Spotlight on Warwickshire

In the second of my series of 'Spotlight On...' we come to Warwickshire. Warwickshire has a great history - and some lovely countryside locations as well as the huge metropolis of Birmingham. The first postcard is of Alvechurch, near Birmingham - as such it is filed in the Birmingham section of the store... it is one of my favourites of the area - it almost makes one feel that you are standing in the street there, along with the folk in the image. It would be interesting to hear how much this scene has changed!

Now on to Earlswood - this is a lovely peaceful scene, Earlswood Reservoir...

and (right) the Reservoir Hotel at Earlswood - this, again, is a fascinating postcard - you can see some of the locals posing outside the door for the photographer. This, like the ones above, dates back to pre 1918. How do we know that, if it isn't postally used? The postage rate quoted on the card is 1/2d - the postage rates increased in 1918 to 1d inland - that is how the card can be dated even though it has not been mailed.

At the time of writing this entry in the blog, I have 17 vintage cards listed in the Warwickshire>>>Other section of my store and 15 in the Warwickshire>>>Birmingham section; to be honest, I am never sure where one ends and the other begins so please bear with me! If you see something that should be swopped by all means let me know (my email address is here in the profile section).

With vintage cards arriving all the time, the store is constantly being updated.

Here are the links to my Warwickshire and Birmingham listings - don't forget - if you click on the images in the listings they will zoom right in and give you a superb view of the postcard in question. All my items are at fixed prices - no need to wait and wonder if you will win an auction. Obviously sometimes at auction, I can get very high prices for postcards but I prefer to list them at fixed prices so that if customers want the card, they can have it - first come first served! I will take the risk of losing out on getting a higher price.

Here is the link to my Birmingham section of the store, featuring Warwickshire cards as well as city locations:

http://postcards.delcampe.com/page/list/cat,10247,cats,,id_member,00226505,language,E.html

and here is the link to the rest of the Warwickshire cards:
http://postcards.delcampe.com/page/list/id_member,00226505,cat,10246,language,E.html

So...... if you wanted a card, how do you purchase it? Well..... you can register on the Delcampe website free of charge and then hit the Buy Now button - payment is accepted by cheque or Paypal or Moneybookers, whichever suits you best. If you have ever bought anything on Ebay then you'll find that it works in much the same way. It is free to register and free to buy.

If you don't wish to register on the site at this time, but want a particular card, just let me know by email.

OK - last one up - this time is in the Birmingham section.... bringing us right back up to the 1950s..... it's a view of Six Ways, Erdington. If you look carefully you can see the tram lines in the road. The postmark is not clear on this card but it looks like 1952. Which could mean of course, that the postcard was produced in the late 1940s.

I bet there is rather more traffic at this junction, nowadays!

Thanks for reading this far - please do get in touch if you have any queries or whether you are looking for a card of a particular location, I operate a 'wants' list for people and will contact you if I get any cards in which you may be interested. Email me via my profile here on the blog.

I send up to 6 postcards for the price of one p&p - that's only 80p within the UK. If you live in Europe the p&p (shipping) cost is £1.30 and the rest of the world it's £1.75.

Which reminds me, I will very soon do a spotlight on a non UK location...... watch this space!

If you wish to receive notifications on when my blog is updated,
why not press the 'follow' button on this page?

I will leave you with the main link to my store - http://www.delcampe.com/stores/old_postcards

An update of burning importance!

Just a short update tonight; I took in a delivery today of some foreign postcards - vintage ones of course, not the 'wish you were here/come on in the water's lovely' kind... although when I saw one of them it occurred to me that those other kind aren't so bad after all!

The card in question is shown above, entitled 'Calcutta, Burning Ghat' - it's an old card depicting an actual Indian cremation.... the body is clearly visible. It is surprising how different cultures can be across the world - and vintage postcards show that very clearly - it is all part of the fascination of collecting them! This particular card wasn't postally used but the postage quoted (wait for it) is "India postage 3 pies, to Europe 1 Anna". That might help to date the card if you know your Indian currency - if anyone can put a date on this card I'd be pleased to hear from them. I've placed the card on sale in my Delcampe store HERE. If the link is broken it will have been sold.

I have had quite a lot of interest in my foreign cards - maybe I will do a 'Spotlight' on different countries as well as the UK counties. To end this short update the other card shown is an old card of Lens, in France. It's one of my favourites.

That too, is currently for sale in the store and you can see the item HERE

Don't forget, as with all the cards in my store, if you click on the image it will zooooom in and you will see a super duper enlargement - it all helps to assess the card's appeal in case you wish to click on the BUY NOW button!

That's all for now - I will update again very soon with a spotlight on another UK county.... now which one shall it be?? Any ideas? My contact email address, as ever, is in my Profile.

Spotlight on Cheshire

As mentioned earlier, I have had lots of old cards come in during the last couple of weeks; one or two were absolute gems and of course soon disappeared back out again to happy customers. One of them was this one, of the old Hooton Park in Wirral.

A lovely building - long since demolished and the giant Vauxhall Motors car plant now stands in its place. Is that progress?

I suppose it is, for those who have jobs there, but it's a pity we lose so much of our history and heritage as we march on through time. Thank goodness for old postcards, eh!

Several more Wirral cards are in my store - they are listed in the Cheshire section along with other postcards from that county; I always use the old county names rather than the more modern (and often totally irrelevant) versions!

The Cheshire section is at http://postcards.delcampe.com/page/list/cat,10195,cats,,id_member,00226505,language,E.html

Hello and on this wild and windy day in September, I am sorting through lots more postcards that are ready to list in our store.

Hang on to your hollyhocks and I shall be with you shortly!

More postcards have been added to my store on Delcampe; one of my favourites is a delightful rural scene from Caister on Sea, in Norfolk, UK.

It was probably a Sunday morning when the photographer set up equipment outside the church - he has captured this lovely shot of people in their Sunday best - looks like they are just coming out of church; in the distance is a horse and carriage taking its passengers back home.

This kind of real photographic postcard speaks volumes; in addition the messages on the back of postcards can be absolutely fascinating. Often very funny too! You've got to remember too, that postcards were sent like we send texts today - with a message saying 'Meet me off the train tomorrow at noon' or something; there were often several postal deliveries per day and sending an urgent message by postcard was always sure to be delivered in time. Difficult to imagine that nowadays!