K. Bileski, Station B, Winnipeg

I acquired this very plain cover some time ago and happened to come across it today. A quick search on Google revealed that the sender, K. Bileski, was a fairly renowned Canadian stamp dealer. Some background on Bileski can be found at:

http://www.saskatoonstamp.com/prs_bileski.html

http://johnapfelbaum.blogspot.com/2...bileski.html

Tomiseksj, thanks for sharing the Sasktatoon Stamp article with us. Unfortunately, I only made one purchase from Mr. Bileski and received a great set of Irish stamps from him. It was a sad day when his business closed a few years after his death.

My pleasure. I had no idea who he was until I read the Saskatoon article -- it quickly became apparent that he had an impact on our hobby.

K. Bileski was well known for his variety of covers etc.

He used to use his U.S. address during the Canadian postal strikes so that his business had little interruption.

Chimo

Bujutsu

The cancel was from an Universal machine.

Interesting. I somehow knew if I typed it in the search something would come up. I was thinking K Bileski Station B was a Post Office :)

I have probably 100 items I bought from Kas as I live in Winnipeg, as well as from his other family members Walter and Randy. Some I own are extremely rare and valuable. He had a way of coming across very unique items and was extremely knowledgable.

I had heard his collection was sold at Eastern Auction by family for around the 3 mil mark but I have not confirmed such.

Kas actually had a separate house built specifically for stamps. Quite the enthusiast!

Many of the more modern Canadian errors were found by his brother Walter, who would sit for hours and sort through stacks of the same stamp looking for one error. I used to buy a lot of stuff that he viewed as "junk" but was quite exciting to sort through.

Based on the information on the original post Mr. Bileski was quite renowned. do these covers like the one I posted above carry any value ? Or are they pretty common (I'm thinking the latter as I have a couple of these I found in a collection)

Kas mailed a LOT of stuff so quite common for things like that.

And do those people who dealt with Bileski remember these? I think every single lot, item, page, whatever, that came from his Box # had a story along with it. Most often on these mimeographed pages (remember Gestetner machines? I think that is the spelling) and replete with accurate information along with the sales pitch.

Definitely an old time dealer and one that I came across early in my stamp collecting career when I landed a first teaching job in a tiny Northern Saskatchewan hamlet and revived a childhood hobby out of sheer desperation on winter evenings.

I was always surprised by how much of these info blurbs were handwritten, on the back flaps of those green or pink envelopes that were used so often. I don't know if Kas did all of the handwriting or if it was somebody else, but whoever it was, he must have been very fast with it because it wasn't just a word or two - huge long things, always in the same handwriting, always in pencil.

Ryan

Mr. Bileski acquired a great deal of the King Farouk Royal collection at auction in the 1950s. This is original envelope used by Bileski to sell a selection from the Farouk collection:



The price was reduced from $50 to $32. The handwritten note reads:

"If you have anyone interested in UPU stamps then this will sell. Absolutely no chance of getting elsewhere. K"



A lovely group of imperforates of the 1933 UPU commemorative stamps.

The stamps were printed on card, the backs of which were printed "Cancelled"


Today, these sell for much more than $32.

Although I never purchased stamps or covers from Bileski, I admire his approach to the hobby. He appreciated all aspects of philately, from the rare to the common items.

This is the 2nd one I found. Could that be the "Stamp House " he built in the Picture ? Some very interesting information here on a very unique Person, think I'll file these covers in the keep and enjoy box.

[URL=http://s40.photobucket.com/user/stallzer/media/British%20Commonwealth/Canada/Covers/CanadaCoverKBileskistationb_2_zpsee135de8.jpg.html"][/URL]




*EDIT* Not sure what's going on with the photobucket code.

I got back into the hobby too late to purchase from "Kas". I certainly would have, if only to get one of his written explanations.

I don't know why, but I just love his writing style. I have purchased some of his old catalogs just so I can read his personal views on various stamps. I always read anything on ebay that is listed showing his typed "explanation/sales pitch". They are classic.

Yes, that was the house.