I’ve been a collector my entire life. I started collecting baseball cards as a kid and spent many lazy Saturdays sorting, organizing, and enjoying my collection (and ripping off my brother in trades from time-to-time).

Like many kids that collect baseball cards, my hobby withered away as I entered adulthood and was replaced by more sophisticated hobbies, like gardening and doing puzzles. Until I discovered the hobby of postcard collecting.

I’ve always had an interest in the mail. Checking the mail was my highlight of every single day; it didn’t matter if we got junk mail, a magazine, a newspaper, or a letter from a friend or relative. One of my earlier (and more painful) memories is of a large estate sale I attended with my grandparents. One of the items at the sale was a box of letters. I read a few and determined they were sent to a baseball player for the Cleveland Indians in the 1940s. As a big fan of baseball and the mail, this was my holy grail. While the box was only around $20, I was short on cash and had to leave the box behind.

I’ve known of the concept of “postcards” for as long as I can remember, but only recently discovered the concept of “postcard collecting.” I had no idea that billions of postcards were produced per year in the early 1900s, and that they were much more beautiful (vibrant, colorful, detailed) than I could ever imagine. I started selling on eBay in 2021 as a “throw something at the wall and see what sticks” way of making money on the side. What started as a side hustle quickly blossomed into an intense and passionate hobby.

Nowadays, I spend many lazy Saturdays sorting, organizing, and enjoying my postcard collection. Postcard collecting is everything I ever wanted from a hobby. There were millions of different views and designs produced, so no matter how long you collect, you will never run out of new material. Unlike early baseball cards, which can easily go into the thousands of dollars, postcards are very affordable and often less than $10 each.

I am committed to promoting the hobby of postcard collecting whenever and wherever I can, whether that’s through articles exploring the history of a small town, a YouTube video about selling on eBay, or telling friends about my unique side hustle. I want as many other collectors as possible to experience the unique joy of collecting postcards.

– Daniel May, Creator of Mailseum