There's a trick played at offline auction which also works well online and it's designed to con busy people out of their cash for albums of postcards which are potentially 95% worthless. At any busy offline auction, with say three or four hundred postcard lots and just a few hours viewing time, many potential bidders will view just a few pages of most postcard albums, make a quick buying decision, then move to study another lot.
The con is where vendors include good quality cards in those first few pages and pack the rest with low value or even worthless cards. Much the same happens on eBay and other online sources and in printed catalogues for many offline and online sales, where the first few pages of an album will be photographed in all their glory and the rest - the grot - left to your imagination. Be very careful, check thoroughly at online and offline auction. Ask questions and, if in doubt, it's always better to study a handful of albums thoroughly and bid on these and pass on albums you haven't studied from start to finish.
Here are other scams and mistakes you should take care to avoid:
* Old fashioned albums designed for inserting postcard corners into cut-out hinges can present a major and very unexpected problem for novice postcard buyers. The problem can be caused innocently by past owners or deliberately by recent sellers.
Postcards newly acquired by our Victorian ancestors were often manoeuvred and sometimes manhandled as they were placed beneath hinges, and corners often got cracked or creased in the process. So today hundreds of cards may look in spectacular condition in an album that has not been touched for decades but in fact many cracked corners lie hidden and torn beneath those hinges.
* Try always to attend auctions in person, not only to view but also to bid. Opinions vary and it's not unusual for an auctioneer to describe something as 'old' in the catalogue which in collecting terms is better called 'modern'. You can't always afford to bid on items you haven't viewed, and you must not trust another person's opinion no matter how qualified that person is.
* At offline auction try to check lots immediately before bidding starts. This is because lots are sometimes tampered with, often mistakenly, usually deliberately, and what you viewed yesterday may be totally unlike the lots you'll bid on today. You'll often find postcards you viewed yesterday have since been stolen or damaged. More often postcards are moved between lots so an album that contained rubbish yesterday is packed with high value collectibles today, Consequently that previously rubbish album will go for next to nothing, and those once quality albums, now worthless junk, will be a big disappointment to someone who viewed yesterday and buys today. In cases like this you must contact the auctioneer right away, voice your concerns, suggest you should not be charged for the item. Most will agree if the lot no longer compares to their catalogue description but it's vitally important you check at least some of the expected contents while auction staff are present and can see the problem first hand.
* Sometimes high price items are concealed in old fashioned hinged albums behind less valuable postcards so all most people see is rubbish and low value pieces and bids will be low. It's hard to spot this sort of scam unless you look very closely. It usually happens in albums packed with low value cards, which in itself means this is unlikely to be a genuine collection, namely one that was compiled decades ago. That's because virtually all genuine early collections contain at least a few better specimens; they will also reveal little difference in recipient and delivery address. An album with lots of grot, lots of recipients, lots of delivery addresses, is more likely to be a dealer's rubbish stock, placed in a vintage album to look like a genuine collection and tempt inexperienced bidders. Those concealed high price postcards have been moved from better auction lots and replaced behind poor quality cards in low interest albums. The album will fetch little and might include several high price gems.
Avril Harper is a triple eBay PowerSeller and author of BANK BIG PROFITS SELLING VINTAGE TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEW POSTCARDS ON EBAY which you can read about at: www.sellpostcardsonebay.com and MAKE MONEY TEARING UP OLD BOOKS AND MAGAZINES AND SELLING THEM ON EBAY which you can read about at: www.magstoriches.com. She has produced a free guide - 103 POWERSELLER TIPS - which you can download with other freely distributable reports and eBooks at www.avrilharper.com
