collection number two

 It's taken a while for me to post the second installment of my collections series - in all honesty I sort of forgot. (I think there's a saying about spreading yourself too thin!) But here it is folks, my collection of vintage postcards. I've been collecting these for only about a year, and usually pick up a few at each car boot sale I visit, and occasionally at junk shops too. Most of the time they are out of my price range (£1 for one postcard, I don't think so!) but every so often they will 10p or 20p and I will stop for a rummage. Altogether now I think I probably have about 60 or 7o postcards. I'm not sure what draws me to particular postcards and not to others, but I have divided these up roughly into what I look for when I'm sifting through a pile...

Ones of places I have visited in the past, particularly as a child. It's lovely seeing how different the seaside towns look now compared to way back when (I especially love that black and white Weston Super Mare one)

Ones with nice postage stamps or airmail stickers on them - I love looking for unusual little details, and the backs of the postcards are often more interesting and more eyecatching than the front!

Ones with pointless animals on them - not sure why you need an Alsatian (or is it a German Shepherd?) on the front  of a postcard for Great Yarmouth.... these never fail to make me smile though, so I grab them whenever I find them.

 Ones with nice writing on the back - older writing is so much more elegant, probably because they had more practice, whereas we spend more time writing on computers than with a pen and paper! I love nice penmanship, so always make sure to check the back of postcards in case. I also look out for ones with nice sentiments expressed in them - I have a whole batch that are sent from one young man to his mother, and it's so nice reading the postcards he sent her over the course of a decade from all around the world.

 Ones with funny/cute/aesthetically pleasing images on - sometimes I see a postcard that I just like. The puffins I thought were sweet, the dachshund I couldn't resist (it's a puppy ion a basket, what's not to  like?!), and I like the fact that the one with the children in the water is hand coloured.

I also pick up postcards I think other people would like; ones with the place they live in on, ones with animals I know they like, or places I know they have been and loved, or just ones I think will make them smile.Do any of you collect old postcards too? I also collect other old ephemera, but am saving that for another post, or two, so I can share lots of pictures.

Oh, and if you missed it before you can see my post about collection number one right here.