For years, thematic philately has been a poorly regarded step sister to traditional philately. Serious collectors collected by country, emphasizing classics and postal history. Less serious collectors collected cats or dogs on stamps. Somewhere in the middle having semi highbrow status was the so called classic thematics- Olympics, Boy Scouts, UPU and Red Cross.These were […]
Elections in America rarely have effect on philately or postal policy. No candidate is running on a platform of reduced postage rates and speedier service. Mail seems to be one of those few areas on which politicians have agreed not to disagree. Though a “postage is too damn high” party might win a few fringe
The first postage stamp was issued in 1840 and by 1860 every major country had followed suit. Stamps were a major money saving innovation for governments. Their use allowed the standardization of postal rates, compelled prepayment of postage and were a major labor saving innovation in post office accounting and staffing. But until 1878 and
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Ron Stiles inherited a few stamps from his grandfather, collected with his father a bit when he was a kid, and reentered his hobby in earnest some 20 years ago when he was about sixty. He was never a passionate philatelist. He collected in fits and starts, buying heavily during some periods and neglecting his
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In addition to our Public Auctions, Apfelbaum almost always has a Buy it Now sale posted on our web site. Listing anywhere from 600-6000 lots ranging in price from $50-$5000 these sale lists items for direct sale at prices that are often considerably below auction prices. We list new inventory as well as older material
Collectors, like hikers, enjoy a challenge. They may want an easy philatelic climb some of the time, but for long term appeal most collectors need some difficulty in their pursuit. For a philatelic specialty to be popular, items after the basics, should be hard to find. Perhaps there are rarities that require great monetary outlay,
Let’s say you want to become a part time stamp dealer. Let’s say your reasons are the usual ones. You like stamps, everything about them. You like to find them and acquire them and you love thinking that you purchased something that in the vernacular would be called a good deal. But you have all
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Most countries have collectors that specialize only in Airmails. It makes an interesting specialty. Early airmails of most countries are scarce but usually affordable and the addition of early flight covers and zeppelins makes for a manageable but sufficiently exotic sub specialty. Russian Airmails are perhaps the best example of this. They are mostly scarce
One of the dampers on the stamp market right now is the the high cost of fees associated with selling. Over the last five years, EBay has nearly doubled its fees to sellers. Many marginal sellers have been forced out of business and many stronger sellers have been compelled to reduce the price that they