Above is a vintage real photo postcard of a Black Baseball team called the Reading Giants. It was recently sold on eBay over the Labor Day weekend holiday. No doubt this is a rare and possibly one-of-a-kind Baseball item. Also, considering it sold for $555.82 should tell you how rare this really is.I had made an early bid on the postcard with the hopes of returning to the auction when it was nearing completion. My hope was that it would be missed by deeper pocket bidders. Unfortunately, as you can see, the deeper pockets showed up. Wow!
Once in awhile you can find some bargains on eBay- especially if an item is poorly labeled or listed poorly. For instance, this item was placed solely in the postcard categories. This could have been disastrous for the Seller. He should have also placed it in the Baseball card category for pre-1930's vintage Baseball cards. The seller may have gotten even more for the postcard. Fortunately, the seller still made out pretty good.
A important item to note when trying to date real photo postcards is the pay close attention to the stamp box on the back of the card. Check out the photo above for the back of the Black Baseball team postcard. Unfortunately, the photo is a little hazy. The design on the top right of the back of the postcard will provide a unique design to the postcard maker. If you check closely on the auction you will see a very typical AZO stamp back with triangles pointed upwards on all 4 corners. This is a dead give away for postcards made from 1904-1918. Check here for a database of real photo postcard stamp boxes.
