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How do I Collect TWA Travel Posters?

In these days of no-frills flying, there's a certain romance hearkening back to the golden age of TWA air travel. With the pop-culture interest in mid-century architecture and design, illustrated so popularly on TV shows like "Mad Men," it's nice to know that remnants of that era are still available in a wide variety of travel posters made for TWA that are still on the vintage market.

Things You'll Need

Poster reference books
Auction catalogs

Instructions

- 1
  Educate yourself. As you're probably new to TWA poster collecting, it's advisable to learn the territory by attending poster shows (such as the International Vintage Poster Fairs), visiting galleries where posters are sold, and consulting reference books and poster catalogs. You can learn about such topics as graphic artists, printing processes, inks and paper.
- 2
  Research what's available. For prices, ebay.com and amazon.com have large selections of vintage TWA posters in varying condition. This is a good way to survey what's out there. You'll see duplicates and others that seem to be one-of-a-kind. David Klein was a prominent designer of vintage TWA posters, and his illustrations are still very popular.
- 3
  Search online and bid for posters. Other than eBay and Amazon, there are a number of sites to compare and buy vintage TWA posters, including rare-posters.com, allposters.com and thefind.com. According to internationalvintageposters.com, beginners should have a lot of luck choosing post-World War II designs, as they are still highly affordable.
- 4
  Post ads on local forums for collectors such as craigslist.com. You never know who in the neighborhood might have a stack of these posters collecting dust on a shelf in the attic, and you may be able to take them off his or her hands for a song. However, it's always advisable to remember the old adage that if a deal seems to good to be true, it probably is.

Other Collecting