What are collector's of Postal History looking for?

I have an old stamp collection that I am slowly selling off. I came across some old envelopes (1800's to early 1900's) and postcards that I didn't know what to do with: soak the stamps off, or try to sell "as is".  Pictured above is a postcard from 1901 announcing a meeting of the New England Women's Press Association. In researching to try to find the answer, I came across this wonderful article from Collector's Weekly. If you have old postcards with stamps, envelopes with stamps you will find this article fascinating. I had never heard of collecting Postal History!

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-postal-history-collector-richard-frajola/ Collecting postal history, it turns out, is often more valuable than just stamp collecting, and certainly more fascinating. Collectors of postal history are more interested in where the cover (envelope) has been, how it got there, and the story behind it.

One of the envelopes is really interesting, just from a human point of view. It is from Mr. Theodore Means to Mrs. Theodore Means. There is no letter enclosed, but on the inside of the envelope is written "If your coming Please let me know also come home this week. My Hot pants are freezin.signed The Boldest guy on earth." It was postmarked Feb. 12, 1934 and mailed from Brooklyn, NY and sent to Dorchester, Mass.

We can only conjecture - did they have a spat and he was trying to get her back for Valentine's Day? An interesting piece of history.

You can see this and other interesting covers @ http://myworld.ebay.com/pt2bch. Scroll down the left side and click on "view all listings". I also have specialty cover collections @ http://www.bonanza.com/booths/pt2bch and @ http://www.addoway.com/donnasstuffmore/storefront/.