August: Annual Summer Postcard Show. A great event is put together so you may search for the postcards of your collecting interest. You may want to car pool with others from your area.
Members Table: A table for to set up on is available for those who may only have a few cards to layout or a few boxes of cards to set up. The Club will take a small percent of your sales. Call Sandy Trutt, 954-981-2753 or sptrutt@bellsouth.net for information and space.
Members Display Boards: The summer theme is “What Members Collect” Which brings out some great displays.
So come on up and have a great time! If you have not been see what collecting postcards is all about. Dealers and members are always glad to talk about collecting. And there is so much about the hobby. From finding views of your home town or of a topic of something you may like like your branch of the service, Walt Disney, air planes, telephones, World Fairs and a lot more.
Then there is the postal history part that postcards are a part of. One with a large following is DPO's. That is discontinued post offices, and other very interesting one is RPO's. Railway Post Offices, highway post offices, trolley post offices and others. There is no end to what you can explore with postal history, and postcards are a big part of it!
COME AND JOIN US!
The June meeting was called to order by the president, Golda Dollinger, at 2 o’clock. She welcomed both old and new members. She said she was pleased to hear that the May meeting was well attended. The reading of the previous meeting minutes were waived. Tom Moore said that our bank account was in good shape. He has the club’s checkbook and has been paying the club’s bills in the absence of our treasurer, Sylvia Murphy. He also reported that Sylvia is doing a little better and hopes to be able to attend our meetings sometime in the near future.
Under New Business, Burnham Neill asked if the club would be interested in getting members of the Postal History Club to set up at our show. Tom Moore, the show chairman, said that that could be arranged but that since those who attend our shows are primarily interested in postcards, he did not think that they would do well financially. He also said that he was contacted by someone who was interested in selling antiques at our show. He said he discouraged her because he did not think that she would cover her table rent with her sales. Ben Ladin said that Stamp dealers are unwilling to participate in our shows because we charge an admission. However, Harry Magee said that everyone who showed up at the Hollywood Stamp Club has a flyer and knows about our August 8th show. And those who are dealers know that they are welcome at our show.
In his report about the August show, Tom Moore said that dealers have paid for 11 booths and at least 4 others have indicated that they plan to attend. He also said that once again we will have a Members’ Table where individuals, who do not have enough cards for sale to justify renting a booth, can offer their cards for sale. Those who sell cards at the Members’ Table pay the club 10% of their sales. If you are interested in selling cards at the Members’ Table, you should notify Sandy Trutt. Her telephone number is 954-981-2753 and her e-mail address is sptrutt@bellsouth.net.
The vote for the Most Popular Board resulted in a tie between Tom Moore’s board “Alligator Joe” and Paula Berliner’s board “On the Boardwalk, which was her first attempt to construct a board.
For the meeting’s program, each member who displayed a board was asked to tell the group about their board.
Tom Moore said that his interest in “Alligator Joe” was the result of a talk given to our club by Patsy West, the historian for the Seminole Indian Tribe. Alligator Joe appeared on the scene in South Florida at the beginning of the last century. He built the first alligator farm for tourists in Miami and another one in Palm Beach. The Palm Beach site is now where the exclusive Everglades Country Club is located. At that time tourist attractions were only open during the “season” - the winter months. During the rest of the year Alligator Joe toured the country with his alligators charging a 10 cent admission. In 1915 he attend the World’s Fair in San Francisco. On returning to Kansas City, he suffered a heart attack and died. He was buried in Jacksonville. There are a number of Alligator Joe postcards. He used them to promote his business. He liked to pose with animals that he had captured or killed. On the cards it is interesting to see how he changed over the years. In the early cards he is a rather slender man. Over time he put on a lot of weight.
Paula Berliner said that she chose the title of her board, “On the Boardwalk” from a song with that title. She said that she was raised in Rockaway which had a very old boardwalk. As a result she has always been interested in amusement parks and boardwalks. The cards on her board are all pre-1909 Atlantic City cards. She pointed out the interesting style of dress in those early days. Most of the cards have names of the places that were depicted and she felt that that made them more interesting. Paula thanked Roland Morris for helping her with constructing her first board. She said that without his help it would not have been done.
Leo Griffith had two boards on display - “St. Thomas” and “Caribbean Cuisine”. Leo related that he was born and raised on St. Thomas, one the U.S. Virgin Islands. For all of the major cruise lines this is one of the major stops. That gave him the idea of making a board showing the ships stopping at St. Thomas. This tourist business has grown in recent years causing the islands to add two more ports that the large cruise ships can visit. He said that when he was a kid he used to dream of visiting his home on a cruise ship. That is something that he has done three times in recent years.
Leo’s second board, “Caribbean Cuisine” was made up of cards showing Jamaican food. The cards show most of the major types of dishes that are offered at a Jamaican restaurant. Caribbean food is inclined to be highly seasoned, like that found in New Orleans. They have very good curried dishes such as curried chicken and curried goat.
Sandy Trutt’s board was entitled “Places That Are Gone”. It included postcards from Hobbyland, the Serpentarium, the Rare Bird Farm, the Wax Museum and Parrot Jungle in Miami. The Parrot Jungle still exists but it has been moved from its historical location. She also had cards from Ocean World and Africa USA which no longer exist. Sandy did a great job on the second board that she has ever created.
Golda Dollinger’s Told us about two boards that she brought for the display. The title of the first one was “New York World’s Fair 1938”. Golda said that she attend this fair as a child and that it made a deep impression on her. She said she tasted Swiss Cheese for the first time at the Swiss Building and did not like it. She said her tastes have change and she now likes it. She believes that the 1938 fair was better than the subsequent 1964 fair. She thought that the entertainment area was the best part of the fair. They had a miniature city all inhabited by “little people”. And they had lots of rides which were very popular.
Golda’s second board was “Tour USA” showing attraction were tourists visit. The board had cards from Southport Seaport in New York and Bunker Hill in Boston. The board also had cards from Hawaii, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Los Vegas, Niagara Falls, and Dallas. She said it was her tour of the USA.
