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Apr. 29th, 2011
Postage McPosts-A-Lot
Apr. 29th, 2011 10:12 pmHey,
This afternoon I went to the New England Philatelic Show in exciting Boxborough MA. Stamp collectors getting together to nerd out.
I actually had a stamp collection when I was a kid. My folks got me this Star Wars stamp album with a bunch of space-oriented stamps from around the world. Dunno whatever happened to it, probably got tossed with a lot of other stuff. I've been thinking about the topic lately so the arrival of the show seemed like a good opportunity to get a feel for the hobby.
It was really interesting. There are a number of displays where people show off their collection, usually around a specific theme. Often the topic was very directly related to postal matters, but some were more like wikipedia articles illustrated with stamps -- who knew wheelbarrows could be so interesting (or well-represented in stamps). Often these collections come with a great deal of supplemental ephemera. There was an extensive display around balloon post that contained an actual letter written by one of the Montgolfier brothers about his work. Most of the displays made heavy use of covers -- the actual envelopes the stamps were used on. There wasn't much in the way of large blocks of stamps on their own.
But the real action was taking place at the dealer tables all around the edges of the main room. And why wouldn't it? If you're a stamp collector, you're probably looking for something. And you will have to look. Usually, when I'm looking through the inventory of a comic book dealer or a game store owner, all the stuff is arranged in a pretty simple way. Here, stamps were grouped into broad categories, but within each grouping, you were pretty much down to flipping through albums or flipping through mounted stamps or covers. There are standardized catalog numbers for these things, but it was still much more of a hunt than a laser-like selection. That said, once you get to the pricier stuff, I'm sure the dealers know exactly what you want and how to get it.
I find there's a sort of odd clerical thrill from being around all these people pouring over small colored bits of paper, curating their own personal collection of miniature artifacts. There's just something great about people being so very serious about something rather trivial (and now that you can print your own custom postage and the relentless erosion of snail mail from email makes it all the more fragile).
Of course I had to pick something up. I bought a hand-painted first-day cover of a block of Sci-fi stamps the US released in the mid-90's. And while there were lots of items in the three digit range, there were tons of items to be had for little more than the face value of the stamp.
The show is running through Sunday and at $3 to get in, it's well worth a look.
later
Tom
This afternoon I went to the New England Philatelic Show in exciting Boxborough MA. Stamp collectors getting together to nerd out.
I actually had a stamp collection when I was a kid. My folks got me this Star Wars stamp album with a bunch of space-oriented stamps from around the world. Dunno whatever happened to it, probably got tossed with a lot of other stuff. I've been thinking about the topic lately so the arrival of the show seemed like a good opportunity to get a feel for the hobby.
It was really interesting. There are a number of displays where people show off their collection, usually around a specific theme. Often the topic was very directly related to postal matters, but some were more like wikipedia articles illustrated with stamps -- who knew wheelbarrows could be so interesting (or well-represented in stamps). Often these collections come with a great deal of supplemental ephemera. There was an extensive display around balloon post that contained an actual letter written by one of the Montgolfier brothers about his work. Most of the displays made heavy use of covers -- the actual envelopes the stamps were used on. There wasn't much in the way of large blocks of stamps on their own.
But the real action was taking place at the dealer tables all around the edges of the main room. And why wouldn't it? If you're a stamp collector, you're probably looking for something. And you will have to look. Usually, when I'm looking through the inventory of a comic book dealer or a game store owner, all the stuff is arranged in a pretty simple way. Here, stamps were grouped into broad categories, but within each grouping, you were pretty much down to flipping through albums or flipping through mounted stamps or covers. There are standardized catalog numbers for these things, but it was still much more of a hunt than a laser-like selection. That said, once you get to the pricier stuff, I'm sure the dealers know exactly what you want and how to get it.
I find there's a sort of odd clerical thrill from being around all these people pouring over small colored bits of paper, curating their own personal collection of miniature artifacts. There's just something great about people being so very serious about something rather trivial (and now that you can print your own custom postage and the relentless erosion of snail mail from email makes it all the more fragile).
Of course I had to pick something up. I bought a hand-painted first-day cover of a block of Sci-fi stamps the US released in the mid-90's. And while there were lots of items in the three digit range, there were tons of items to be had for little more than the face value of the stamp.
