By Avril Harper
Postcards represent a wonderful way to make money from items that are in the public domain. The public domain typically describes items that are not covered by copyright, usually because their legal copyright protection has expired or no longer exists, sometimes the item never was copyright protected. Regardless, a great many people buy vintage postcards, not because they collect postcards, but because they know the place depicted or they collect items connected to a particular topographical area, including postcards but more often also prints, books, calendars and other items.
This means many people will very happily purchase a reprint copy of the area depicted on an old postcard.
Many very early postcards no longer have copyright, including many from unknown and unspecified publishers from the early 1900s or sooner.
Rules regarding copyright are not complicated but they are important and you must ensure your view is in the public domain and never assume you are free to make and sell copies.
To copy items, scan them, using a quality scanner and recreate as postcard size items or as larger prints. Check out other people selling items from the public domain on eBay and consider this a great add-on opportunity for your business.
IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED
* Have firms like Café Press turn your best selling postcards into any of hundreds of different items. But keep the original postcard yourself, this prevents anyone else buying or otherwise obtaining the illustration to create their own products such as those selling on Café Press. By keeping the illustration and, assuming no-one else has a similar illustration, you'll be able to sell the item yourself and get commission from every other person selling your creation.
* Sell reprint copies of the postcard mainly to topographical view collectors.
* Start a line of vintage greetings cards and other stationery types based on your most popular designs.
* Collect postcards by theme or topographical area, such as all of one village, all from the same artist, etc., and compile an eBook to sell in downloadable format or on CD.
* Simply add the illustrations to a folder on your computer and sell them as downloads or on CD.
* Contact newspaper and magazine editors and offer to sell illustrations with short articles about them.
Avril Harper is an eBay PowerSeller and author of BANK BIG PROFITS SELLING VINTAGE TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEW POSTCARDS ON EBAY which you can read about at: www.sellpostcardsonebay.com and MAKE MONEY TEARING UP OLD BOOKS AND MAGAZINES AND SELLING THEM ON EBAY which you can read about at: www.magstoriches.com. She has produced a free guide - 103 POWERSELLER TIPS - which you can download with other freely distributable reports and eBooks at www.avrilharper.com
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