The Vice President Tom Moore chaired this months meeting in the absence of our President, Golda Dollinger, who was away visiting her family. Our Secretary / Treasurer Sylvia Murphy has been absent due to recent health problems. The reports are that she is doing better and we hope that she will be back to our monthly meetings in the near future. She appreciates all the telephone calls and cards that the members have sent to her. She is doing better and has a birthday this month. Slyvia appreciated the card the Club sent her.
It was discussed and agreed that Roland Morris will be added as a signer to our bank account. He is the Membership Chairman and does handle dues money, it will help to have him listed on our account. Our bank balance is in very good condition.
Tom Moore our show chairman has contacted dealers for our Summer Show. It will be held August 8th. If you know anyone who would like to participate give Tom their contact information. There will be a members table at the Summer Show. If you have a few postcards, but not enough for a dealers table, you may set up with your cards for a 10% sales fee to the Club. Please contact Sandy Trutt, member's table chairperson 954-981-2753, sptrutt@bellsouth.net, or Tom Moore, 305-666-0219, tommoore7@aol.com, if you plan to sell cards at this members table. Tom has asked that all members make a postcard board for the display. The summer theme is "What Members Collect". These boards will be exhibited to encourage interest in the hobby but will not be judged.
Our National Postcard Week Card has been printed and was distributed at the meeting. If you need additional copies contact Michael Hopkins. These cards will also be available for people attending the August show.
The 2009 Membership Roster has been distributed and there are a few changes. Please make the following corrections to your Roster.
- 1. The monthly meetings are held at 12:00 on the 2nd Saturday of every month. (not the 3rd Saturday as is shown)
- 2. Pat Johnson - address is N. Miami 33161 Her collecting desires are Emerson, AR., Compton, CA., and Tea Houses
- 3. George Shannon - address is P.O. Box 145102
- 4. Capt. Michael B. Westerberg - Telephone Number is 754-423-4204 (not 954)
- Also add
- GRIFFITH, Leopold
- 1166 Fernlea Dr. West Palm Beach, FL. 33417
- Telephone 561-682-9341 email: gray.fox.6@hotmail.com
- DEALER/COLLECTOR: Blacks, DWI, Virgin Islands, All Caribbean Areas.
- Please review your personal information and report any corrections to Roland Morris 954-771-5228 or rj309@bellsouth.net
- Meeting Display Board Topics:
- July - Patriotic Cards
- August Theme for Summer Show - What I Collect
- September - Pretty Ladies
- October - Ships
- November - Native Americans
- December - Holiday Cards
Passing of David Grubbs On a sad note Jay Miller reported that postcard dealer David Grubbs died shortly after attending our January show. Jay has designed a couple of postcards in memory of David. Anyone who would like a copy of the cards should contact Jay. He also reported that there will be a David Grubbs Memorial Postcard Show in Pittsburgh in June.
Sandy Trutt, our Publicity Chairwoman, is planning to attend the Coca Cola Collectors' Convention in Denver this summer. We hope that she will find lots to Coca Cola postcards to add to her collection.
If Member's Classified Ad on our website needs to be renewed or changed notify Neill. Ads not renewed will be deleted. Neill hopes to get time to promote the site so we will get more visitors.
We are always looking for speakers. We would like to hear about your collection, what cards you have and a little history of the subject. Neill is trying to get someone from Florida Postal History to speak to us. It is a very interesting subject and they use a lot of postcards in their examples.
Tom said we did not have an official speaker today but Roland Morris called him and told him about a new board he just made up. And we are going to have Roland tell us about his board.
Roland said he also belongs to the Wichita, KS. Postcard club, they sent out a very nice monthly newsletter, people write short articles for the paper and Roland said that an article was written about “Favorite Spots” meaning the old drive in quick food restaurants, soda fountains etc. The article reminded him of his home town collection of Pottstown, PA. and that some of his cards were very significant to him. A few days later after having corresponded with the writer of the Wichita article, he received our newsletter where it said “the monthly topic was to be My Home Town Cards. He put together a board of 12 cards with a three line description underneath each card. Examples of some of the cards were the hospital where Roland and his son were born, the Church where he was baptized, the first school he attended, the YMCA, and others. He gave a description of all the cards and the significance. He also talked about another board he had in the board display entitled “Boyertown Opera House Fire 1908” Boyertown is very close to Pottstown and his wife collects those cards. The board was made up of all rppc‘s. A church group was having an event on the second floor of the Opera House where pictures were being projected on a screen, with a gas projector. The projector started to make a hissing noise, and the people got excited and knocked over a kerosene lamp on the stage and the fire began. 177 people died in that fire, the cards show the burned out building, a view of dead bodies, views of a temporary morgue, and the digging of mass graves. Following his presentation, Roland answered a number of questions about his boards. Roland was an interesting speaker and his talk was well received.
(The publication of this Newsletter was delayed for a number of reasons. Despite the fact that it is late, we are mailing it to members so that they can read the information that it contains.)
Our President, Golda Dollinger, went back north last month to visit her children and those wonderful grandchildren over the Mother's Day Holiday. WE hope she had a wonderful visit. Meeting chaired by Tom Moore. Treasurer's Report. Our Secretary and Treasurer, Sylvia Murphy, is recovering at home after her recent health problems.The reports are that she is doing better and we hope that she will be back to our monthly meetings in the near future. She appreciates all the telephone calls and cards that the members have sent to her. She is doing better and has a birthday this month. She is 88 years. She is back at home. She appreciated the card the Club sent her.
Roland Mooris will be added as a signer to our bank account. He handles membership and takes the money and it will help to have him listed on our account. Our balance is fine and we hope Silvia will be back taking care of banking again, soon.
Tom Moore our show chairman has contacted dealers for our August Show. If you know anyone who would like to participate give Tom their contact information. The Show Postcard is made up. If you have places to display one or can give them out to people that might be interested. They are here (May Meeting) take some and give them out. The Summer Show is the 8th of August, the second Saturday of the month. We are havibg a members table at this show, if you have a few postcards and not enough to take a dealers table you can set up with your cards for a 10% fee to the Club. Sandy Trutt, member's table chairperson 954-981-2753, sptrutt@bellsouth.net 0r Tom Moore, 305-666-0219, tommoore7@aol.com, Show Chairman. Please sign up with them for a place at the member's table. Everyone , please make a postcard board of your cards. The summer theme is "What Members Collect". We always have an open categories. And you can make up a nice board of what ever you want. This is just to show what we do and is not a contest like the winter show display.
