Watertown: For collectors, nothing beats a postcard

Before text messages, before e-mail, before telephones, there was a quick and cheap way to transmit a message: postcards.

They continue to have an enduring appeal today, even if the Internet can zap a photo around the world faster than you can lick a stamp.

Postcards are widely considered the third-most popular collectible -- after stamps and coins -- in the United States, although more for the image on the front than the message scrawled on the back.

On Saturday, enthusiasts from across New England will converge on the Armenian Educational & Cultural Center in Watertown for the Bay State Postcard Collectors Club's 58th annual sale and show. Nearly 50 dealers are expected to display their cards for several hundred collectors, both serious and casual, organizers said.

The interesting thing about postcards, said Watertown artist Kathy Alpert, is that their value is primarily in the mind of the collector.

"People collect according to their own personal criteria," said Alpert, who has at least 15,000 cards in her collection, and reports favoring those depicting old summertime resorts.

"It's not always about rarity, it can be a lot of things, like history, sentimental value, the way some people feel about certain things or places. There's a real emotional element to it."

Of course there are certain postcards worth thousands of dollars -- original examples of the work of famous art nouveau designers like Alphonse Mucha, for example. But the vast majority sell for a few dollars or less, making it a hobby accessible to just about anybody.

Some like to collect "penny postcards," which date to 1905, had just a tiny strip for a line of text, and were sent through the mail twice daily, Alpert said. Military postcards -- sent to and from soldiers during wartime -- are also popular.

The "Greetings From . . ." label appeared first on cards in the 1930s and '40s, and became part of American beach culture.

John Vieira, a collector from Gray, Maine, has been attending the annual Bay State Collectors show since 1979. His interest extends beyond the cards to creating refrigerator magnets with postcard images for sale in gift shops and museums.

Local landmarks continue to be the most highly sought-after images among customers he meets, Vieira said.

"People love to collect views of areas where they grew up or where they live now," he said. "I think it's the thrill of the hunt. Millions of cards were produced and you never know what you'll find next, maybe a card you didn't know existed. I've had people get excited at my table finding a card of the summer cottage they went to as a kid."

The Newton History Museum has an online exhibition of postcard images depicting the Charles River in Newton and the former Norumbega Park that has attracted several hundred Internet visitors, said curator Susan Abele.

Over the years, the museum has collected thousands of images of Newton, including one from an eBay auction of a rare postcard of Silver Lake in which two well-meaning donors unwittingly bid against each other while trying to obtain it for the museum. (It finally sold in the auction for $170, and is now in the museum's collection, Abele said.)

David DeJean, a Newton History Museum volunteer and postcard collector who created the online exhibition, said during the golden age of postcards, from 1900 to World War I, hundreds of millions were sent every year. The fad lost steam in large part because the most attractive picture postcards had been printed in Germany, and were no longer available, leaving senders with images of much lower quality to choose from, DeJean said.

While the Internet may have helped undermine the postcard's value as a communication tool, the Web is invaluable in bringing together collectors. Perhaps the digital age has brought renewed appreciation for old-fashioned pen and ink.

"I think the written word has become more cherished in the age of the impersonal Internet," Alpert said.

"Any time someone takes time to write a handwritten message, it's a keepsake because people do it less frequently these days."

The Bay State Postcard Collectors Club's 58th annual show and sale is scheduled for Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Armenian Educational & Cultural Center, 47 Nichols Ave. in Watertown. Admission is $2. Parking is free. To see the Newton History Museum's postcard display, go to www.ci.newton.ma.us/jackson, and follow the Exhibitions link to "Canoeing on the Charles."

Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com