There's quite a number of us collecting new postcards, lh stamps, lh first day issues, antique lh postcards, lh patches, etc. So how are we storing or displaying them?

I started with the usual plastic sheet album for my antique postcards , and patches but now have a more conventional brown box. :rolleyes: I guess the next step is to put in dividers and sort by region and state, etc.

So tell me your inovative ideas that do not cause mountains of albums? Scanning and putting them on a cd does not count , I'm looking for hard copy solutions.

OOPppps, I have to run the the mailbox for my next shipment from the rr, pc exchange, ebay, etc.
And I thought storing hl boxes was a problem?
Bob

Well Bob,

I've probally not been collecting postcards as long as many others on the Forums but I do know they add up rather quickly. I've started 3 large binders with plastic pages that will hold 4 cards per page. All pages that I use are photo/archival safe to help protect the cards over time. I've divided them into one binder for Forum Exchanges which includes full page plastic pages to include all the great goodies everyone sends along with their "In Envelope" exchanges. As you can imagine, this binder is already full from exchanges 8-13 so I'll have to start a new one soon.

The next binder is for postcards I've purchased during lighthouse trips or that my friends have sent me on their trips all over the place. This binder has been divided by state.

The third binder is also divided by state and is for all of my antique cards. With this book I also group each lighthouse or region of lighthouses and all of it's cards together. For example for my New York Section my Hudson River cards are group together with all 10 Tarrytown cards in a row. Then West Point, Hudson-Athens... Then there is a Long Island section...

I still haven't decided what to do with my Hassan lighthouse cards though. I don't really want to start a different binder for them, space in an apartment can be limited. But I'll just have to think about it for awhile longer I guess.

And, knowing how fast a postcard collection can grow, my advice to anyone would be to pick a method of organization that works for them and start it right away before the collection gets too overwhelming. That way you are only putting minimal time into the project as you get new cards and not spending an entire weekend trying to sort things out.

shirin

I have (too) many post cards that I have been collecting for at least ten years, Bob! I have binders broke down by states and I start with my older cards and put them in order from old to new. (As best that I can anyway!) I collect any card that is different from the rest. As an example, I have about 25 different just of Cape Hatteras. So, this gives me quite a large collection. I have many binders, all have Portland Head on the cover that I found at Walmart many years ago! I use the two pocket sheets that can be found at just about any baseball card shop. I usually find older cards at postcard shows that come to town, but in the past few years, the shows are getting few and far between!

I have been collecting post cards( mostly antique) for about 15 years now. I use photo/archival pages in binders. This is probably the best method to use because it cuts down on actually handling the cards. The more you handle a card the greater the chance of damaging it, especially with the older cards. So whatever method you use make sure that you don't have to handle the cards to show them.

I have my antique postcards in a 6 pocket per page photo album. I have cards from all over New England and Texas. Most of my cards are pre-1915 and since I enjoy over-kill on my collections I also have them in plastic sleeves that I get online or from the sports card store.
Shirin, I am one card away from the complete Hassan collection. I have those in baseball card pages that I picked up at Office Depot. The pages hold 6 cards each and I have them in a small 3 ring binder. Those are also in card sleeves.
Terry

It's funny you should ask that question today because up until today I had my postcards in a pile on the floor of my bedroom. Today, I happened to see those photo storage boxes in a store, so I bought one for my rapidly enlarging collection. It came with dividers, so I'll use them to separate them by state which is the way I've always ordered them.

Well I'm pretty much a rookie as far as postcards go.

I mentioned a while back that I picked up some small photo albums that hold most standard sized cards. The reason they fit is because you slide the cards in from the top (or bottom) not the side. I use these for the exchanges placing "my" card in the cover spot and those received inside the album. Don't recall offhand how many these albums hold but I skip spaces so the albums don't get too bulky as the cards are a lot thicker than photos. There's plenty of room for an exchange's cards. And they only cost a couple dollars. There is a downside, you can't see the back of the cards. But I keep a copy of the PCE's list of participants in the album, noted with who sent which card. And then the oversized cards naturally don't fit. I do have a similar album that takes 5x7's so the large cards go in there.

I have just a few of the older "antique" variety of cards. I did the same with them but left them in those plastic sleeves they come in.

My new unused cards - they're just in a ziplock bag!

Here's a suggestion -

How about storing the collection of postcards in the collection of HL boxes?

Actually, I use the big three ring binder with the plastic photo holders for my postcard collection. I have been collecting postcards for a long time and find that this method is the best for organizing and viewing the postcards.

I've purchased some FDC binders with pages for 100 cards for my antique postcards, fdc, and patches. The binder is much smaller than a regular binder and I am pleasantly surprised with them. :p I'm still sorting my major lighthouse postcards collection(looking at some sort of plastic tray and dividers by region and state), and re-enjoying all the extra goodies that were in the envelope exchanges. Most people really went out of there way in those! So now I have another source of collection with all the add ons.
Bob

I was having a hard time remembering what postcards I had previously received when I was storing them in photo albums. Just this week I decided to get one of the photo stroage boxes that has divider tabs. I thought I could keep track easier of what cards I had if I divided them into states.

I now use the tab dividers to place them alphabetically by state. Now when I get a packet from the Round Robin, I can lay out the postcards and flip through each state to see if I need the postcard or if it's one I already have.