Roland Mooris has finished the Membership Roster. The meeting Saturday is incorrectly listed as the 2nd Saturday of the month. George Shannon's Post Office box number was left off. His phone and e-mail number are there if you need to contact him. The number is 305-989-3156 if you need to phone him.
Board Topics for the year. "my Home Town " was this month. The following topics were picked. Tourist Attractions (June). Patriotic (July). SHOW-"What I Collect" (Aug.). Pretty Ladies (Sept.) Ships. (Oct.). Native American (Nov.). Holidays (Dec). We need to come up with the January Show topic soon as then more people can make boards. Tom needs to check what topics we have used at the January Show show in the Past. He thinks it has been a while since we used "My Home Town". Most everyone collects cards of their home town no matter what their collecting interest may be.
On a sad note Jay Miller reported that postcard dealer David Grubbs died shortly after attending our January show. Jay has designed a couple of postcards in memory of David. Anyone who would like a copy of the cards should contact Jay. He also reported that there will be a David Grubbs Memorial Postcard Show in Pittsburgh in June.
Silvia Murphy thinks we should change the newsletter format. She thinks we need more "home town" information. To incurrage people to read it and see what is going on. Little blurbs on different members and what they have done. (See above on Golda trip and Silvia status). To do this we need this kind of information. We can not make it all up.
Sandy Trutt, our Publicity Chairwoman, is planning to attend the Coca Cola Collectors' Convention in Denver this summer. We hope that she will find lots to Coca Cola postcards to add to her collection.
If Member's Classified needs to be renewed or changed notify Neill. Adds not renewed will be deleted. Neill hopes to get time to promote the site so we will get more visitors.
We are always looking for speakers. We would like to hear about your collection. What cards you have and a little history of the subject. Neill is trying to get someone from Florida Postal History to speak to us. It is a very interesting subject and they use a lot of postcards in their examples. Someone to talk about stamps and what they look for. We all might know someone that can talk on interesting topics that use postcards.
We did not have an official speaker today but Roland Mooris called me (Tom Moore) up and told of a new board he just made up. And we are going to have Roland tell us about his board. One board is white border and the opera house fire sre real photo cards.
I belong to the Wichita Postcard Club and they have a really nice monthly newsletter. They have a lot of actives. A guy wrote about an article on "Favorite Spots" like fast food restaurant or drugs stores. I did not have many places like that but got to thinking of my home town and I do have lots of views. All my cards on this board had significant meaning to me. Like this first on is the Homeopathic Hospital were I was born and my son was born 20 years later. And this is our church, the First Presbyterian Church. The board rules state you can place three lines of description. Like this card I put here "I was baptized, went to Sunday School, attended Youth Fellowship, Boy Scout Troop 3 which have provide training that provided training that has been with me my whole life. This is where I was married and by children attended Sunday School there."
The next one is my first grade school. My kids can not believe that the milk was brought by horse drawn wagon. This the the main street called High Street. This card is the YMCA building. My mother put me in YMCA Day Camp that taught swimming and sports and took us to Shide Park in Philadelphia to see the Phillies and the "A"'s play. Next is the public library where I participated in trumpet recitals. This view is the Hippodrome Theater in Pottstown. And this one is Granny Ross Park Rollerskating Rink. A lot of girls went to the roller rink! Next is my Jr. High School. I played in the band we we went to Washington, D.C. and Atlantic City to march. This is the Strand Theater, two blocks down from the other one. This is the Sunnybrook School and my high scool graduation.
This is a town, Lawyertown, about 12 miles from Pottstown. In 1908 the opera house caught on fire. It was on the second floor of this building and a church was having a program where they were using a gas projector to show pictores. Something happened to the projector and it started making a hissing noise and scared the people. They started rolling up the screen and some one knocked over a kerosene light on the stage. It started a fire and 108 people died in this fire. These are views of people on the street the next day. This was the stairs from the second floor. The door out to the stairs opened IN! Everyone jammed up against the door and no one got out. There was a fire escape but very few people used it. After this fire they change the law in Pennsylvania that all public doors had to open OUT. These views are of the bodies. A lot were unidentified and they had to use a huge mass grave for some of them. There are other views of this incident.
Note on Display Board descriptions The rules state. #6 - Board Titles must be at the top of the board with letters not to exceed 2 inches in height. There shall not be more than two lines of title. A three line subtitle beneath each card may be used and/or a 3.5 x 5.5 inch card may be used to explain the cards on the board.
There is a minimum of 6 cards allowed per board (rule 2). No maximum number rule.
Sandy said a January theme of "Then and Now" would be interesting. Roland told how some buildings are still there and some are gone. All in all he was a very interesting speaker and discussion at this meeting. Rolands talk was very well received.
Tom called the business meeting adjured and lets go back to looking for postcards!
At the Tropical Postcard Club's March meeting we were treated to another one of Tom Moore's interesting talks. He spoke about the history of Flagler and his accomplishments As usual, we were all listening with great interest. People really stopped looking at cards voluntarily. Michael Hopkins brought our new cards for distribution. The picture looks good enough to eat. Come to the May meeting and get the cards for your use. - Golda
Sandy Trutt Let Sandy know about any hobby or collectable magazines we might list in. Also a local papers you are contacting about the club. sptrutt@bellsouth.net
If you want to keep your classified ad posted on the web site please let us know. By e-mail (tropical@yahoo.com) , snail mail, ( TPCC, Members Classifieds, 671 NE 71 Street, Miami, FL 33138-5715) or at the club (May). Say “Keep it the same”, “Change to this ____”, or “Delete”. And if we do not hear anything it will be removed.
Would you share your post carding stories with us. It could be about the subject or your collecting topic or a facet of postal history. Can you tell us about producers, what they were and how long they made cards. And of what, or what might be scarce cards to look for 0r has a collectible following. If you would be interested call (e-mail) Tom Moore TomMoore7@aol.com and let him know.
We need some new ideas about how to attract new members for our club. If you have any suggestions, please present them at our monthly meeting.
