Raymond Weill, who died over ten years ago at the age of ninety, was a dealer in the very old time tradition. He and his brother Roger joined their father in their New Orleans stamp business in 1932. Although Weill began as a full range stamp dealer, his business very quickly moved into the higher end of the market, dealing only in rarities. The Weill brothers handled many Airmail Inverts and at one time owned as many as twenty of them. They sold the famed Post Office Mauritius cover, had a special interest in St. Louis Bears postmaster Provisionals (their family had originally been from St Louis), and were the purchasers of the famous Phillip Ward stock in 1960, which in its time was the finest stock of rarer United States Stamps in existenceAt any given point in philatelic time, the high end US rarity market is usually controlled by one or two dealers who maintain significant stocks of rarities until buyers come along. The market at the top for US errors and reissues and special printings is rather thin, and when these stamps come to the market, if there is not some well heeled collector in place, the price for these items would be weak. Dealers like the Weills maintain the market, buying rare stamps for their own stock until the right buyer comes along. The market at the very top end is very illiquid and quite opaque. Auction realizations are often not what are reported, and it is very hard to know if these rare stamps are really sold when they are said to be and to whom they are sold to. It is a buying situation that is not appealing to sophisticated purchasers unless they have caught the philatelic flu and need those particular stamps as their cure.
Like all dealers at the top end of the market throughout our hobby’s long history, the Weill brothers were subjects of constant rumors and speculations. The fact that they were taciturn and reticent in conversation made the rumor mill swirl even more. Standard rumors over successful dealers are of two types— first, that they really made their money outside the hobby (in the Weill’s case this rumor was that their father was the inventor of the ice cream cone or a successful St. Louis property investor, or both). The second way that successful stamp dealers are denigrated by their envious peers is by allegations of shoddy ethics— the Weills, who were handsome, charming and unmarried, were accused of wooing widows to buy collections at very favorable prices. Raymond Weill, with whom I was close and who was a mentor to me, responded to this particular charge with a laugh. “Charm gets me in the door,” he said, “but it is knowledge and professionalism and satisfying your customers over a lifetime that does the deal. Never forget that”.