In Barcelona, postcards are everywhere.
Walk a few streets around the Gothic Quarter and you will find them in almost every shop, often sold for €1 or sometimes even less. It’s a familiar sight, and for many visitors, it feels like the natural price of a postcard.
So when someone walks into our gallery and sees postcards priced at €2.5, the reaction is sometimes surprise.
This article exists to explain why.
Not the Same Product
Most postcards you find in tourist areas are printed in huge quantities. Hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of copies of the same design are produced and distributed through highly optimized supply chains.
This allows for very low prices, but it also means that the same images are repeated from one shop to another, flooding touristic areas with identical designs.
At MyRetroPoster, we chose a different path.
Our postcards are produced in small print runs of often only 250 copies per design. This changes everything. The cost per unit is much higher, but it avoids overproduction and ensures that each image remains part of a limited series rather than a mass product.
A More Responsible Way to Produce
Producing in smaller quantities also means producing more responsibly.
Instead of printing tens of thousands of copies of a design that may or may not sell, we produce in controlled volumes. It allows us to not contribute to waste through the silent accumulation of unsold products that often end up in landfill.
It is not the fastest or cheapest way to produce, but it is a conscious choice.
There is also a broader environmental concern behind overproduction.
Even though the paper industry increasingly relies on sustainably managed forests and recycled materials, excessive printing still carries a heavy footprint in terms of water, energy and resource consumption.
Beyond the data, there is also a symbolic dimension. In many cultures, trees represent life and strength. Cutting them down for short-lived or disposable products can feel like a form of waste, not just material, but moral.
This perception is reinforced in urban environments, where mature trees are sometimes removed for development projects, often triggering strong public reactions.
The Value of the Image
There is another difference, less visible but just as important.
In many mass-produced souvenirs, the original artist is rarely paid fairly for each sale. Now, with the rise of AI-generated images, there is often no artist involved at all, with designs created automatically and distributed at scale.
At MyRetroPoster, every postcard comes from an original artwork created by a real artist.
Each purchase directly supports that work, and the time, skill and intention behind it.
Choosing More Than One
For those who want to explore multiple places or styles, we also offer curated postcard packs.
It is possible to select 5 or 10 different designs from our collections, creating a personal set of images that reflect your own journey, memories or aesthetic preferences.
Our postcard packs are priced at €40 for 5 postcards and €70 for 10 postcards, offering a more accessible way to build a small collection while maintaining the same quality and artistic approach.
Rather than buying a single image, it becomes a way to create your own visual narrative.
A Different Way to See a Postcard
Perhaps the real difference lies here.
A postcard can be something you send and forget. Or it can be something you keep, frame, collect, and return to over time.
It can be a simple object, or it can become part of your environment.
At MyRetroPoster, we believe it can be both a memory and a piece of art.
Not all postcards are meant to be cheap.
Some are meant to be kept.
Visit the Gallery
You can discover our postcards and posters in our Barcelona gallery:
MyRetroPoster Barcelona Gallery
📍 Carrer del Call 22, Gothic Quarter, Barcelona
Further Reading
For those interested in the broader context of paper production and sustainability:
Coface – Paper Industry Analysis 2025
COPACEL – Paper Industry Figures and Decarbonisation Challenges