Michael Hopkins 2009 design for Tropical Postcard Club. Cards will be available at the May meeting. Pass them on to people you meet that might be interested in our fascinating hobby. Leave a few at libraries, at other clubs, your local neighborhood newspaper or newsletter
Mail Service In U.S. At first there was the Colonial Postal Service from the earlest settlements to 1707. Then, from 1707 to 1775 there was the Royal Postal Service of King William III. Then came the U.S. Postal Service of the Continental Congress. They took over on July 26, 1775. I guess you can say Thomas Neale was the first “Postmaster General”, or Deputy Postmaster, appointed by King William III. Merchant ships carried mail between posts. There were postal routes between some cities, such as they were with undependable delivery. British Law regulated the mail in the Colonies. Postage was based on distance and number of sheets of paper in the letter.
Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster general and soon after October in 1782 the Postal Service was made a monopoly of the Central Government. The Postal Service followed the country as it grew west and in 1845 had grown to 14, 000+ post offices.
Private postal systems were allowed and wanted, to find better ways to distribute the mails and a lot of them were profitable. When this happened, though, the Government would take them over and convert their operations for Government. In Boston there were more than 40 private express companies alone by 1844. A New York company, the City Dispatch Post issued the first adhesive postage stamp in 1842. All this was taken over by the Post Office Department. They hired all carriers and put in their own service in 49cities by 1863.
During this period of postal experimentation that a patent was applied for and granted for a postal card. The Postal Service thought this another little innovation that they would allow, and if successful take it over. The first know usage of a mailed card was in 1848. This did not take a hold right away. Your message was not private, anyone could read it. The length of a message was shorter.
Pioneer Postcards go from 1873 to 1898. It has two periods the Early Pioneer and Classic Pioneer Periods. Groups can be Business Postcards with Sub Groups Advertising, Multi Ad, Will Call, Business Reply etc. Correspondence Postcards Sub Grouped as individual, civic and government organizations. Exposition Postcards were not many and include Exposition related Business Postcards. And also there were View and Topical Postcards which can cover many Sub Groups!
Dive on in. There are so many different publishers of this period. Private, Government, Government with private messages and on. And production can run from a single card to millions of a single design.
In this bad economic period, having a hobby is the most gratifying way to spend time. The Tropical Postcard Club could use help in many areas. Come to the meeting and find a way to improve the club. We welcome your suggestions. The Executive Board is happily waiting for you. So. cheer up and enjoy the hobby. - Golda
Excellent meeting and well attended. Lots of subjects covered that were later brought up at the General Meeting.
At the March meeting of the Club a resolution was passed to send a donation to a charitable organization in memory of Pearl Ladin who recently passed away. After consulting with her brother, Ben Ladin, a donation was sent to Temple Beth Shalom in her memory.
Pearl Ladin was a long time member and supporter of the Tropical Postcard Club. Her brother was the primary collector in the family, but she was his strong supporter and she did everything she could to help him and the club succeed. Every year when we put out our publicity, we included her telephone number in the information. She was the one who answered questions from those who called and she was the one who told the callers how to get to the Pompano Beach Civic Center where the shows were held. And every year she was the person who made the reservation for the Judges’ Luncheon after the display boards were judged and the ribbons were awarded. She will be sadly missed.
Sorry to add more sad news. Dave Grubbs, of Pittsburgh, PA, longtime collector who attended Tropical PC Club meetings when he worked in Orlando years back and has since attended our winter show annually has died (March 2nd) due to complications following open heart surgery (which he had soon after his visit here for our recent January show).
The new NPCW card will be ready and I will bring them to the next meeting for everyone. - Michael Hopkins. Please Note: Michael is also the web master, makes great display boards and helps with getting ready for the Winter Show and Sale. He also has his own postcard web site!
Sandy Trutt has offered to be the Club‘s Public Relations Person. She will need the assistance of all of the Club’ members. She will be contacting the major media with press releases. She is also putting together a list of smaller papers that we can contact about our shows. For instance here in Miami-Dade County, in the Northeast section we get a free paper , the Biscayne Times. Other areas have similar community newspapers. Some of the TV stations also put on little blurbs about neighborhood happenings. In addition, there are several collectible magazines that have listings for shows. Some internet sites might also be of help . Sandy will need our assistance in identifying these media outlets and their contact address.
If you want to keep your classified ad posted on the web site please let us know, by e-mail (tropical@yahoo.com) , by snail mail, ( TPCC, Members Classifieds, 671 NE 71 Street, Miami, FL 33138-5715) or at the club meeting. Say “Keep it the same”, “Change to this ____”, or “Delete”. And if we do not hear anything it will be removed.
The year 1847 was the date of the first known usage of a mailed card and that event took place in Europe.
In the United States the first private (not government issued) postal card was copyrighted on December 17, 1861, by J.P. Charlton and published by H. L. Lipman, both of Philadelphia. And the earliest use of the Lipman Postal Card in the USA was Oct 25, 1870. In May 12, 1873 the Government Postal Card UX1 was issued. A total of 31,094,000 cards were printed. The first U.S. Exposition Postcard was issued on September, 9, 1873 for the Rhode Island Industrial Exposition of 1873 in Providence, R.I. The word “Postal” meant governmental and postmaster were instructed “Postal” must not be used on Private cards. On October 25, 1892 they initiated a message reply card for domestic use, UY1. Then on March 1, 1893 the UY2 , a message reply card for overseas use. At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago the Early Pioneer Postcard period ends and Classic Pioneer period begins. On May 18, 1898 Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act and required all private postcards to be called a “Private Mailing Card”. December 24, 1901 Postal Regulation 1447 ended the “Private Mailing Card”. The title Post Card was to be used for private postcards to distinguish them from Government Postal Cards.We are saddened to report that long time member and sister of a founding member, Ben Ladin, has passed away. It was always good to see her at the meetings and to talk with her. We will miss her and we want Ben to know that she will be in our prayers.
Our Secretary/Treasurer, Sylvia Murphy, is still on the sick list. She is at the North Beach Rehabilitation Center , 2201 NE 170th Street . North Miami Beach , Florida 33160 . Sylvia is in Room 108 and you may call her at 305-945-1401.
