University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1909-10-20
IMMENSE PROFIT IN
POST CARD TRADE
Craze Has Created New In
dustry by Which Many
Make Living.
MOST COME FROM GERMANY
Views Lead in Popularity,
Comic and Fancy Ones
Come Next.

Although the picture post card craze
has girdled the globe, creating a new
industry by which thousands are max
ing living and millions of the pretty
souvenirs are annually sent out from
San Antonio by tourists and residents,
few of the many who send and receive
! the little remembranceS ever give a
thought to the methods of the manu-
! facture OF the cards.
/ Post cards are now on sale through
out the civilized world. At every vii
/ lage. no matter if it has only one
store, souvenir post cards can be pur-
chased There is hardly picturesque
spot that has been visited by man
which has not been utilized by the
post card makers. There is even
great post card trust
Many Manufactured in Germany.
Most, if not all, of the souvenir
cards we buy in our cities are manu-
featured in Germany. The German
factories have almost monopoly of
the post card trade. 1t is true that
there are several factories in the
United States, one of which is sit
uated in Rockford, ILL.,; another in
the state of Maine, and several in
New York, but the number of cards
turned out by these manufactures is
intinitesimal when compared to the
number made in the great German fac
tories.
Large Profits
There is immense profit in the post
cara trade. The retail dealer alone
clears $50 per cent profit by selling
some grades of German cards at two
for five cents. Then there is the
wholesalers profit, the importers, and.
finally. the manufacturers. The rea-
son that there is such large profit in
the post card business is that the chief
expenses are for the original photo
graph and the plate. 1t is estimated
that the photographer receives from
So to s. Tor his negative, and that Sc
to $40 is expended for the cut from
which to print the card. Then il Is
only a quest = of retouching the plate
in order to I any number of cards /
The only 9th EpenSes are for paper. |
ink and lab This applies to the
printed card Then there are the T!
higher class cards. printed directly /
from the photographic plate. These, |
ordinarily, retail at five cents each.
The profit on these cards to the maker |
is only about 30 cents per hundred. |
hundred. They wholesale at $3.50 per
hundred and retail at So, whereas the
foreign cards wholesale at $3.50 per
thousand and retail at $50. The plates
from which the photograph cards are
printed cost - cents per dozen; the
cards cost 50 per gross. Then the de-
veloping, the labor, and incidentals
run the cost to manufacture up to
more than the prices at which the
printed card is sold at retail.
These photograph cards are made
by the same process as an ordinary
photograph. They are made in three
styles-gloSs, dull and sepia finish
The dull finish is made in the usual |
Photographic manner The gloss is ,
put on the cards by rubbing them on |
a ferrotype plate while they are still |
damp after printing. The sepia finish |
is gained by redevelopment. OF these /
three finishes the gloss is the most |
popular.
While the craze for views holds its
own. the fancy and the comic cards |
have their hold on public affection. (
The Improvement Of the public taste
lessons the sale of the silly and the
oftentimes vulgar cards of the past