Boston 2026 - Any Reports?

The first two have been discussed, and there is general agreement. The third is equally valid although it was not discussed. The fourth is not specifically the show's fault, no one can be forced to come but the list was on the website. I was not in those other areas so I don't have an opinion.

" I am so tired of having different opinions " yes I agree .

Looking for this from the Boston Expo 2026 .

A gold medal for Don {51 studebaker } for the Stamp Foundation ,Stamp Smarter and Don's generosity to the stamp community . Maybe a large poster picture and a award to his wife from a stage .

Award to Bill Steiner for his work on the Steiner Pages

Award to Big Blue and Filling Spaces websites ,there are people who put in efforts to help collectors .


Total lack of new ideas were stamp collecting is going into the future , ideas about moving the APS to Chicago or St.Louis and run that place as a meeting place ,a research center , trading flea market weekly , think out of the box .

There should be awards for kids when they reach 5,000 stamps in their album ,then 10,000 then 20,000 . Then a adult level at 50,000 then 100,000 stamp ribbon . Then 200,000 gold star ,then a star every 100,000 . We need other awards for country collections and topical collections -----Heck if you ask me ,we should have stamp shows with people walking around looking like the North Korea General Staff with their 100 plus medals on their chest .lol

Those ideas would be fine for GASS, but are not really appropriate for a major international event. I personally couldn't care less about medals but I suppose some do.

1) no show floor map OR way to know when & where talks/meetings were

The talks and time were on the Boston2026.org website, and probably in the APS journal, and in the overpriced show program.

2) no show program (see above)

see above

3) no show promo freebies or special show-only items for sale

I did miss having the printers there. In the past they had promo things they gave away. Not 100% sure what you mean by show-only, but for instance Fiji did have covers for each day of the show, as well as some stamps they were supposedly only selling at the show and not thru their philatelic bureau back home (although to be available from regular POs)

The new guy is going to bankrupt APS with his hiring plans, so nothing to move.

The APS had meetings about the future of the hobby at the show. I was not at them, so I don't know any details. But they did happen. And there are younger people involved professionally in the hobby, not as many as I wish are, but they are there and involved. So we shall see. I am sure that the gloom and doom people around before the show are still around now ready to continue that line of talk. Although there were certainly flaws, the show was successful in many ways, and hopefully learning will come from it.

Card collecting, (sports, Pokémon, etc) has been taken over by what I consider treasure hunting or gambling for youngsters. Basically, card collecting is very hot due to this idea that you can rip open a pack of cards and find a 1 of 5 card, etc worth thousands

This is what you get from young people now. Waiting in line at a store for hours to get packs of Pokémon cards or websites that apparently allow you to buy a pack and they open them with chance for a jackpot. I'm not involved with any of this but the new collecting generation likes the randomness, games of chance, gambling, hunting for treasures

Not sure how to incorporate this into philately but seems to be what young people want. They want a chance to find something valuable or important

Is that supposed to be a new idea? LOTS of people want to be able to find something valuable easily. How many people think that they have 596's or 613's every year? And most are not kids. And the harder things are economically, the more it happens. If you want to get kids involved, find ways to attract the ones with higher intelligence. Those are the ones with the most potential.

Busy yes; but how many pounds of face sheets needed to be sold to cover the booth, hotel and surprise electric fees?

Reminds me of the old joke that I lose five cents on every sale but make up for it in volume.

Edit for a missing 's.'

I don't know, but every dealer I spoke with (about a dozen) said that they had a good show. And not just on the weekends. One told me on the last day that Tuesday was his best day.

AND




First of all, the smart kids, aka "higher intelligence" are the ones driving the card market. They study and know what is good and what is great. The card producers produce material to drive that knowledge reward. Also unlike stamps, in cards, you get instant or nearly instant rewards with a much better chance to make a hit than the Scott 596 or 613 searchers. Also there is no need to get an expert certificate to prove what you have. As to paying for grading, cards and stamps are both graded.

The chances for buying a better priced or valuable card from a seller of packages is high. Buying new issue stamps from the issuing Post Office has a "winning chance" just slightly larger than zero.

Also consider stamps came out in 1840; cards (trade) before that with baseball beginning in the 1860s. As to prices, rare cards carry much higher prices than stamps, outstripping our usual high priced stamps by millions of dollars. How many stamps could you buy for under $5 in 2009 and sell it for just under $13 MILLION shortly there after as was done with a card? Answer is it doesn't matter because no stamp has sold for over $10 million ever, period. And, the last time that stamp sold it sold for less than the previous sale.

Additionally the card hounds have age group appropriate peers with whom to interact, not a bunch of boomers, several generation ahead.

I spent 10 years volunteering with a kids group teaching stamp collecting, and all of them were above average intelligence. I saw two at the show last week, and am in touch with one other. All in college now of course.

$25, but still unsold copies have the value of a door stop. I can understand the advertising dealers feeling bamboozled after buying ad space in a publication that did not circulate.

On the same theme of overpriced paper, I wonder how many $125 per copy Gems of Boston 2026 went unsold and what their aftermarket value will be. Coffee table books usually end upon the remainder tables at slightly above the cost to recycle the paper.

Here is an idea, scan the pages from the court of honor and place them on line for access. The gems could have also been handled that way.

I have said topicals is the wave of the future now for 3 or 4 decades. The APS has a young philatelist development program. One of those youth was at Boston talking about getting new collectors. I previously posted her comments in thi thread. I will do so again but to summarize her three reels, I collect topical which match my life activity interests. The platform they are on does not preview like a YouTube video so you need to hit the lick and click past the warning, if any, that one of the advertisers is tracking you. Or just copy and paste the link into your browser.

https://www.facebook.com/boston2026...53932760539/

https://www.facebook.com/boston2026...37573111789/

https://www.facebook.com/boston2026...01635850694/

PSE and card companies have figured out what the young kids want.
They are booming hobbies. Pokémon, go figure?
Unfortunately philately has not figured it out yet

And the boomers here. Uggg