In the February Newsletter we published a list of major awards for the display boards at our January show. However, we inadvertently omitted the award for the Most Popular Board, which was won by Michael Hopkins for his board entitled “Leaving the Driving To Us”. Many of us consider this the most prestigious award of all because it is won by the votes of those who took the time to view the display.
Circle this on your Calendar! Before the March General Meeting we will have a Board Meeting at 11 AM to go over the many things we need to address, that take too much of our business meeting time at the regular meeting. This is so we can devote more time to postcards, browsing and trading, speaker's talks and social time together. There will be an Agenda but items can be brought up, and is encouraged. Board Meeting minutes will be brought up at the business portion of the General Meeting.
DUES ARE DUE IN MARCH! The new Roster will be coming out in April and to be included you must be a paid up member. We want to know your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and whether you are a collector, a dealer or both. We also want to know your collecting interests. Send your dues and membership information to Roland Morris at 2500 NE 48th Lane #309 , Fort Lauderdale , FL 33308-4727 . He can be contacted at 954-771-5228 or rj309@bellsouth.net.
There are a zillion topics for postcard collecting. This month we will look at Military. There are Army and Navy, Marines and Air Force, and Coast Guard for the U.S.A. Then there are those that are interested in military air-craft, vessels, medical, transportation, air bases, camps, WWI (a lot of cards), WWII, special cancels and much, much more.
Add foreign cards to the above list and you see this category is endless. Having come out just before the Franco-Prussian War, there were only a few postcards of that conflict. By the time of the Boer War, 1899 to 1902, postcards were being turned out in large quantities by a number of different publishers.
During the Spanish-American War, 1898 to 1902, real photos were very common. The main theaters of war were Cuba , "Remember the Maine ", and the Philippines , "You may fire when ready Gridley". There were quite a few publishers and a number of sets and series produced. Several series of warships were issued during this period.
Other military events recorded on postcards were: the Boxer Rebellion, 1895 to 1901; The Russo-Japanese War, 1904/1905; the Mexican Revolution, 1910 to 1920; and the Balkan Wars, 1870 to 1914.
In WWI, 1914 to 1918, many photos were turned into postcards and mailed home. A number of these postcards have social, political or military historical value. During WW I, postcards were used for propaganda purposes by both sides.
We will end this month’s Collecting Subject with WWII, which began with the death of President Hindenburg of Germany and the ascending to power of Hitler in 1934. Up to the end of this conflict in 1945, a lot of cards were published. Some were scenes from the battlefields others were scenes from military bases, aircraft, ships, and military cartoons.
We have club members who collect Military cards and have shared their collections with us by speaking at club meetings. It is a fascinating subject that these few paragraphs have barely touched upon. Good collecting all!
Many years ago I collected postcards in a hap hazard way and a few years ago, out of curiosity, I attended the Tropical Postcard Club. What an eye-opener! Others collected and in very interesting ways. I was inspired. I was intrigued by the programs, the shows and benifitted from the sales. I was asked to function on the board and I happily said yes.Its wonderful working with the pros. I've learned a great deal and am more committed to postcards than ever. Golda
The Tropical Postcard Club’s January show and sale was held this year in the large auditorium of the Pompano Beach Civic Center. A total of 26 dealers participated in the show, coming from 12 different states and two foreign countries - Canada and France. The two day show attracted a good crowd of collectors and most of the dealers seemed to be pleased with their sales. The theme for this years Board Display was "Tourist Attractions". Nine of our members entered boards in the display.
- Best in Show, Collector - Charles J. Lowry - "Mixed-Up Cows"
- Best in Show, Dealer - Thomas G. Moore - "Gone With the Wind"
- Best of Class, Theme - Golda Dollinger - "World’s Fair" (‘39 New York)
- Best of Class, Pre-20 Era - Thomas G. Moore -" Blacks on Postcards in Early 1900’s"
- Best of Class, Linens and White Borger Era - Thomas G. Moore - "Gone With the Wind"
- Best of Class, Modern and Chrome Era - Mildred C. Neill - "Marilyn 1926/1962"
- Best of Class, Mixed Eras and Home-Made - Charles J. Lowry - "Mixed-Up Cows"
Tom Moore
We have talk at meetings about many things we need to work on and we do need to. I beleive we need to get together at other times as Officers and Board Members and Committiees. You know we need to do things to move forward with this great hobby of POSTCARDS! You can not exspect only a few to do all the work needed for the club.
I am working on the FREE site Blujay http://www.blujay.com/ and like it. Do not know how it runs, being free. But it is a very easy site to use. But it takes a little planning on how you want to list things. After you have built your categories I do not think you can insert something but it goes to the bottom of that categories. But it is very intuitive. This site is NOT an aution site but a fixed price, trade or make an offer. It is just like having a table at a Postcard Show! Now it is not eBay with all the PR they have. And they tell you up front you have to advertize your site and get it out there. But is listed in search engines and I had a nice sale from one of them. They give you HTML code (Copy and Paste this code into your website) and other places you can place a link. I am http://pcflamia.blujay.com. But my store is "Collectable Postcards and More". You can make a nice banner for your store. One nice feature is you can post four pictures in an ad! I have posted the front and back, when the back of the card shows something like a special postmark or other feature.The best way I think is to go to the blujay site and also my store site and see how it looks. Then get Help online at User Forum and FAQ's. Read and use them and also talk with others about what you find and what works.
They have a link to your site you can use on the web!
I have seen a lot of auction sites out there and would like to hear from, and pass on, from you, your exsperances with auction (or fixed price) sites. I think if we find a good site that we all can like and help advertizeing for them, and your own site, it will come and "if you build it they will come".
It’s that time again. The 2009 Tropical Postcard Club Annual Winter Show will be held on the 9th and 10th of January. There will be two days of browsing through a room full of postcards. At the beginning of a new year, we wish everyone a “Happy New Year” and success in finding the cards they want at the club’s postcard show. Our Shows are always fun and it is great to see old faces from afar and new faces just starting a great new hobby. Best of LUCK to all!
The regular monthly meeting of the Tropical Postcard Club was called to order by the President, Ms. Golda Dollinger at 1:40 PM, 12/13/08. The President gave a hearty thanks for a great turnout for our Holiday Party. It was a “covered dish” affair with lots of food including a big turkey.
