Postcard History - Collecting Postcards - Souvenir Map Cards - Map Postcards for Sale

Collecting Postcards

Welcome to MapPostcards.com, the one-stop website for old UK, Europe and rest of the world holiday souvenir postcards with miniature maps. Find all kinds of stylised local maps for popular holiday destinations in the counties of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, aswell as many other countries beyond. We try to provide you with links, tips and resources plus ads for collectable cards.

Collecting postcards is an affordable and very popular hobby. Whether you are interested in the local and social history associated with some, appreciate the carefree humour of others or just enjoy looking at old images of a world gone by, there are literally millions upon tmillions of cards out there for you to find and enjoy.

The turn of the 20th century boom in popularity was exploited as the first magazine for collectors was published (from 1900 to 1907) and postcard publishers churned out cards illustrating every conceivable subject. Enthusiasm peaked just as the world became embroiled in the First World War and subject material changed. In the years following the war the telephone became more accessible to greater numbers of people and the need for quick, cheap, posted messages decreased. Many postcard publishers diversified or simply went out of business. Their hey-day was over.

By the 1970s the postcard was beginning to re-invent itself and appeal to a wider, and different, public. It was still on sale, everywhere, in tourist locations for holidaymakers to send back to those left at home, but now it was to be given a wider appeal. It would start to offer souvenir cards of art-works, local buildings of interest, advertising and photos of city-scapes, seas-capes and rural landscapes, to mention just a few of the new-look postcard themes. Interest in buying new postcards, and also in collecting old examples, was re-invigorated and the numbers of collectors again increased in leaps and bounds.

Today's collectors fall into many different groups ranging from the idle browser who buys the ones that appeal, for a nominal sum, through every type to those who will refine their collection to include only examples of a specific age, type, subject, publisher or rarity. Collectors, again, range from those who collect them just because it's a pleasant hobby, to those who make it a subject of intense study, finding out all there is to be known about their history, the publishers, the countries of origin and so on. In other words, it's a hobby that literally everyone, regardless of location, budget or experience can thoroughly enjoy. For those interested in social and local history, photographic postcards are literally snapshots from a specific era and each conveys a certain 'feel' of the time through the tiny, incidental elements of the picture. It can be the body language of the people, the lack or inclusion of certain buildings, the type of traffic, the condition of roads, the fashions of the day, the layout of formal gardens, and so on, all of which are fascinating elements for the collector.

In Britain, in 1973, the Post Office linked the interest in postcards to the collecting mania for stamps and introduced the PHQ cards on which the postcards carried the same design as the current commemorative stamps. Collectability of some commemorative postcards was enhanced when 'First Day Covers' were introduced and value was frequently determined by the date on which the card was postmarked, alongside other factors.

Find hundreds of collectable map postcards from all around the United Kingdom, including counties in England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland, plus Europe and beyond with MapPostcards.com