction to consider for your postcard collection is collecting by artist. There are several artists who are popular among collectors of vintage Halloween postcards. Two of the most popular artists who designed postcards for Halloween were Ellen Clapsaddle and Kathryn Elliott. Ellen Clapsaddle worked for the Wolf Company and Kathryn Elliott worked for Gibson. Both of these ladies have a distinctive style of their own and over the years their artwork has become highly collectible. If you fall in love with a particular artist, and many have fallen in love with Clapsaddle's work, then it is always possible to move from just collecting Halloween postcards into collecting postcards for other occasions by the same artist.

Please enjoy exploring the wide variety of Vintage Halloween Postcards available at http://www.retroholiday.com

It's not too late to start your antique Halloween collection before the spooky day arrives.

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