Boston 2026 - Any Reports?

No; it will likely be in a non-coastal Western US city. Smaller scale than the 10 year show, but still larger than GASS.

Glad everyone seemed to have a great experience at the show and enjoyed everything else Boston had to offer. For those who didn't make it, you missed out! See you in 5 years...

By any measure (from someone not involved in the actual production), this show was a big success. Dealers were happy, societies were happy, attendees were happy. Of course some exhibitors were not, but that is always the case. I think a few were correct to be disappointed, personally.

I think a few were correct to be disappointed, personally.

Particularly the guy who got a 76 instead of the usual 91-92

I overheard that judging was sometimes weird, particularly disagreement between FIP judges and national judges was obvious.

Attendance was very high during Memorial weekend and dropped off in the last days. Dealers with tons of face-value sheets were very busy the entire time. When the half-time dealers moved out, there were quite noticeable "holes" in the dealer areas in the second half of he show. And the space was big, you could easily add miles to your step-count.

Two things they could have done better: dispense with the overpriced show program, as mentioned earlier, and hand out a map and list of exhibits. Or charge $2 if you have to, not $25.

The other weird thing was that the exhibit areas were walled off with these decorative stamp panels... made it very difficult to establish a visual line of sight with the farther-flung areas of the show.

very strongly

Attendance dropped off some, but those who came were mostly serious collectors. I spent most of the show near the escalator so I saw people coming in.

Gvol21 nailed it. The show catalog was an absolute failure due to a dumb pricing decision which resulted in what looked like most not being sold. During move out yesterday, there was an attempt to give away what couldn't be sold for $35. Just dumb.

Additionally, many small dealers were hit with a surprise $800 electricity bill from Heritage after the show had started.

Another fundamental fumble was the lack of any useful floor signage- finding specific exhibits took a lot of roaming which could last hours given the size of the facility and the lack of consistent, sequential placement of exhibits.

While a reasonable building, food court and coffee shop never opened the last two or three days; escalators to get access to meeting rooms were largely blocked off requiring attendees to walk to the front of the show and down long halls to get to events-- easily a mile round trip.

Attendance never really recovered from the first three days w fewer people every day.

Tuesday to Thursday attendance was about the same every day. As I said, I was close to the escalator so I saw the opening crowd and the later additional people. I was not busy selling anything so I was able to observe.

There were some unhappy dealers who paid to advertise in the program that no one bought.

The walling off negatively affected not only the exhibits, but also most of the foreign post offices and most of the societies.

Are the major show awards posted online anywhere? I see the medal level awards were posted almost immediately but I can't find the results for the awards presented at the banquet. Thank you.

People who wanted to find societies usually found them, but finding specific exhibits could be a problem.

Tuesday attendance was better due, I believe to the Post Crossing event, but from floor traffic, the other days were down as I wrote. I too was well positioned to see the escalators and the floor. There was a relative peak around the new issue ceremonies with people spending a lot of time at the USPS "booth" and the free-stamp picking area, but meetings generally (yes, exceptions) had 10 attendees or fewer. So very sad that the organizers AND APS didn't live stream and record their sessions. It's just not tough to do and a big content sharing opportunity was missed. Hopefully we'll see GASS 2027 get this right and other shows will pick up that baton.

Wellp, as usual, I am the odd one out here... I was very disappointed with both the show and venue.

BUT I suppose I have to keep my opinions to myself so as not to make waves...

Issues with the venue have been discussed, but I would be curious why you were disappointed with the show itself.

Wellp, I actually started typing up a whole review, as a sort of venting exercise, possibly to post somewhere sometime.

BUT I am so tired of having different opinions from everyone on everything, I just don't want to get into it here.

All I WILL say for now is
1) no show floor map OR way to know when & where talks/meetings were
2) no show program (see above)
3) no show promo freebies or special show-only items for sale
3) few foreign official postal services selling stamps
4) too little workspace for the free stamp area
5) too little workspace for the you-apply-it show cancels

... and I'll stop there. And my thoughts on the venue are more in-depth than others have shared... but that's the venue, not the show's fault.