One summer afternoon long ago, I visited a dusty roadside store with my mother who liked to explore such places. I paid 25 cents for a postcard of a brown horse – not to send but to possess, an important distinction. With that purchase, I’d unwittingly entered the vast and diverse land of collecting. 

Postcards, first introduced in the 1770s but not really a thing until the 1890s, exist in a fun and strange place of endless possibilities. Cards of the Pope in 3D, of questionable landmarks (New Jersey Turnpike), diving horses, giant fish, Bigfoot, tipi motels and cool places gone by like Nick’s Seafood Pavilion (Yorktown) are coveted by many (me, anyway).

I’m not alone. There are at least a million postcard collectors (deltiologist) in the United States, and some of them attended the Old Dominion Postcard Club’s annual show and sale in Colonial Heights last weekend. Twenty-two vendors came from as far as California to show, tell, buy and sell. 

One might wonder about the appeal of a postcard. Club member Bill Gregory explained: “It's about nostalgia. Your hometown, first car, first vacation. Also history.” And that is the real significance of postcards. They document every scene and theme – memories, oddities, humor, buildings, fauna and flora, holidays, motels, fashion, transportation, historical sites, food, museums, all kinds of art and on and on. Postcards tell a visual story of cultural traditions, events and trends.

Official greeter and Club president Mike Uzel says his most prized card is a postcard of the Titanic mailed by a Richmond travel agent just four months before the ship went down. “Pre-sinking Titanic cards are very rare,” he said, “and the Richmond connection makes it even better for me.” Uzel notes the irony of the travel agent saying on the card that he ‘furnishes TRAVEL without TROUBLE to All Parts of the World.’”

Further down the aisle, club member Tre Rockenbach flipped through subject tabs in a long box of hundreds of cards in little plastic sleeves. One topic she collects is the Walking Woolfs. Who? Dwight and Stella Woolf made four treks across the U.S. on foot with their horse Dolley and dog Dan from 1909-1915. Four of 34 postcards the Woolfs made along the way are of their visit to Richmond. “The first time I saw them in  the postcard photo taken in front of the Poe Museum,” Rockenbach said, “their quirky look intrigued me.” 

Longtime collectors acknowledge that the hobby may phase out as interest among younger generations doesn’t develop. For now, those who find cards interesting continue to search for those certain specimens at shows like the Old Dominion Postcard Club Postcard and Paper Show and Sale. Uzel remains enthusiastic. In the event’s building he displayed a tower of cards that he contends is the world’s largest. “That's my story and I'm sticking to it … no one has disputed!”

Find information on the Old Dominion Postcard Club and its activities at odpcc.org. All are welcome at their monthly meeting.