Golda reminded us that if you have your dues paid before the Annual Winter Show you are admitted FREE. Dues are the same $8 per year for a single member or $10 for two at the same address.
Mr. Tom Moore, our Show Chairman, announced that this year we use be using just the large auditorium at the Pompano Beach Civic Center for our show. The display boards for the show will be judged on Thursday, January the 8th, at the Civic Center beginning at noon. Our two judges will be Barbara Trovei and Alan Grab.
There will be food available at lunch time on Friday and Saturday at the show. Tommy Whitehead will handle the kitchen. He turns out some mighty fine sandwiches and we are glad he is able to do it again this year.
A motion passed that permitts Mr. Moore rent a truck for transporting the easel and board equipment to the show.
The President again thanked everyone for the food and wished everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
The door prize was won by Ben Ladin and the award for the best board was won by Leo Griffith. The meeting was adjourned at 2:10 PM. Respectfully submitted by Sylvia Murphy, Secretary.
The Newsletter editor, Burnham Neill, is looking for articles for the newsletter. A member might write an article about how he or she became interested in collecting postcards or about some interesting aspect of their personal collection. Articles could also deal with part of the history of postcards or about the broader topic of postal history. An interesting article might deal with the various processes used to print postcards. These are just a few examples of articles that would be of interest to our members. You may also know about some web site dealing with postcards that you have found useful. If so, why not share that information with the rest of the club’s members.
Articles can be sent to Neill by e-mail or the regular mail. His e-mail address is mbneil@bellsouth.net and his home address is 671 NE 7th Street, Miami, FL 33138-5715.
On A Sad Note: I hate to report this but our long time Secretary/Treasurer Silvia Murphy has been in the hospital. For awhile she was in intensive care at Aventura Hospital, but she was recently moved to the Heritage Health and Rehabilitation Center. The address is 2201 NE 170th Street, North Miami Beach. She is in Room 124 Bed #2 She is doing better. We can call or send a card. I am sure she would like to hear from us.
October Meeting: We had an excellant meeting. Tom Moore brought us up to date on the January 2009 Show. We helped stamp and address the show cards and members took cards to put out at places like shows they go to or libraries etc. It was brought up that we had new display board entries at the August Show and hope they show agin and more of you will join them. Help is needed for the entry table, and other things, too. See Tom at the meeting or call 305-666-0219. We need to get the word out about our January show. If anyone has a contact with a local community newspapers or with a TV or radio program, perhaps you could get a mention of our coming show. The basic information is as follows: The 2009 Tropical Postcard Club’s Annual Winter Show will be held at the. Pompano Beach Civic Center, 1801 NE 6th Street, Pompano Beach, Florida 33060 on Friday & Saturday, January 9th and 10 the. The show will be open on Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM and on Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM. For information call Tom Moore at 305-666-0219 or Ben Ladin at 561-483-5601. Our speaker at the October meeting was Golda Dollinger She gave a very interesting talk on movie theaters on postcards. This is a new interest for her but she already has a nice collection. She is presently in search of hard to find theater interiors.
Golda Dollinger Speaker, Theaters: A very interesting talk was given by Golda on movie theaters. It is a new interest for her and she already has a nice collection. She is branching off into the more hard to find theater interiors. We wish her 'Good Collecting' in this new endevore.
Happy Birthday Tropical Postcard Club: We will celabrate the clubs birthday at the November meeting with cake and ice cream. The Club was founded on November 29, 1979 so we will be celebrating the club’s 29th birthday. This is not a bring something event. That is the Christmas Party in December when we all bring a little something. More on that at the meeting.
We received an e-mail from Mr. Larry Fulton. He worked in the film industry for over 25 years. Since he retired he started making his own short films. His most recent project is a postcard jourey across America. "Greetings From America" is 15 minutes long. It will be at the meeting with a small TV for viewing.
He used a varieity of cards. Large Letter, linen, cabinet, real photo and Kodachromes and would like comments from us. I have viewed the DVD and it is a very interesting use of postcards. I am sure all who watch will like it too. I hope we all send Mr. Fulton our opinions of his film. I liked it and e-mail that fact to him.
He also has an interesting web site; http://web.me.com/larryfulton/Larry_Fultons_Webpage/Homepage.html. Click to check out.
Things To Concider: There are a lot of things we need to do as a club. We need committiees' for several things to help the club go forward! And to me one of the most important is MEMBERSHIP. How do we get the word out about this great hobby? We are looking for someone to serve as the chairman of this committee to get it moving. Would someone come forward to chair this and get it moving? We are all on that committiee I think, and am interested in seeing the club fill its ranks with new members. Somethings require more from us then a monthly meeting of buying and selling, speakers, fellowship with postcard people and refreshments. If you do not feel you can chair this committiee I know someone out there, and maybe several can at least come up with some good ideas.
Did You Know: United States Postal History is a fasinating subject. It relates very well with postcards. And because some things give a card extra value you should become more aware of it. There are collectors looking for postmarks made by certain postmarking devices. Postmarks of discontinued post offices, DPO's, are a big thing to look for. As are railroad postmarks, RPO's. And Mobile Post Office's are also from ships, and buses. Armed Forces Mail is another interesting one. Navy and Navy Ships, Marines and Army, APO's.
There is a lot going on with postcards! Postcard Collector has started a great online site.
Form Page http://forum.postcardcollector.org/ with the following Site News (Postcard Colletor)., General Discussions (Introductions, News, Questions, Cards Wanted), Postcards by Topic (Advertising, Animals, Artist Signed, Expositions, Holidays, Military, Views and much more), Forums (Supplies, Shows, Links).
This is a good for the Hobby and I think we all should use and contribute to it. Postcard Collector has their list of nationwide shows. And one person asked if there should be more southern shows in the winter and you could answer 'yes', 'no' or 'you are insane'. We could tell more about our shows then we could with or display or classified ads in the magizine. Check it out! I think you will like it!
Wiki Page http://www.postcardcollector.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Postcard Topics - Advertising, Animals, Artist Signed, Comics, Expositions, Holidays, Military, U.S.Views, Worlwide Views. And much, much more.
