16.00 USD
Félix Potin (1820-1871) was a 19th century French entrepreneur who opened a factory (later factories), producing and packaging goods under his name brand, and selling them in his shops. He opened his first store in 1844, and his company eventually expanded into a chain of over a thousand stores. Wikipedia, from whom we got the bulk of our info for this listing, suggests that the old Woolworth's five and dime chain based their business model on Potin's.
Our fifth listing image (Not for sale, as it is not even our postcard but an image we found online) is of one of those shops.
Monsieur Potin also offered home delivery of his products, and with some purchases gave away these handy-dandy trading cards with real photo images of famous people. Sports figures, writers, artists, and famous figures from many walks of life appeared on them. Potin's customers loved them.
They collected them, traded them, and stored them in special Félix Potin issued card albums for safe keeping. Perhaps that is why, as tiny as these little gems are (3, by 1 and 3/4 inches, or approx 4 and 1/2, by 7 and 1/2 cm.), there are so many of them out there. That is also why most of those we come across have album residue affixed to the back sides.
Most of these cards are relatively common, or we would not be able to offer them at these prices, but there are a few very sought after cards out there. One of them, or so we've read online, is a card featuring famous American fighter, Jack Dempsey, that is apparently valued at upwards of three hundred dollars!
All of the trading cards in our mini collections are from the second series offered by Monsieur Potin in, we believe, 1907. They are all in quite good condition though showing some wear, and despite the album residue on the backsides, are in very sturdy condition (if anything sturdier for the residue rather than otherwise).
We thought that since these stage artiste cards figure well into our venue here, we would offer our customers a few little "mini collections" in our artifacts section. These are real photographic prints of good detail and clarity. Really very nice items.
*Please note that these mini collections count as a single item sale and do not, when purchased on their own, qualify for free shipping.
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for fully-insured, first class shipping in a secure photo mailer (to avoid any damage to your purchase in the mails), and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two paper goods items, we will not charge for postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more paper goods items from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more. We do not charge for insurance or shipping materials, and as of the date of this listing are still charging below our overall cost on shipping.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!