The National Postage Stamp Show was held at the New Yorker Hotel, located one block north of Madison Square Garden. That’s right — the National Postage Stamp Show, not the Fall New York Mega Event. The American Stamp Dealers Association and its president, Jim Lee, are working hard to return this annual fall classic to its glory days and their efforts seem to be paying off.
In his “President’s Welcome” piece in the show program, Jim wrote:
For this show we have brought back seminars which are being presented by both ASDA members and stalwarts of the philatelic community. There are even two sessions on stamp collecting basics, one for adults and one for the entire family. Exhibits are back. You will find 20 invited frames of some very unusual philatelic material. Several of them are single frame gold medal winners. We expect to be able to offer more exhibits in the future once the renovation of the ballroom floor is complete next year. Daniel F. Kelleher Auctions, LLC, the official show auctioneer, will be holding a major auction over the course of the show. Don’t forget there will be first day ceremonies put on by both the United States Postal Service and the United Nations Postal Administration.
The floor was occupied by 53 dealer booths and a number of societies and postal administrations. The mix of dealers at the show was a vast improvement over the bourse makeup of recent Mega shows. There were both stamp and cover dealers present catering to the full range of collecting interests and at least three major supply dealers were in attendance offering everything collectors may need.
As is the tradition, the U.S. Postal Service held First Day ceremonies for its holiday series of stamps. On Thursday, the four Holiday Evergreens and the single Angel with Lute stamps were released. The Holiday Evergreens were an especially welcomed set since they are “forever” stamps and are much more attractive than the Liberty Bell forever issues that we’ve all become accustomed to seeing.
Although some of the society booth locations were off the beaten path, the United States Stamp Society was afforded prime real estate at the entrance to the show. During all four days, we shared a booth with the American Philatelic Society and the chemistry was great. More than three dozen USSS members stopped by to say hello and exchange information. Among these were two 50-year members — Sol Gold from Nevada and Michael Borut who lives right in New York City.
A special thanks goes out to Frank Braithwaite 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 Maryland, Tennessee, Nevada and Illinois. Those visiting the booth included:
| Steven Belasco |
Michael Borut |
Frank Braithwaite |
| Steven Breitkopf |
Roger Brody |
Ralph J. Calabrese |
| Dick Celler |
Bob Coradi |
Tom Corette |
| Bill Crowe |
Tony Dewey |
Gene Fricks |
| Richard T. Garner |
Sol Gold |
Sonny Hagendorf |
| James Kloetzel |
Joe Leadoa |
Benjamin Lee |
| Nick Lombardi |
Frank Magnavito |
Warren Manning |
| Ken Martin |
Chuck McCarthy |
Tom McFarland |
| Ed McGovern |
Foster Miller |
Ken Moreau |
| Marvin Platt |
Stephen Reinhard |
Steven J. Rod |
| Bob Rufe |
Daniel Ryterband |
Jacques Schiff |
| Edward Schmid |
Lou Sherman |
Sal Spagnola |
| Mark Spinner |
Alan Warren |
Jeffrey Zwerin |
