Boston Stamp Expo 2026 - Wrap Up Numbers?

Anyone who thinks that seeing an exhibit on line is the same as seeing it in person needs to go see some one of a kind exhibits in person ASAP. It's not close to being the same thing. It's the difference between being at a party, and talking to someone who is at a party on zoom. No amount of sitting in front of a PC looking would come remotely close to actually being in the Court of Honor. Or seeing several other exhibits.

Sure RevCollector - depending on your height and health, in person viewing means you either can't see the top pages or you sit on the floor to see the bottom pages. Online, you have comfort, an ability to zoom in, take screen shots and return whenever you want.

Never been to Boston or to an International. Got to meet many people in the hobby that were very gracious and several from places that I would have never imagined. Probably won't have an opportunity to ever attend another so it was quite the philatelic trip for me. I'm happy and thankful that I found a way to be there for a few days.

There are always some people who have genuine physical issues who would find going in person difficult or impossible. Most collectors probably don't fall into that category. And no matter how many times you look at an exhibit online, it pales in comparison to actually seeing it. And you might not be the only one at the time, giving you an opportunity to discuss it.

Let's remember Boston 2026 seemed almost ready to collapse when Trump's bizarre and unpopular tariff schemes exploded on the scene, raising real questions about whether some firms would even come to the show. No doubt high hotel costs played a major role in discouraging some people from coming (that included me) but before the show there was a great deal of concern over whether or not the show would be partially gutted of stamp dealers. And in fact I think fewer international dealers did show up. So the Trump Factor accidentally appears to have done what it so often does by wounding the show even before it opened.

As soon as I learned about the whole tariff scheme, I started to mentally cross the show off my list as much too expensive for its value. One reason I go to international shows is all the international dealers and foreign stamp agencies I normally have no contact with.

Those who ran the show even had to send out a calming letter assuring everyone that the tariffs likely had a work-around and not to worry about it. Which proves people were worrying about it, or why do that?

As a nearly 50-year teacher of history, the Boston vs. Philadelphia debate here is interesting, but I'm afraid Boston wins pretty clearly in a celebration of 250 years since 1776.

Nearly every major event and most major developments leading to the American Revolution occurred in the Boston area -- except the Second Continental Congress which drafted the Declaration of Independence. That document was not at all the beginning but the culmination of the drive for American independence much of which happened in Boston. Boston began the Revolution with its street mobs, burning effigies, attacks on the stamp tax men, protest marches and protest meetings and its firing the first shots in both the Boston Massacre (1770) and at Lexington and Concord (1775) where professional British troops from Boston were battled to a standstill by ordinary American farmers. It's pretty much all Boston up the that point.

The meeting in Philadelphia had little to do with pre-revolutionary events there since there had been few, if any, and was far more due to its central location so delegates from all the colonies could get there -- and the fact that, at that time, Philadelphia was the largest city in the colonies. And maybe also to avoid Boston mobs and patriot troublemakers!

The Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876 was because the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution were both written there, but oddly it chose 1776 as the founding date of the country -- which it wasn't. This is a popular historical confusion most people seem to suffer from. Just to be clear, the 1776 Declaration of Independence did not set up any government. It simply declared our independence and listed a lot of reasons why we deserved it (taxation, troops, home invasions, and so on). We still needed to create a government -- which we did later. So it's a question or whether or not you are celebrating the Revolution and independence or the legal foundations of the American Republic, and I think the show was to honor the former, not the latter.

If USA 250 were about the legal foundations of this country that were written down in Philadelphia you'd expect it to be held in 2037 (the Constitution was written in 1787) or in 2038 (1788 was the year nine states finally ratified it, the number required) or in 2039 (1789 was the year it went into effect). But it wasn't because none of these events align with the popular imagination about the earlier Revolution and independence. History proves that if the people believe something, even if it's not true, you are stuck with it!