Featured Website
www.stampwants.com
If you're an active buyer of high grade singles and blocks of United
States stamps, you might want to take a look at this site, which
offers for sale---from multiple sellers---a wide choice of such
issues. We like the concept of StampWants.com. It's like a giant
"stamp exchange" on the Internet! |
 |
This is
Andy Kupersmith,
one of the bright new leaders in the hobby of
philately---actually, not so new, really. Andy now partners with
Jonathan Orenstein to own and manages Purser and Associates, one
of America's oldest philatelic auction agent firms. Andy also
freelances as a serious buyer and seller in the U.S. classics
stamps and postal history market. you can find out more about
him at: www.pursers.com
|
| |
|
HEADLINES:
NY Times Bestselling Author
puts mystery fiction into a major stamp magazine!
|
 |
Lawrence Block,
who will appear at the American Philatelic Society's
Hartford, Conn. StampShow in August, writes fiction about a
philatelist who doubles as a hitman. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
This striking and
rather unusual stamp was issued for a specific purpose. Can you name
that purpose. (Click
here for the answer.) |
|
The Gas
Crisis:
How is it affecting the
stamp market?
By Randy L. Neil, Stamps.net Editor
 We
shouldn't kid ourselves. The giant price of a gallon of gas will change
practically everything we do in life. Much of these changes are, of
course, for the better. Already, we are told, 1.9% fewer miles are being
driven by the American public in only the past six months. That's a huge
drop and the biggest one since records began being kept in 1942.
Translation: less pollution, lighter traffic, less demand for gas.
The
Internet collector---those philatelist who buy and sell online---are the
key beneficiaries in this crisis. Stamp shows, bless 'em, must survive
in order to give our hobby a face-to-face meeting place for all of
us---but the largest amount of money flowing through the stamp market
will be through electronic buying and selling on the Web, not in its
traditional venue, the philatelic event.
Stamp
collecting is one of those rare human pursuits that seem to ride
smoothly through any crisis. Sure, there have been bumps in the road,
but when one considers that The Great Depression was also deemed the
biggest boom period in philatelic history, one can understand why people
turn to hobbies when there are troubling times.
This
crisis is no different. If anything, it will cause more and more people
to stay home more and more. This will not only keep a lot of present
collectors more active buying and selling stamps, but I think it will
serve to attract new collectors to our pastime.
What
do you think?
Philately's People
John Hotchner offers a seven-page feature story on
his life in the hobby of philately in the upcoming July/August issue of
The American Stamp Dealer
& Collector magazine. A major part of the article is the story
of the Voice of America Stamp Club founded by Howard Hotchner, John's
father, in the 1940s. |
