White Ace / Washington Press Is Going!

It's been reported on the Stamp Collecting Forum that Washington Press, a major producer of first day covers and album pages is going out of business.

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Sad information, indeed. I did business with them for many years.
Respectfully submitted:
jrc531

Until I started making my own I used White Ace pages exclusively and I still use White Ace blank pages for some of my collections.

The August brothers' Washington Press has been around since the 1930s, sorry to see this iconic firm go.


don

Wonder if anyone will be continuing any of their product line. I use their 'Stampmounts' in some of my collections. Maybe Subway will pick them up?

This may be the final straw for me collecting new issues. I use White Ace albums for my Israeli tab issues, and if they are no longer going to be producing pages, I am not sure I should continue collecting the new issue tabs. Considering that the dealer who has been providing me with the new issues (Garel) passed away 2 weeks ago, and I would have had to find a new source for the stamps. I will likely continue to collect Plate blocks (I get those direct form the philatelic service, and put them on vario pages.

Sad day for American collecting, White Ace has been a popular album series for so many years. Quality was amazing on their pages. But, lately their prices had become quite high, and with the ability of collectors to design pages at home as good as, if not better, than White Ace, not alas a surprise they are calling it a day.

Adam- I had no idea George had passed. I last bought from him some months ago. Sadly I assume no one will be carrying on the business, it seldom happens.

Washington is running a 40% off sale on most of their products. It is not clear if their mounts are included so I sent them an email asking and also clued them in that rumors are all over the place about them and maybe they need to bring their customers into the discussion. I would assume Subway may be taking over supply of a few of the more popular products such as the binders and maybe blank pages.

I will miss them. I wasn't a big customer, but they had some items that I either couldn't find elsewhere, or just seemed to be what I needed. I used their White Ace pages for my air mail collection of both singles and plate blocks. And when I was putting together a collection of air mail FDC's with plate blocks, I turned to Artcraft for the later issues to complete the collection as suitable covers never seemed to show up on ebay, but Artcraft had them.

Yes, I was stunned by the news of George passing. I had talked to him not too long ago. I was trying to reach him just after new years with some questions and I saw his info wasn't on ASDA site anymore, so I dug a little further and found this: http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/di...mid=6741975. I haven't heard if anyone will take over the business, or if the last issues of 2015 will be sent out (I assume they were already in hand when he passed away.

I think we can expect more in the future

One of my first albums was a White Ace Commemorative singles set of pages that I got as a holiday present in 1963! It will be hard to imagine a philatelic world without them. I wonder if perhaps the reason they haven't made any announcement could be they are negotiating with someone to take over production on some of their products. I hope so.

I couldn't pull up George's obit from the link posted. He was a fine man- his prices weren't the lowest but he was honest and provided good quality and service.

In Memory of
George Garfinkel
July 23, 1932 - January 3, 2016
Obituary

George Garfinkel, 83 years old of Woodmere, NY died peacefully January 3, 2016. Devoted husband of Babe for 61 years, dedicated brother of Vicki Gleeman, and loving father to Laurie and Jon Michaels, Cheryl and David Garfinkel and Sharon and Michael Knight. Adored grandfather, Zayda to Andrew, Perry, Deena, Justine, Lucas, Ryan and Cameron. Memorial donations may be made to the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America http://ccfa.org

Another ripple effect will be that other philatelic publications will be losing advertising money from this company. Probably a minor effect, but none the less still a thing.

Does anyone have a link or concrete information about Washington Press and White Ace shutting down to support this post or is it just a rumor?

And the thought had recently crossed my mind that the hobby could not be in that steep a decline if there were still so many sources of albums & pages & binders & ...

Sad to hear that we lost yet another well-liked dealer.

/s/ ikeyPikey

From what is being posted at The Stamp Collecting Forum it is not a rumor. They've disposed of their building, and Panda Cachets has apparently acquired some of the self-servicing customers.