Reading List

Thursday 29 September 2011

Lost in admiration





At a fair, most collectors will come and go from a dealer in a matter of minutes. “Any new churches today, Brian?” “Don’t think so, but you’re welcome to have a look."

They know what they want. And a dealer's cards will be ordered by popular collecting categories to make searching easy. It might be a certain place or artist that a collector is after, or pictures of a famous Edwardian actor or politician.

I'll typically stay hunched over one or two stalls the entire time, until my eyes tire.

A good message could be in any box.





While staying in one position can be exhausting, the advantage is you get to eavesdrop on passing trade...

Dealer 1 (holding his friend’s card): I’ve never seen such a good gypsy card. I mean the expressions on their faces…

Dealer 2: I found another one as well which was pretty amazing. And that was £80. How many times have I ever had great photos of gypsies like that in the last 40 years?

Dealer 1: Who does get them?

Dealer 2: Jeremy, not very often.

Dealer 1: Who does get them? They’re just not there. No, no.

Dealer 2: I won’t see another card like that for 20 years. And I won’t be around in another 20 years. I only got them because I would pay whatever people ask for them which means you’re not making money. That’s the problem….

Dealer 1: A card like that will always appreciate in value…. I am lost in admiration for that one.

7 comments:

  1. What fun! Hope you found a few treasures. Happy PFF!

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  2. I hope we also have a similar event here in the Philippines.

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  3. Most dealers also have a marker card, so you can remove a manageable group of cards from a box and flip through them. I often see people standing, with a handful of cards against their chest in one hand, flipping with the other. Oh yes, and turning them over to look at the message side. Great fun!

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  4. Oh how fun it is! I wish we have postcard fairs like that. I would've enjoyed eavesdropping as much as browsing postcards. Do you have this regularly in your place?


    Postcards Crossing

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  5. oh yes, it would be fun to attend a fair such as this, at least once.

    I have a contest this week. Please visit and leave a comment to enter.

    http://sendapostcardaweek.blogspot.com/2011/09/where-to-send-this-card.html

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  6. Hello,

    What a nice way to introduce this card. I felt like I was there too.

    Thanks to the PFF meme, I'm travelling the world and it's fine.

    Hope you'll come by mine too and travel to France for the occasion.

    Grace

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  7. that's really nice, I hope we can have fair like that here too.

    like you in facebook by the way.

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