The Fall Mega Show was once again held in Madison Square Garden in the heart of Manhattan.  The show, however, appears to be shrinking.  The floor was occupied by 68 dealer booths whereas the previous Fall show had 79.  The number of participating postal administrations and societies also decreased by one of each and overall attendance seemed to be down.  However, the United States Stamp Society booth was staffed throughout the four days of the show and appeared to be one of the busier places along Society Row.  As you can see from the list below, quite a few members stopped by to say hello and purchase literature.  We also signed up two new members.

The USPS did its best to attract people to the show with the issuance of eight new stamps.  The Holiday Nutcracker block of four and the Virgin and Child stamps were released on the first day of the show with a very nice ceremony.  The following day, the 42¢ Kwanzaa and Hanukkah stamps were released without any ceremony, but a First Day of Issue cancel was available.  On Saturday, the Forever stamp was issued in a vending booklet format, again without a ceremony, but with the FDOI cancel available.

The Fall Mega Show, unlike the Spring Mega, is not a World Series of Philately show and did not, therefore, have the usual multi-frame exhibits lining the floor.  However, the show did feature a world class exhibition of single frame exhibits by acting as host for the annual Collectors Club One Frame Competition.  Normally, this event is held at the Collectors Club clubhouse on 35th Street in December and is limited to 20 single frame exhibits.  However, because of the available space at the Garden, 32 frames were displayed.  A third of these had U.S. subjects that ran the gamut from the St. Louis Bears to Canal Zone Registration Envelopes.  The Grand Award was won by Larry Lyons with his display, “The Carriers of Charleston, S.C., 1849-1859.”

A special thanks goes out to Jacques Schiff, Jr. and Bob Rufe for helping man the booth at different times.  As always, we are deeply grateful to Tom Jacks of Mountainside Stamps for hauling all of our booth supplies to and from the show.

As mentioned earlier, our booth was a popular place for members to get together and exchange information. Although most of those who stopped by were from the immediate area, we were pleased to meet members from as far away as Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island and Illinois. Those visiting the booth included:

Mercer Bristow	Steven Rod	Michael Laurence
Tom Mazza	Benjamin Lee	Lou Sherman
Tom McFarland	Steve Belasco	Rick Schwartz
Gene Fricks	Bill Hart	Alan Cohen
Robert Noble	William T. Crowe	Jim Kloetzel
Henry B. Scheuer	Jacques Schiff, Jr.	Allan Schefer
Roger Brody	Richard Hartnett	Robert Rufe
Fred Skvara	Sal Spagnola	Jerry Davis
Andy Kupersmit	Brian Bleckwenn	Rob Loeffler
Labron Harris	Tom Jacks	Andrew McFarlane
Harvey Mirsky	Lou DiFelice	Cheryl Ganz
K. David Steidley	Edward Schmid	Alan Warren
S. Polchinski	Ronald Harris	Bill McMurray
Dom Cinti	Jim Boyles	Tom Corotte
Brad Lee Steinberg	Andrew Marussich	Lou Sherman
Carl Cammarata	Daniel Rytesband