Postcard Publishers - A.C. Bosselman, American Art Post Card Co., Curt Teich & Co., Dexter Press Inc., E.C. Kropp Co., Rapael Tuck & Son., Souvenir Post Card Co., The Rotograph Co., Tichnor Bros. Inc. And many more.
Printing Method - Lithography, Photolithography, Printed Photo, Real Photo, Tinted Photo.
Postcard Era - Pioneer, Private Mailing Card, Undivided Back, Divided Back, White Border, Linen, Photochrom , Continental, Rack Card.
And you can add things or edit things. I do not know all the rules or procedures of Wiki or how to do it, so if anyone works with this I will be glad to pass the information on to our members. Please let me know what you think of this site.
In the continuing work on postcard lists thanks to member Larry Wiggins for putting us unto the following. http://picasa.google.com web site for keeping track of and shareing your postcards. There are a lot of good features that you would use with regular pictures. Create and edit videos, print captions, and one good for postcards is make albums orthers can oen and injoy. There is lots of Help! and Q & A pages to help you get started and understand more about Picasa. I know what time I have been able to devote to making my site I have only scratched to surface. As with postcard collector site let me know what you think of this site and if you work with it and understand it maybe you will help us too. Tropical
Our August Summer Show was a successful one. We had a good group of vendors, a better than average number of collectors, and lots of cards for sale. Thomas Whitehead served us up another array of excellent sandwiches. We had several new members put up show boards. They were all nice boards and we are glad to get them. The boards were displayed on the floor of the auditorium and attracted a lot of attention.
One Sad Note! You all know we are a most friendly and open group. Someone took advantage of this. A dealer made a nice sale and put the cards, in an envelope, and set it at the side of his booth. The buyer did not pick them up right away. A light fingered person saw a chance and helped himself. This really hurt the buyer, the seller and the rest of us who enjoy this fine hobby.
Back To Work! Guess what? Only four months till we do it again at our two day January Show. The dates for the January show are the 9th and 10th – a Friday and Saturday. On Friday the hours will be from 10 AM to 6 PM and on Saturday the hours will be from 10 AM to 5 PM. If you have any media connections, it would help the club to get this information in local community publications and on other media outlets; contact Tom Moore if you need any additional information.
"The Sundial", the Sunshine Postcard Club's Newsletter has a new look and their latest edition was very impressive. The President, Bonnie Wilpon, and Editor, Stacey Ward, did a great job. They brought up a lot of the things we need to work on. Their one day Mini Show is scheduled for October 18, 2008 at Holiday Inn Express, North Dale Mabry in Tampa. This is also a club with a very reasonable membership fee.
Articles Wanted: Can you do an article on some aspect of postcards or postal history? Can you tell a special story about Zeppelins, Air Mail, or Railway Post Offices? Maybe you could write an article about your personal collection. If you are interested in writing such an article, send it to me (Burnham Neill) for publication in our newsletter. I know there are a lot of good stories out there.
Car Pooling: I believe we should try to promote car pooling to our meetings. Besides the current cost of gasoline, we have members that can no longer drive. And people who do not drive. There is already some car pooling at every meeting and that is good. If 3 or 4 of you that live near one another, why not give it a
try.
Why A Check List? - A check list of your cards can be a simple thing or a more complicated process. Why bother? The main reason is to prevent the buying of the same card again.
Each collector has to decide the best way to make their list. However, one good way is to start with the publisher. And if the publisher numbers the cards, that is a good way to proceed. If there are no publisher’s numbers, an alphabetic list of the titles on the cards might be a suitable method. Some collectors use their computer scanner to print a picture of each of the cards in their collection. For a person with a very large collection, this might be large a list to carry around.
There are lists available for some publishers and for some topics. For instance, there is a numbered list of the cards published by the Detroit Publishing Company. There is also a list of all of the Alligator Border cards published by Samuel Langsdorf & Co. A published list of this type can save a collector a lot work. Instead of making his own list, he can simply check off the cards he owns.
July Meeting Minutes – The meeting was called to order at 12:50PM by our President Golda Dollinger. She welcomed members and guests and thanked everyone for coming and hoped we all found the cards we were trying to find.
Show Chairman - Tom Moore announced that there are 18 paid dealers for the August Show and there is space for any last minute dealer who wants to sell. Sandy Trutt will be in charge of the Members’ Table ( sptrutt@bellsouth.net) . If you are a paid up member and have some cards you would like to sell, you may do so at the Members’ Table. The fee at the Members’ Table is 10% 0f your sales.
Tom urged members to make up and display a postcard display board of what they collect. It is a good way to show people new to postcard collecting what they can do. It is fun to look at other members collections, too.
Chef Tommy Whitehead, who produces those great sandwiches will be back again! There will be a nice selection of very good sandwiches.
The speakers at the July meeting were three of our members who talked about their collecting interests. Golda Hollinger spoke about her New York cards that were connected with her family history, such as places where she and her husband used to go. One of her cards was a picture of the synagogue where they were married. She is looking for a card of her grade school.
Neill explained that he belongs to a group in Dade County involved with the Arch Creek Natural Bridge (http://archcreektrust.org). In looking into the possibility of producing their own postcard, he came across the Postcard Collector and Tropical Postcard Club. At first Arch Creek was his topic but that soon changed to include Lemon City, now part of Miami but until 1926 a separate community. And this led him on to any early Dade County cards, postmarks and cancellations.
Ben Ladin talked about his interest in mail sent through the Post Office’s pneumatic tubes and in mail delivered by Zeppelin and other postal history that he collects.
The following article about her eBay store was written by Bonnie Wilpon, the president of the Sunshine Postcard Club in the Tampa Bay area. To check out her eBay store go to the following web site: http://www.tropicalpcc.com/Members_Classifieds.htm (Bonnie's eBay Store http://stores.ebay.com/Bonnpon-Postcards-and-Gifts)
Harris and Jayne Gray do an eBay Store and just love it! Jayne got me motivated to get mine up and going about a year ago.
I started by carefully reading the eBay Store information at: http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/seller-landing.html
I wanted to start quickly, so I just did the things I needed to do to get the store up and going. I still have a lot to learn, especially about the marketing side and some of the special/added features that I'm not familiar with yet!
