KFW Postcards

[Gordie]

Of all of the things that I collect automotive postcards are by far my largest collection in shear numbers.  Kaiser, Frazer and Willys made a lot of postcards beginning in 1946 for Kaiser-Frazer and in the teens for Willys and right up to the present time although currently postcards are not used as much as in the earlier years because of the high cost of postage and the convenience of emails.  K-F issued two sets of cards in 1946 for the 1947 models and sets again in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954 and a Carabella card was issued about 1960 in Argentina.  K-F also issued a set of  cards to help sell the dealers accumulated used cars for 1947-49.  Several dealers issued their own postcards of different models and also of their dealerships.  These are hard to find as they were printed in small numbers and their survival rate is small.  I have managed to find about 75 Kaiser-Frazer issued cards plus dealer and service cards and a few scenic cards with a Kaiser, Frazer or Darrin prominently in the foreground.  Willys and their suppliers issued far more cards than K-F did.

[pnw_oldmags]

Here is an assortment of KFW Postcards
From CIRCLEKF Publicity Department
http://circlekf.com/share_sources.php?dp=publicity&yr=all&pub=all&typ=pc&mg=all&action=list_sources
Enjoy

[Gordie]

Thank you,  that is  nice assortment.  A company named Dealer Supply in Detroit was one of a few companies that made cards to help the industry sell used cars from 1946 through 1958.  They made over 1,717 postcards mostly from black and white press photos and they made six cards for Frazer's, twenty for Kaisers and ten for Willys Aeros.  All of them rarely show up for sale and I have never seen many of them but they are in the companies list of available cards each year.  Used car postcards were very popular starting in the teens and were popular right up to the 1960's and over a  dozen companies printed them including the major car and truck manufacturers.  They are much easier to find and there were at least 2,000 different ones printed over the years.

[Aeroman]

Some postcards I know of.

[Aeroman]

and some more

[Gordie]

I recently received a postcard from Jerusalem that shows two 1951 Kaiser taxicabs and along with the card this interesting note.  Kaiser in Israel. "With the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the Ford Motor Company sought to invest in the new state, and to facilitate the production of of a large number of vehicles that Israel would need for the military and the government.  Ford announced plans to build an assembly plant in Israel.  When Arab nations got word of Fords plans, they announced that if Ford didn't cancel the agreement, they'd boycott it by putting it on the Arab League's blacklist.  Ford pulled out causing a moment of crisis for the Israeli government.  While the government was searching for alternatives, Lord Marcus Sieff of London, contacted Efraim Ilin, an Israeli security expert and tycoon, and put him in touch with Hickman Price of Kaiser-Frazer.  The company had recently built an automobile plant in Holland and was planning to build one in Greece.  Ilin met Price and negotiated a $2.5 million project.  Kaiser-Frazer invested half a million dollars and Ilin formed a group that invested the other two million dollars."