Going on a Postcard Quest today...

To the local flea market to see what I can find to add to my collection. Does anyone have a prized older postcard?

Good luck Roxie! Most of my "prized" older cards are not lighthouse cards but cards sent by and to relatives that had been saved by my Dad and his sister. If he were alive today my Dad would be 92 and his sister a couple years older so there are lots of old cards in the collection.

As I first read Mombo's post above, I got the impression that what she had were cards from people whose lives her dad had saved.

I was picturing him a member of the US Lifesaving Service... then I re-read it a couple of times and realized differently.

Around here, there are a number of 'antique malls' in which dealers rent a small space to display their wares. These dealers don't need to be there, of course, the mall handles the sales for them from the things on display.

One such booth probably had about 20,000 old post cards, mostly well-organized by subject matter. Fortunately 'Lighthouses' was a topic. But I wonder how many of the state-by-state sorts also had lighthouse post cards in them.

A few other dealers had smaller assortments of post cards, but I didn't have time to search through the scores of booths on my last trip.

Guess I'll make another trip this week and check out the two other antique malls next door as well.

Well, what a surprise to find that the flea market was totally packed on Sunday. You could barely get down the aisles. But let me tell you the trip was worth it. The first goodie was an original hardcover book by Edward Rowe Snow, called America's Lighthouses, it's from the late 1940's and is a first edition (with some pictures). He was asking $25, I haggled it to $15.00. A nice addition to our Lighthouse book collection. I also picked up some postcards... 50's era, but that's okay because they were only 50 cents. I got a nice one of Whaleback Light, and one of Chatham Light (before they changed the top, and with the WWII lookout tower). I also picked up a nice Isle of Shoals card, a nice closeup of the tower! There is a nice one of a Steamship passing by the Brant Point Lighthouse, which I am tempted to put on eBay. And a few others. Spent less than $20.00 for everything! Not too shabby.

Sounds like you did pretty good for twenty bucks.