At the height of the picture postcard boom, the volume of publishers, local, national and international, piling into the industry drove competition to unprecedented levels. As business always does, cost-cutting became the default setting for lazy operators. Quality declined as cheaper card and economy printing with unstable inks produced cards that faded as rapidly as they disintegrated. Publishers developed generic subject cards - stormy seas, sunsets - that could be sold in almost any location with a local caption, from Maine to Florida. More dishonest was the practice of labelling a card with various place names to suggest a local connection that didn’t really exist. Here’s a few examples that have come my way over the years - there must be many, many more.
