The current owners of Apfelbaum are the great grandchildren of Maurice Apfelbaum who first became a stamp dealer in 1910-nearly 100 years ago. We are four- John, Ken, Missy, and Susanne.
John (that’s me) is 56. I started collecting stamps when I was eight. The first set of stamps I ever bought was the Jules Verne Monaco set from 1960. I was home sick from school playing with my Harris Statesman Deluxe Album and the Scott catalog. This set caught my fancy and I called my father at work and asked him to bring me home a set (one of the advantages of having a stamp dealer father was the ability to experience an early version of same day delivery). I worked with stamps during summer vacations and when I was at Penn in the 1970’s. I joined the firm full time in 1975.
Ken is 53 and has also collected since childhood. He collected Andorra (I think our father wanted to get double duty out of the Minkus Specialty Album that contained both Monaco and Andorra and he gave one country to me and one to Ken). Ken handles most of our collector acquisition business– when collectors have stamps to sell it’s usually Ken who goes and sees them.
Missy is younger. She graduated from Drew University and joined our company in 1978. When we had “Ads and Offers”, our monthly price list, she was the editor. She has always coordinated our advertising and now pretty much runs our business. Most of you who have ever called our office have probably talked to Missy. Next time say Hello.
Susie joined our company after graduating from Temple University in 1984. She is involved in bookkeeping, backroom operations and customer service. She also works on stamp lotting, scanning and auction set up.
We are also joined by a staff of 10 others. The combined years of philatelic experience here is over 260.