A Pat Herst Story From The Stamp Wholesaler

Just read an article by Herman (Pat) Herst Jr. in an old (August 10, 1966) copy of The STAMP WHOLESALER in which he relates an incident that happened after a talk he once gave at a stamp banquet in Des Moines, Iowa.

When he was through, one of the attendees, not a stamp collector, approached him and said "You seem to think you have about the finest profession in the world, to listen to you talk."

Pat agreed that it was pretty much true.

"Well you may think so," replied the gentleman, "but I have the finest job there is, because sooner or later they all come to me or my colleagues. I'm an undertaker."

He then stepped back with a bit of a smirk on his face.

Pat answered, "Well, I really don't know if you're right. After all, as a stamp dealer, I sell a lot of stamps to my customers, and make a pretty fair living doing it. Then when they die, I buy them back and sell them to someone else, again at a profit. How many people have you buried twice?"

Someone will probably make a few bucks recycling my stamp collection, but the undertaker isn't going to make a boat payment on my corpse. My wife is going to tie some concrete blocks to my legs and sink me in the lake behind the house.

I love reading stories by and about the old dealers. I just don't think we have the same kind of quality story telling about stamps these days. On the other hand, we have made a quantum leap in the availability of detailed information about our stamps and postal history.

Pat Hearst IIRC had a regular column in the "Australian Stamp Monthly" years back, and yes, he is a very entertaining gentleman.
Can be controverisal at times, which illustrated his passion
for our hobby.
IIRC (and I'll have to check) he wrote an article "who actually owns the stamps on mail" and another where he collected sugar sachets at a stamp show, that had stamps printed on them.

You dope, you'll kill the fish

KirkS