"A Day In The Life with Cathy"

How often have you gone on vacation and sent a postcard to people back home, rubbing it in that you're having a wonderful time, and they are, well probably slaving away at home and jealous of your time away.  And I'm sure you've also received them, feeling the same way.  Well, I met a Post Card collector/seller and I will not look at them the same again.  Her postcards are amazing, and I'm not sure I would want to send them anywhere.  And once you see these, you may just feel the same way.  

Come along with me, and share  . . . 

A Day in the Life with Cathy, owner of

"Vintage Vendor"

Click to enter Vintage Vendor's Shop

  

Garden Patch

Duuuuuude:  Hey Cathy, how long have you been into selling postcards?  
Cathy:  I  start  selling postcards around   1997 when I discovered  eBay. I didn't even know what a scanner was back then, but my dear friend Karen suggested I mail  her the postcards I wanted  to put on eBay and she would scan them through her photo scanner then send them back to me to make up the descriptions and put on eBay.  She gave me step by step instructions on how to upload my photos and where to store them. This was such a big help to me because it enabled me to more or less pull out my collection and make money at the same time.  A few years later my husband purchased a big old clunky scanner for me. Now remember this was back in about 2000. I never really figured out how to work it so next came a big old clunky digital camera! Now this I could work with after lots of experimenting. The camera used floppy disks to store the photos. Yikes, who still remembers floppy disks?  From then on I have been selling non stop. I have two shops. One on Etsy and one on Ruby Lane.

Santa Green

Duuuuuude:  And how long have you been into collecting?  

Santa Purple

Cathy:  I have been collecting postcards for about 35 years. The first time a postcard caught my eye was at an antique show. My sister and I would attend every one we could. She was looking for antique jewelry and I was looking for advertising items.  She always took much longer than I did looking at everything so one time when I was waiting for  her I eyed a Santa postcard sitting out on a dealers table. I had no idea what it was or how old. I decided to purchase it.  That was the beginning of a wonderful hobby, Postcard collecting.  I threw myself into the hobby full force. Back then the only way to get postcards was through several publications. One in particular was Barr's Postcard News, a weekly  newspaper format.  Dealers would list their postcards auction style and to bid collectors had to mail in their bids. I couldn't wait for it to come in the mail and would scour it the minute I could.  I found myself winning quite a few lots over the years.  Also in Barr's was a large section of ads for postcard dealers willing to send out approvals. The collector would mail the dealer their wants and back came a box of postcards on approvals. I purchased so much of my collection this way. Looking back, they were quite trusting.                           

Santa Red

Duuuuuude:  Where do you typically find your treasures?

Cathy:  I find 90% of my postcards at a  postcard/paper show and sale close to my home.  It runs two days, Saturday and Sunday. I open and close the show both days! There are so many postcard dealers with boxes and boxes of postcard I never seem to have the time to see them all.  Typically, I spend an hour or two with each dealer. Since I only look for holiday postcards I can skip over the many boxes of view cards. Here is a link so that you can see just the one room. There are two other large rooms full of postcards, paper and supplies.

Hal Lutsky's Postcard & Paper Show - Northern California

Duuuuuude:  Where do you sell your items?

Cathy:  I  opened a shop on Ruby Lane back in 2005 and have been there every since.  Then in 2008 Karen sent me a link to a site she found  called Etsy. :o)  I was so happy because they had a vintage category. I've been going great guns there every since selling postcards as well as Victorian paper and vintage buttons.  Here are the links to my  shops:

Cathy's Corner from cathyg on Ruby Lane

 VintageVendor by VintageVendor on Etsy

Favorite Postcards to Collect:

Clapsaddle

I have always collected early German holiday postcards (pre 1920) such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine's  and my favorite subject Santa Claus.  I love the ones with different color robes. I have  Santas in blue robes, green, brown and at one time  even one with a yellow robe. There are many wonderful postcard artists that did beautiful work.  My favorite is Ellen Clapsaddle. She did mostly cute children. I'm also a fan of early comic cards. I love the different humorous situations they came up with back then.

Duuuuuude:  Do you have any online research sites that you would like to share with our readers?    

Cathy:  There is a great resource site I  recommend. I find so much information there about the hobby. There are numerous postcard clubs you can join  also as well as sites to find whatever type of postcards you are looking for.

Postcard Resources New  

  
Thanks for sharing with us Cathy.

Now she has more than just postcards in her shop, but I just loved those and 
wanted to focus on that today.  So go take a stroll through her shop.  

And have a wonderful day!