Trash or Treasure - Sorting Paper for Profit

Is this postcard worth $0, $25, or $50? In the world of ephemera , there's a thin line between valuable and worthless. Too often, old paper is not recognized as collectible and is tossed out with the trash. Most experts will tell you that approximately 90 percent of old paper is relatively worthless and that’s the truth. So, it's not surprising that people don't take the time to separate the baby from the bathwater when faced with an accumulation of old paper. Too often, people simply back a dumpster up to the house and pitch out old paper with reckless abandon. That's probably how this little gem ended up in the trash. Fortunately, it was rescued from oblivion and sold to a private collector at auction for more than $100. 

It might have been obvious to the person who tossed this postcard that it had some collectible value, if they'd bothered to look at it.  However, when faced with a pile of old paper most people do not closely examine individual items. Even when they do, many pieces of ephemera appear worthless to an untrained eye. It's these not-so-obvious collectibles that most often wind up in the landfill and are lost to collectors forever.

To combat the destruction of collectible ephemera, I devised a system to sort and analyze old paper for collectible value. Using a numeric ranking system, I determine the relative collectible strength of each piece of paper and sort them accordingly. A number of factors--such as age, rarity, and content--determine whether or not a piece of old paper is trash or treasure.  In most cases, anyone with common sense, and enough time on their hands, can spot ephemera that might have some value. An expert, however, can quickly sort through a large accumulation of paper and separate the good from the bad and the great from the good. That's a big reason why this $100 postcard now resides in a collection instead of at the bottom of a landfill.

If you should encounter an accumulation of old paper and want a trained eye to spot the treasures for you, send me an email. After all, you wouldn't toss out $100 bills, right?