The show is running through Sunday and at $3 to get in, it's well worth a look.
later
Tom
Postage McPosts-A-Lot
Apr. 29th, 2011 10:12 pmHey,
This afternoon I went to the New England Philatelic Show in exciting Boxborough MA. Stamp collectors getting together to nerd out.
I actually had a stamp collection when I was a kid. My folks got me this Star Wars stamp album with a bunch of space-oriented stamps from around the world. Dunno whatever happened to it, probably got tossed with a lot of other stuff. I've been thinking about the topic lately so the arrival of the show seemed like a good opportunity to get a feel for the hobby.
It was really interesting. There are a number of displays where people show off their collection, usually around a specific theme. Often the topic was very directly related to postal matters, but some were more like wikipedia articles illustrated with stamps -- who knew wheelbarrows could be so interesting (or well-represented in stamps). Often these collections come with a great deal of supplemental ephemera. There was an extensive display around balloon post that contained an actual letter written by one of the Montgolfier brothers about his work. Most of the displays made heavy use of covers -- the actual envelopes the stamps were used on. There wasn't much in the way of large blocks of stamps on their own.
But the real action was taking place at the dealer tables all around the edges of the main room. And why wouldn't it? If you're a stamp collector, you're probably looking for something. And you will have to look. Usually, when I'm looking through the inventory of a comic book dealer or a game store owner, all the stuff is arranged in a pretty simple way. Here, stamps were grouped into broad categories, but within each grouping, you were pretty much down to flipping through albums or flipping through mounted stamps or covers. There are standardized catalog numbers for these things, but it was still much more of a hunt than a laser-like selection. That said, once you get to the pricier stuff, I'm sure the dealers know exactly what you want and how to get it.
I find there's a sort of odd clerical thrill from being around all these people pouring over small colored bits of paper, curating their own personal collection of miniature artifacts. There's just something great about people being so very serious about something rather trivial (and now that you can print your own custom postage and the relentless erosion of snail mail from email makes it all the more fragile).
Of course I had to pick something up. I bought a hand-painted first-day cover of a block of Sci-fi stamps the US released in the mid-90's. And while there were lots of items in the three digit range, there were tons of items to be had for little more than the face value of the stamp.
The show is running through Sunday and at $3 to get in, it's well worth a look.
later
Tom
This afternoon I went to the New England Philatelic Show in exciting Boxborough MA. Stamp collectors getting together to nerd out.
I actually had a stamp collection when I was a kid. My folks got me this Star Wars stamp album with a bunch of space-oriented stamps from around the world. Dunno whatever happened to it, probably got tossed with a lot of other stuff. I've been thinking about the topic lately so the arrival of the show seemed like a good opportunity to get a feel for the hobby.
It was really interesting. There are a number of displays where people show off their collection, usually around a specific theme. Often the topic was very directly related to postal matters, but some were more like wikipedia articles illustrated with stamps -- who knew wheelbarrows could be so interesting (or well-represented in stamps). Often these collections come with a great deal of supplemental ephemera. There was an extensive display around balloon post that contained an actual letter written by one of the Montgolfier brothers about his work. Most of the displays made heavy use of covers -- the actual envelopes the stamps were used on. There wasn't much in the way of large blocks of stamps on their own.
But the real action was taking place at the dealer tables all around the edges of the main room. And why wouldn't it? If you're a stamp collector, you're probably looking for something. And you will have to look. Usually, when I'm looking through the inventory of a comic book dealer or a game store owner, all the stuff is arranged in a pretty simple way. Here, stamps were grouped into broad categories, but within each grouping, you were pretty much down to flipping through albums or flipping through mounted stamps or covers. There are standardized catalog numbers for these things, but it was still much more of a hunt than a laser-like selection. That said, once you get to the pricier stuff, I'm sure the dealers know exactly what you want and how to get it.
I find there's a sort of odd clerical thrill from being around all these people pouring over small colored bits of paper, curating their own personal collection of miniature artifacts. There's just something great about people being so very serious about something rather trivial (and now that you can print your own custom postage and the relentless erosion of snail mail from email makes it all the more fragile).
Of course I had to pick something up. I bought a hand-painted first-day cover of a block of Sci-fi stamps the US released in the mid-90's. And while there were lots of items in the three digit range, there were tons of items to be had for little more than the face value of the stamp.
The show is running through Sunday and at $3 to get in, it's well worth a look.
later
Tom