The template was very easy to set up and use - my store was up and running within a couple of hours! More challenging was stocking the store. If you've been selling things on eBay and have them all scanned and ready to list (or re-list), it will make setting up the store a lot easier.
Think through the categories you want. For example, if you're listing cards by states, think about states where you might have lots of cards, and plan to divide them up, for example, FL A-L and FL M-Z. If you list them all in FL, it will be too many cards for people to look at comfortably. It's much more time-consuming to change it later, since you'll have to move ALL affected items, one by one, if you wait.
The store costs under $20/month to keep it open, plus 3 cents per item per month. If you auction a postcard with a starting bid of $9.99 there's a 35-cent listing fee.... so you can list something in your store for a year at that price. The down side is that people can't bid -- you're selling at a fixed price. Also, the final value fees are higher for store sales than for auction sales.... so all in all, it's a little cheaper to sell from the Store, but not a whole lot.
I find myself putting "bread & butter cards" directly into the store, and auctioning the cards I think will get competitive bids. There's nothing like the "high" of selling a card you opened at $5 for $100+! You won't have that thrill from the Store. On the other hand, when you're too busy to list anything for a week or two, or you're on vacation for a couple of weeks, it's nice to come home and find that you've made some money! So I really enjoy the combination of doing both auctions and the Store.
Minutes of May Meeting Meeting Called To Order: At 12:50 PM by Golda Dollinger, President. Leo Griffith, our speaker, advised us that his presintation to day would be quite lengthey. So the meeting is called to order earlier and the reading of the minutes was wavied. Our Newsleter, Tiopical Topics, provided the outline of the May meeting. June meeting was a good turn out but we would like to grow and see more injoying this interesting and facinating hobby. We can all try and find people or friends that might be interested and they just do not know much on postcard collecting. Lets inlighten them!
Snow Chairman: Tom Moore spoke about up coming August 9th Shoe. He reminded us that we would like to see lots of Postcard Display Boards, "What Members Collect". And how easy they are to put together. The dealers have sent in their table fees. For payed up members with only a few boxs of cards there is a Members Table. See Sandy Trutt who is in charge. There is a 10% fee on the sales total to the club. Also payed up members are admitted free. Harry Magee has destributed show cards at the Hollywood Stamp Club, 3 Military Clubs he belongs to and the Gun Show at the American Legion, Oakland Park. This all helps and we print pleanty of cards. It all helps! Are YOU getting cards out?
Sec./Tres: Sylvia Murphey read a lovely Thank You for the expression of Sympthy the Club went to Catherine Kadish on the death of her husband Moses - a long time Club Member. We also learned of the recent death of Brian O'Leary, one of our newer members and an expression of Sympthy has been sent to his brother.
Members Classified Ads, Online: Neill said, The responce to this page on our web site has been slow. You do not have to be on a computer to have an ad in the Classifieds as I will be glad to take your written ad. And you can have contact by your mailing address of and/or the phone. Give it to me at a meeting or mail it (Postcard Classified, 671 NE 71 Street, Miami, FL 33138-5715). I am hoping Barrs and Postcard Collector will pick up on this.
Door Prize: Was won by Roland Morris. No further business meeting was adjourned.
Speaker Leo Griffith On The U.S. Virgin Islands: Leo had layed out several tables with his wounderful postcards, and blowup photos of his home islands. Many were of buildings that have been destroyed by storms. He showed paintings that he had made from postcards that showed the beauty of tghe Islands. Leo answered questions about the Islands. Everone injoyed the show and learned a lot. When Leo speakes you can tell that he has taken lots of time to assemble and put it all togethe! Thank you - thank you Leo!
Respectfully, Sylvia Murphy, Sec./Tres.
Do you have a lot of postcards you have aquired that are duplicates. Bought a box of cards and can only use a few? Did you drop a catagory but still have a lot of cards on the subject? Maybe a relitive left you a lot of cards?
Well getting into being a dealer is easy but there are things you must do. Do you want to set up and sell at show or meetings? Do you want to sell via internet, as at eBay or Playe's Auctions, and others. Some have there own web site to display cards they are selling. Ask around there are members doing this. From staying local, at antique malls and flea markets. Set up at the club and also do their shows. Go on the internet.
Which ever way you go it takes organization. Which ever method you use you have to get your stock ready. Do you use boxs or albums. Or a combination of both. You see a lot of dealers with boxs but "better cards" in albums. You need sleeves. Some shows state "All cards must be sleeved". Do you put a sticker on the sleeve or a light pencil mark with the price? Depending on the number of cards you will set up with what classifications do you use? A good rule of thumb is to check out catigoies use in Barr's or Postcard Collecters periodicals. To make it easy to find a card a good way is to have a state box, then that box alphabeticly, and then, when you have a lot of a town under a letter - Name that town. As a Florida Box, then aphabeticy (M), then a town file by name (Miami), when you have a lot of cards in that group.
Likewise withTopicals. What do people look for (also check the magizines on catigories) as Coca Cola, Walt Disney, ect and when some such as Military can be brokendown to Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard etc.
There is a lot to learn here. Learn by doing is OK I guess but you look back and "wish I had done this or known that!". Talk to established dealers and you will learn a lot. Most dealers are fine people and glad to talk with new people.
Priceing is a big item. Price too high and you will not move cards and too low and YOU will be hurting your own bottom line. What to do? The guide books give you an average. $10 or $100 it depends on the condition of the card, where you are at, how long you are willing to hold it. Use 25 cent boxs for cards you feel are common or have a lower grade/condition. But people will find little jems in your quarter box asnd they like to search them. As a browser (or at an online site like eBay) you will see prices low or high for the same card usually at differant dealers, but even in the same boxs.
Usually taxs are a dealers personal responcibiliy. But one way or another you owe Uncle and the State for your profits, or parish the thought, losses.
How much do you want to do with other asspects of postcard sales. Are you going to check DPO's? RPO's? Slogan postmarks? And a derth of other postcard related subjects. That quarter box can hold a $50 DPO!
As you go, Club Meetings or bigger Shows, good luck and HAVE FUN!
