"The World's Largest Stamp Dealer"

What ever happened to H.E. Harris, the business started by a bedroom entrepreneur that became "the world's largest stamp dealer?" I missed it, not being involved with stamps at the time, and suppose I would need to see a copy of Linn's for the story, since there is little to be found about it online.

As best I can gather, General Mills (Cheerios, Wheaties, etc.) bought the company in the 1970 but I can't find what, if anything, they did with it. Today, it seems that Whitman, in my memory the maker of coin folders, distributes what's left of the Harris album line, but is Whitman, in turn, owned by General Mills, a company that also purchased, among others, Parker Brothers games and Lionel/American Flyer trains?

Someone, here, must have some knowledge/memory of what might have happened, no?

I inherited a large Swedish collection from my grandfather (Doesn't everyone?)and I sold it to Harris. That was my only dealings with them and it was years ago..Maybe 25 or 30 years.
Allan

In 1983, General Mills divested its non-food assets including H. E. Harris & Co. Dave Bowers and Raymond Merena repurchased the company.
In 1989, H. E. Harris & Co. emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under the new ownership of Herbert Eames, who move the company from Boston to Portsmouth, NH.
In 2003, the H.E. Harris company bought Whitman from St. Martin's Press changing its name to Whitman Publishing.


Mike

Thanks Mike. I really appreciate that bit of information.


Butch

You are Welcome, Butch!

There are many reasons the company suffered a huge downturn after it's years of greatness ended in the late '60s, and most of them had to do with the "new direction" embarked upon by it's new owners.

Instead of just sticking with what worked (stamps), the company got involved in coins and banknotes by approval, and eventually, outright retailing of these items. Also, too, there was retailing of philatelic products (StampLift, Thor Presses, for example) as well as an expansion into publishing their own catalogues and titles in the numismatelic and notaphilic lines. The quality of their former product suffered; instead of raising prices little by little, they instead cut back on sizes and quantities, and still raised prices. The quality of their albums also suffered in that they weren't updated nearly as well as they previously had been, and they killed the "Honor-Built" packets of stamps that had helped them become what they were.

Today, the company is a shadow of it's former self. They only publish three world-wide loose-leaf albums now (they used to publish six or seven), and they're not the presence they used to be at retail outlets.

Their catalogues where great references back then. I still carry a pocket one around to a show when I go, to many hand scribbled notes left in mine.

Many a child started out with one of their albums from the local drugstore. Most collectors disregard them today but I still care for my original about 30 years old.

Hey for a printing job I always enjoyed the Harris album. Each stamp had a short story below where they went and they followed Scott order. Other than the binder wearing out years down the road I really think they could have been a premier album up with the bigger named ones. They could have made a fortune with the album by just using a heavy card stock instead of the thin paper. This is in reference to the US ones. IMHO.

Seems to me I still see the Harris Liberty U.S. album advertised by Subway...my album with supplements runs to 1992....

Great info, guys. Thanks!

As Whitman, they no longer do the bigger albums Harris once produced, the huge Citation and the two volume Standard.

Seems, also, that Harris' son purchased and operated a large competing stamp company at the time the original H.E. Harris company was still in its prime. It might have been Kenmore. Anyone know?

Yes, the original one up to about 1990 was only about 3 inches wide. Now today it takes 2 albums almost 5 inches wide each to complete up until now. So about a hundred years and you get a slim album. Add just about 20 more years and look what you get. No wonder I quit collecting most new issues. They just flooded the market.

Just remembered. Does anyone remember their little cloth bags of stamps? Started many a kid on the hunt.

FLASH:

Whitman Publishing has announced that it will reissue the huge Harris Citation stamp album that saw its heyday in the 1960's. The new album will carry three times the capacity of the former five inch volume and will be renamed the Herniator! Pricing information is not yet available.

Yes, they still make the Liberty album (mine is complete to about 2001 or so). Their name is still on the Canada and Provinces album, but the rights to publish this have been transferred to Unitrade, who was selling off the remainder stock of these albums (complete to 2006) for ~ CDN$39.00, which was cheaper than buying the eight or nine supplements I needed about then.

Kenmore was sold in 1943 to Boston's Henry Ellis Harris, H.E. Harris & Co., who was happy to have the huge Kenmore stock. But in 1947, after serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, Henry Ellis Harris, Jr. purchased the rights to the Kenmore name and the next year reestablished Kenmore Stamp Company in Arlington, MA.

Hope that answers your question, modern_who!

Mike

I remember little orange cloth bags with a draw string. Was that H.E.Harris? I liked them as a kid because they looked like a pirate's bag of treasure. Kind of led you to appreciate the stamps inside more.

That answers it well. Thanks, Mike.

Yes, that was Harris. I remember they started out as the "Big Bag of 500 Worldwide Stamps", and retailed for about $1.99. I remember my father buying me one at a Woolworth's in Bellingham, Washington way back around 1968 or so. I recall that it took me about a week to sort them.

Over time, they dropped the "500", then the bag went to a plastic one that was even smaller, before they disappeared totally.