Card Condition
How we assess our postcards

The problem when trying to decide the condition of a postcard is that it is a personal and subjective exercise not only does condition play a part in the process but how much we like the card and at times not really wanting to part with it though that relates more to price.  So not is it only our intention to sell postcards we are probably building a personal collection.

We sell only two product Postcards from the Collectable Postcards website and we also sell books from our Looking For Books website.  Deciding on condition for both postcards and books are very similar, for a short time we also sold comics and the American rating system is a great deal tougher than it is for both books and postcards.

To make certain that we give you the information you require to make a buying decision  we have mixed the Book, Postcard and Comic system for condition;

Image:

Very Clean and Bright:        No marks or soiling and the image reflects light

Clean and Bright:                May have small mark to Image reflects light

Light Soiling                        Very Small Amount of Soiling

Soiled                                   Noticeable

Heavy Soiling:                     Very Noticeable

Dull                                       Image does not reflect light

Mat                                       Method of Printing does not reflect light

Corners:

Sharp:                     As new

Very Good              Nearly Sharp

Blunt:                      Though Visible do not stick in your thumb

Bumped                Rounded/out of shape though intact

Heavy Bumping    Out of shape, small dog-ear

Dog-ear                 Corner Folded

Chipped:               Part of image missing from corner or edges

Backs:               

Tanned:                No Longer white

Soiled:                  As for fronts

Creases:

Faint Crease:            Nearly impossible to see without close examination
Light Creasing:         Could be called stretched as the card was not completely folded

Creased:                    Card has been folded

Creasing:                  Several faint/light creases.



We then make a decision to the postcard’s overall condition using the above.

Mint:                 No Faults

Fine:                One Fault

Near Fine:      One Fault and One Minor Fault

Very Good (VG)            Two possibly Three Faults and very minor fault

Good                Several Faults

Fair:                Not used often

Poor:                If we list poor then there is something important about the card

As an example you might see a card listed as VG with a very clean and bright image, sharp corners though could not be listed as mint as the back was soiled, the stamp missing and Tanned.

We try very hard to be tough but there are times when we fail because we like the card this is normally reflected in the price of the card.