Indonesia was such a massive colony and so enormously profitable to the Netherlands that colonies in the new world were more of an afterthought than official government policy. Most of the colonies in North America that the Dutch did establish were taken away by the British (who seemed to take up the Portuguese interest that was […]
Philately has increasingly become and older man’s hobby. Linn’s subscribers and members of the American Philatelic Society get older and older so that the average age of serious collectors is now over 65. It is appropriate to ask then what effect the Ryan Medicare plan will have on philately if it is enacted. The plan
Medicare and Philately Read More »
The United States has only one International Stamp Show every ten years, held under the auspices of the FIP (Federation International de Filatelie) the international exhibiting group that authorizes stamps shows around the world. It will be in New York in June of 2016, and if it even approaches the level of the previous five
The most sought after set in US philately is the 1930 Graf Zeppelin set of 1930 (Scott # C13-C15). For the last eighty years it has been the alpha and omega of stamps- the set every young collector always wanted. Ironically, acquisition of the set has been one of the great killers of collectors. So
Legend of the Zeppelins Read More »
No people are more cognizant of political and geographic changes than philatelists. Take Danzig-the Polish city of Gedansk where the Solidarity movement began. During the early stamp period, Danzig was part of Prussia and then Germany after Confederation. After WW I, Danzig was a quasi independent country that issued its own stamps and after WW
ReVitalized Countries Read More »
Since the founding of our republic, sales of products and services that took place across state lines have been exempt from state sales tax as long as the seller did not have a physical presence in the state in which the the product was delivered. This is about to change and we can expect the
Sales Tax Changes Read More »
Collectors collect in widely different qualities. Some are happy with faulty off center stamps (especially at steep discounts from catalog value). Some want only very nice stamps and a few want only the finest quality that money can buy. Every collector’s choice is his own but there is an interesting corollary that we have found
Stamp dealers get the product that they sell from buying and consigning the stamp collections of their clients and of people who have tired of the hobby. There is great periodicity about when people contact us with stamps to sell. As you would expect, things are a bit slow for us in this area around
Selling Stamps in September Read More »
The greatest publicity push that stamp collecting ever received was in 1933. Ivory soap promoted a radio show that featured stamp collecting. Called “The Ivory Stamp Club with Captain Tim” the show was a radio stamp club where kids followed along as Captain Tim, for fifteen minutes at a time, three times a week, regaled