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This week I am going to the American Philatelic Society Convention in Pittsburgh. STAMPSHOW, as they call their meetings, is the annual meeting, used to be the start of each philatelic year (which generally is reckoned to start in September). The show boasts meetings of the APS brass, seminars and society meetings, the Champion of […]

When EBaymania hit the collecting world some ten years ago it seemed the prevailing model of philatelic selling was going to be auctions forevermore. Serious philatelists were used to auctions. J Walter Scott began running them in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. But until EBay, the way most collectors bought their stamps was

Fifty years ago, the stamp business shut down for the summer. There were several reasons for this. First, the entire country took more vacations than than we do now and so there was usually fewer people at home collecting stamps. Americans have progressively worked more and more hours each year for the last fifty. Part

The results of the Spink Shreve sale of Inverted Stamps of the World are in and they were spectacular http://www.stampauctionnetwork.com/f/f114.cfm. Most stamps sold at record prices and many items sold at multiples of catalog. But while high prices are always better news for professional philatelists than low prices, we should temper our enthusiasm for a

Each month I do an informal survey of our ten largest dealer buyers. These are people who buy larger lots and break them down for further resale. Nearly all of the ten are internet sellers. They tell me that business has picked up and been quite good on Ebay and other internet selling venues for

The American Philatelic Society holds its annual convention in Pittsburgh August 6-9 http://www.stamps.org/Stampshow/index.htm. As a lifelong stamper, this will be my 40th convention that I will attend. I’ve been to the annual convention as a collector, as a dealer with a booth, as a dealer without a booth, as a director of the society, as

For many years we have been encouraging stamp dealers to try our auctions as a source of successful stamp dealing. Smart dealers know that they need a constant source of new material for sales and we believe our auctions provide such a source. We are so confident that nearly every collection and stock lot that

We bought several sets of US #C13-15. They are Very Fine, og NH. The price is $1100 postpaid. Offer expires this Friday June 26. Email me your address and payment details. Supplies are very limited and your satisfaction is guaranteed.

There are four major expertization services operating in the United States today, The American Philatelic Expertization Service (whose acronym APES was mercifully dropped a few years ago), the Philatelic Foundation, Professional Stamp Expertizers, and Sergio Sismondo. The American Philatelic Expertization Service is run by the American Philatelic Society. It is a not-for-profit service and actually