Ephemeral Assays: QSL Cards

If I could do one thing differently in all my ephemera buying over the years, it would be to have snapped up every shoebox full of postcards that sold for $5 or $10 or got passed by the auctioneer with no bids. These days that same box can go for hundreds, and the “We Buy Postcards” van outside the auction hall has sent me home after the preview more than once.

It was in this spirit at an otherwise sleepy auction a couple of years ago that I became deeply (but not noticeably) interested in a long metal box full of curious-looking postcards covered with big numbers, weird jargon and corny messages. I could tell these cards had to do with ham radio, but I’d never seen them before and many came from small towns, all of which made me think they were valuable. So did the other regular paper buyer, and he finally beat me down at something like $300. I would have paid a lot more for known winners such as good real photo postcards, but this was unknown territory and I chickened out. Moments later I felt remorse for not claiming them, and hours later relief that I didn’t after reading up on QSL cards. More on values later.

From the Wikipedia entry on these curious postcards.

“A QSL card is a written confirmation of either a two-way radiocommunication between two amateur radio stations or a one-way reception of a signal from an AM radio, FM radio, or television station. QSL cards can also confirm the reception of a two-way radiocommunication by a third party. A typical QSL card is the same size and made from the same material as a typical postcard, and many are sent through the mail as a standard postcard.

“QSL cards derived their name from the Q code "QSL", which means "I acknowledge receipt." Most are collected by amateur radio operators, shortwave listeners, TV-FM DXers, and other radio hobbyists. A limited market exists for older QSL cards, especially those from rare locations or famous stations, as collector's items.

“Amateur radio operators exchange QSL cards to confirm two-way communications between stations. A QSL card sent from one amateur radio operator to another contains details about the contact and the station. At a minimum, this includes the call sign of both stations participating in the communications, the time and date of the contact (usually specified in UTC), the radio frequency used, the mode of transmission used, and a signal report. One national association of amateur radio operators, the ARRL, recommends a size of 3½ by 5½ inches (89 mm by 140 mm). Some QSL cards contain an image, often something associated with the station or the operator.”

I would add to this by pointing out that these genteel QSL cards rely on phonetic abbreviations (e.g., XMTR for transmitter) and numeric codes (e.g., 73 for Best Regards), and this type of language is probably some kind of precursor to Citizens’ Band trucker slang, but without all the bears and beavers. QSK, for example, is defined in an online CB dictionary as, “Another Ham term, reformatted for CB. Means ‘Break.’” Enough on that or the lyrics to “Convoy” will pop into my head! Another aspect of the hobby are various contests to collect as many cards as possible, and the novel ways they have been distributed over the years in order to cut down on postage, culminating perhaps inevitably in eQSLs.

Anyway, about a year later I was in the auction winner’s little shop and asked how he did with the QSL cards. Dismally, it turns out, as in he can’t move them, and we had a laugh over it. When I asked to see them they were not to be found, but by the following year the full metal box had been unearthed from somewhere. He quoted $50 for the lot, plus a nice pulp magazine I picked up, and the QSLs came back to me after all.

This fellow does not eBay so I thought I might be able to wring some value out of them. Looking back at a recent 90 day period of completed sales on eBay, however, using the search term “QSL”—which will pick up QSL banners and the like but many postcard listings do not use the words “card” or “postcard” so the wide net will have to do—there were 6,071 listings with a sell-through rate of 41.36% and an average selling price of $13.30 per auction. Not bad, but the other 48.64% of the auctions received no bids, most cards only go for a buck or two, and some of the successful auctions lotted together hundreds and even thousands of cards.

The top listing is of interest. This 1952 QSL from Hatkhola, Chandernagore, French India is captioned, "Hooghly River Scene," and the final of ten bids took the prize for $830. It is a gorgeous image, but there is nothing obviously special about it, so French India or Hooghly River collectors must have upped the ante. The next highest values were $455.01 for a very plain looking 1935 Honolulu (probably went to a completist collector), $305 for a 1961 Grenoble with a separate real photo of the radio station included, $299 for a lot of 1,000 cards from the 1950s with the better ones shown, and a real beauty from Japanese-occupied Manchuria that went for $282.10. These bids make QSLs sound lucrative, but the prices go downhill pretty fast after that, and with my group of 400 or so post-1950 U.S. cards I would anticipate lots of work with few good sales. I verified this by running some same-item searches. So off to another auction house they go.

Besides learning about QSL cards and getting an article out of it in the bargain, this was a fun peek into the somewhat nerdy world of amateur ham radio operators. You know what though, they had fun, which is what counts, and they are also largely off the grid, which is cool. The hobby may have peaked but it is still thriving, and ham operators are still doing their thing, including valuable service during disasters like 9/11 and Katrina.

Still, fifty bucks is fifty bucks, so I did eBay seven interesting specimens. Four sold, including a signed QSL from Barry Goldwater ($31.05) confirming 1/18/1970 contact with Fred Smart of Albany, NY, the man who collected all these cards in his metal box and had all that fun back then, often in the wee hours. 88.

Shawn Purcell operates Balopticon Books & Ephemera and can be contacted at http://www.balopticon.com