Collecting Aviation Postcards as a Hobby

As long as they have existed, collecting postcards has been a very popular hobby. Very often a specific topic is collected, such as views of a particular village or, what this internet site and webshop is all about – postcards with civil aviation views, be that views from airlines and of airplanes, or be it views of airports. Collecting postcards has not lost any of its fascination, despite the recent development of digitalization. On the contrary: postcards have become a timeless piece of cultural value – and increasingly also of material value. This will not change in the future, the cultural and material value of postcards will continue to grow.

Modern publisher postcards

The aviation scene of today is well represented on postcards. There are currently about 15 publishers of modern postcards who are issuing postcards on a regular basis – jjPostcards is one of them. Such postcards are colloquially called “publisher cards”. Collecting modern publisher postcards became a real boom in the 1980s. At that time air transport had developed from being restricted to the rich and was rapidly becoming a means of transport for everyone. It was very interesting to see how the rise of so many new airlines and the constant introduction of new airplane types was represented on publisher postcards.
jjPostcards is proud to offer tens of thousands of modern postcards at attractive prices. Take the opportunity and browse through our webshop. Among the many modern postcards you will also find an increasing number of older pictures as some publishers have specialised in editions of postcards with views from the older times of civil air transport. Take a look, it’s worth it!

Rare old and new postcards

Unlike modern postcard issues, cards from the period prior to 1970/1980 are usually quite rare. And even new issues are sometimes rare; postcards issued by airline companies (“Airline Issues”) are sometimes particularly rare. This is due to the fact that quite often postcards issued by airlines are not used as widespread marketing material displayed in airplane racks available to everyone. They are rather printed in low quantity for special occasions, such as a special flight, an advertisement initiative lasting a short period only; a specific fair where the airline participates, etc.
Due to their rarity, old postcards or rare modern cards are sometimes are much more expensive than publisher postcards issued after 1970/1980 or so. However, there might be a huge spread in prices for such postcards. You might find a dealer selling a beautiful old card showing a Pan America Stratocruiser for 15 US dollars and another dealer selling the same card for 50 US dollars.

Collectors today are often looking for both old and modern postcards. For large traditional airline companies like TWA or British Airways, including predecessor airlines, this means that a time period of nearly 100 years is covered.

jjPostcards, in addition to publisher postcards, has a comprehensive archive of old and rare postcards. We will integrate these into our webshop step by step during the forthcoming years. Usually cards are updated once a week, therefore it’s worthwhile to take a look at our webshop frequently.

Do you have questions relating to the topic “Collecting Aviation Postcards”? Don’t hesitate to contact us contact us! 

All the best for your collection!
Joerg Jaeggin