Metropex - Twin Cities Holiday Stamp Show

METROPEX
Sponsored by Maplewood Stamp Club
NOTE: This is a Friday-Saturday show.

Roseville Skating Center
2661 Civic Center Dr
Roseville, MN 55113
Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2661&...20MN%2055113

Friday, December 2 - 10:00 - 5:00
Saturday, December 3 - 10:00 - 5:00

Added to calender, Thanks Smauggie !

Greetings:

I found this thread using the search function seeing if I could find any info on this:



I also have a brochure from the 1974 show.

Smauggie - If you read this and would like these items for yourself or your club, shoot me an email. I have no desire for them, but don't want to throw them out either. Free (I'll even pay postage).

If smauggie declines, let me know as I am also a Minnesotan.

Lol! I knew stallzer would not be able to keep from chiming in.

I am interested in the items you have offered MrEos.

Please email me. smauggie@gmail.com

Stallzer - it's your lucky day. When I saw that two people were interested, it sparked a memory cell that I might have another one off these tucked away somewhere. It was in the fourth place I looked (and last place I could think of). Send me your address and I'll send it to you. mreos (at) charter (dot) net.

I only have one of the brochures, but I scanned it. Can't post it here as it is a PDF and too large, but you can download from http://www.minnesotacats.com/Stamps/Metropex74.pdf The listing of Hamernick's in the brochure brings back fond memories of the Saturday mornings my dad brought me there to pick through the box of loose stamps. I always dreamed of finding an upside down Jenny, or Scott #1. Good times.

Awesome, thanks !

I read the brochure. Wow, they had exhibits at the show. Now it is just a bourse. Maplewood Stamp Club must have been huge in 1974.

Now if we can just get Stallzer to joins us.

I can make that one! 1/2 mile from work!

Stallzer - if you sent your address, it got lost in the interweb. Please send again. I tried emailing you through the system, but as a new member SCF system assumes I'm a spammer and won't let me.

P.S. to warrehouse - I revived an old thread. This event was last year. Watch for announcement of this year's event.

It was picking though that box of stamps at Hamernicks that made me come up with the swimming pool of stamps. At Hamernicks it was just a large cardboard box, but still lots of fun. In case some of you missed it I wrote an article about this stamp store...





Hamernick Stamp Store



The following story is true, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. When I was about 14 years old, I realized that the closest real stamp store to my home was a bus trip away. My destination was the Hamernick Stamp Company at 524 Rice Street. It took me some time to find out where the place was since every time I asked someone where it was they directed me to Hamernick Paints which was also on Rice Street, but a long walk north.

The Rice Street and University area where Hamernick Stamp Company was location wasn't the nicest neighborhood in the mid 80's. The Faust Theater was already on its way to a seedy reputation and I made sure to steer clear of that corner as soon as I hopped off the bus. I usually went on Saturday mornings since that is when the red MTC bus stopped in front of my house. It was much more fun to go with a buddy.

One early spring morning I boarded the red MTC 16G bus with a friend of mine I will call Frank. Frank was two years younger than me. Luckily for us the bus stopped right outside my house. A postal employee rode the bus every day and this assured that the route would stop at my corner. I plunked 35 cents into the till and the bus lumbered down the street belching a cloud of diesel smoke.
Hamernick Stamps was in a row of two-story business buildings that were already well past their prime in the 1980's. The bus dropped Frank and I at the corner of University and Rice and we walked a block or so north to philatelic paradise. A smoky haze hung in the air as we opened the door. An old geezer sat behind a glass table with tongs in hand looking over a fat stockbook of stamps. He briefly looked up from the stamps and quickly resumed his duties well aware that a couple of kids entering his store would not boost sales too much on this Saturday.

There were other people in the store too, mostly older men who my eyes looked to be at least in their 50's. It was hard to tell if they were collectors or worked in the store. Perhaps both. I quickly went to the large well-worn box of used US stamps that were three pennies apiece. I found this was the best way to stretch my dollar, which was exactly the amount I had to spend. Frank pawed through a smaller box filled with better stamps, although with the corners missing and holes in them even at my young age I recognized as space fillers. Heck a 10 cent Louisiana Purchase stamp for a corner missing about a tenth of its surface area was still a deal.

After about an hour I had fished out my 30 odd stamps out of the box and I was ready to pay for my booty. Frank bought a couple stamps out of the damaged box. With my funds exhausted I was sad to leave. Someday I vowed I would just buy a stamp out of that big old stock book behind the counter. A "real stamp" with good centering and a light cancel. Maybe I'll settle for just good centering.
We were ten paces outside the door when Frank took a fat-looking glassine out his pocket. Inside I could see that there were plate blocks inside and a healthy stack of them too. I immediately suspected foul play. I was even more shocked when I realized that they were the 5-cent Space Twins stamps! At the time they retailed at the magnificent sum of a dollar or so for each plate block. My so-called "friend" just swiped about $20 in stamps. I was mortified and demanded that he return the stamps. I turned around and began to march back to the store. Frank began to beg and plead that his dad would kill him if he got caught. We had no way of knowing what would happen if we went back in the store and have Frank apologize for his mistake. In the end I grudgingly walked back to the bus stop with Frank, still arguing all the way.

On the way back the bus dropped us off at the Hillcrest Station as a warm spring afternoon breeze blew, causing little ripples in the snow melt puddles of the streets and parking lots. Pausing in the middle of the Presentation School parking lot Frank took out the stamps to have a look at them, while I still argued he should bring them back Right then a gust of wind flipped the glassine from his hand and it landed face down into a puddle. He swiftly snatched the glassine from the puddle but the damage had been done. The water had seeped in one corner and the stamps were well on their way to becoming fused.

That was the end of my friend's philatelic venture. The sad part was that after that I traveled to Hamernick's alone. I often wondered if anyone missed the stamps that Frank took. I went to the Hamernick Stamp Company a few times after that. I did wind up buying a stamp out of that stock book. It cost me a whole quarter too. When I had knee surgery a year later, my mom bought me a Harris Liberty Stamp Album and I spent ten dollars on a half-pound bag of stamps off paper to go through. After many days I had a great used United States collection. A few years later Hamernick shut down and was replaced by a music store. The building is still there today, now shuttered looking sad quiet and dark as traffic whizzes by on Rice Street. I sometimes wonder if that box of three-cent stamps is still in there, forgotten in a dusty corner.

My apologies as I had forgotten about this thread. There is a good chance you might see me there this Winter.