These pieces of paper ephemera were sold, given away, sent, and then thrown away, by the millions. So it’s not uncommon to come across them, and usually some examples that are in pretty nice condition. Like this Mickey Mouse promo card and postcard set:

This larger promo card was probably included in a vacation advertisement package as a free premium for inquiring. It has a stock image of Mickey Mouse in front of Cinderella Castle in The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It’s not simply a larger post card for the back is blank.

More common is the smaller postcard:

The interesting thing with this card is the message. At first you might think that it was also a promotional piece due to the content itself, a nice inscription from Mickey Mouse himself to someone who was having a birthday at the Park. Maybe something you could pick up at Customer Service just inside the Park. But looking closer, you see that ‘Mickey’ left out the word ‘you’ in the second sentence, which means it is more likely that Mom or Dad was trying to make their child’s day more magical by pretending to be the Mouse. And they would have gotten away with it to if some pesky blogger hadn’t spotted the mistake!

For fun, let’s end by comparing the images on the cards. At first glance it could appear that these shots were made during the same photo session. But then you look closer and notice that the tree behind Mickey (bottom left) is blooming in the postcard but not the promo card.

It’s the details that show all!