There are collecting areas and stamp issues in philately with bad reputations. These are stamp issues that have had negative stories about their being issued. Such stories have influenced collector demand and made these issues less popular than they would be if these stamps hadn’t had their integrity impugned. But reputations in philately seldom last […]
Values of currencies, relative to each other, change over time. When the European Union first consolidated their currencies and issued the Euro, they initially pegged it at $1.30 to the Euro. For a year or two in the early 2000s just after the Euro was issued it traded as low as 90¢ as many doubted
I first met Max Margolies in the mid 1960’s. At the time, I used to help out showing Auction lots at my father’s office on Saturdays. Stamp professionals didn’t specialize to the degree that they do today. There were a few US only dealers or British Commonwealth dealers but the majority of stamp sellers tried
Bill Weiss passed away on November 10, 2015 at the age of 72. For twenty years, he and his lovely wife, Addie, ran a well regarded stamp auction in Allentown, and for the last fifteen years or so Bill ran an expertization service and provided his own certificates. As a dealer, Bill was highly ethical,
If you have any investment in our hobby, you’ve heard of Apfelbaum. We’ve been involved in the buying and selling of stamps day after day, year after year for over 100 years. Founded by our Great Grandfather Maurice Apfelbaum in 1915, Apfebaum has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stamps and covers to
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Most collectors have made a “find” or two—a stamp or cover that they realized the value of before anyone else and are pleased to have it in their collection. Sometimes the “find” is associated with a financial windfall—the variety has great value that you recognized but that the seller did not. And sometimes the value
American Philatelic Society Black Blot Very few collectors today remember the APS Black Blot program. Begun in the 1960’s and finally ending in the early 1990’s, the Black Blot was a Seal of Disapproval given to new issues from various countries, which the APS deemed exploitive of collectors. The goal was high-minded, and the
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One of the most idiosyncratic aspects of US philately, compared with the collecting that is done in other countries, is the collecting of plate blocks. Many countries have marginal plate numbers in the selvedges of the sheets of their printed stamps. Most United States stamps that were printed before 1894 had plate numbers in the
In the 1950s, comic books were far more than ever more exotic super heroes. Classic novels were published as illustrated comic books, and there were sub-genre of Love Comics and hybrids such as Archie comics (which straddled the “goofy/love” line). There were few areas of interest that the comic book publishers didn’t try market to,