I went to a recent Philadelphia National Show at a third rate hall in suburban Philadelphia about a year ago. It was very dinky and shared its exhibition space with a hot tub show, the steam of which was not helping the gum on the back of the stamps in the show. The dealers included octogenarians who hadn’t added to their stock in decades. The whole show, both the atmosphere and energy level, was like there had been a death in the family. It aspired to be only depressing. Frankly if we can’t have better shows we probably should abolish them completely. Anyone new to our hobby coming for the stamps to the show I was at would have quickly bought a hot tub and gone home. Philately makes a good impression on the web. If we can’t make a better impression at shows we should consider not having the APS sanction any shows at all.
Stamp Shows
Stamp shows have become rather hokey affairs in recent years. I remember taking the young woman who would later become my wife to the International show Interphil in 1976 and being proud to be part of a hobby that could boast an exhibition of tens of thousands of square feet with thousands of exhibition frames. True, it was an International show and the one in New York in 2016 should be very nice too, but even regional and APS Championship shows were impressive back then.