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Today I had a real treat. I worked on a collection in which the last stamp was put in the album in 1921. The Collector died in that year and his great grandchildren decided to sell the stamps this year. Collecting styles have changed over the years and working on this collection brought back memories […]

While it is true that an enormous amount of good philatelic research material is available online, millions of words of philatelic importance were written before the Internet was invented. Unlike academic disciplines with their well funded libraries and armies of grad student workers, most older philatelic literature and periodicals have never been scanned and many

One of the things that has always amazed me is the disparity in price between the stamps of popular countries and the stamps of more esoteric areas. Like you, I took Econ 101 and was drilled on the basics of supply and demand. But,really, consider this. On EBay today as I write this there are

As this endless recession has dragged on and on, I’ve found myself thinking that maybe this time things are different. Maybe this time the downturn won’t be followed by booming demand with business going to ever higher levels. Maybe expectations are changing. Technically we are in an economic recovery but one that is so modest

One of the things that continues to amaze me is the ever increasing strength of the People’s Republic of China market. Until Nixon’s trip to China in the late 1970’s Americans weren’t even allowed to own these stamps. In the early days, sets that today sell for hundreds could be bought for pennies and even

Trying to revive their declining subscriber base, Linns is planning to send an additional 100,000 copies of their weekly magazine to older subscribers who have let their their subscriptions lapse. The hope is that they will see the new Linns and resubscribe. Trade press and specialty societies have been clobbered in the last ten years.

Almost from the very day that Philately began as a serious hobby, stamp collectors were plagued by forgeries. Forgeries exist in two types; those made for philatelic consumption and those produced to defraud the postal service of revenue (called postal forgeries). These postal forgeries are in nearly all cases not only very rare but highly

Suddenly the recession, at least as it affects the stamp business, is over. The great fall off in stamp demand and prices that began in September of 2008 started leveling off in August or September and now we seem to be experiencing a little boom. Most of our dealer customers who sell on the Internet

May 6, 1840 was an important date in English history. Postage rates were reduced to one penny throughout Great Britain, and pre-payment of mail became compulsory. Also, the first postage stamp was issued. The stamp, what we collectors seek after and fight for, was actually not Rowland Hill’s great innovation. In an age before computers,