Society Of Philatelic Americans

Can anyone tell me about what happened to the Society of Philatelic Americans (S.P.A.)? In the 50s, when as a boy I became a collector, it was a thriving organization. My dad, God rest his great soul, took me on the train from Indianapolis for an overnight in Chicago at the Congress Hotel to attend the S.P.A.'s Diamond Jubilee Convention in September 1954; he wasn't himself a stamp collector and the event couldn't have had much interest for him, but for me it was better than Disneyland (although it didn't exist yet). When I returned to collecting in my retirement the organization had disappeared without a trace, or at least I couldn't find anything about it on the internet. Anyone know?

The members died out. It was a rather narrow minded group of "Good Old Boys" who had split off from the APS when that organization started getting more inclusive after WWl.

Checkout this old thread containing some additional information about the now-defunct organization SPA:

https://goscf.com/t/7365

http://www.apfelbauminc.com/blog/na...c-societies/ ... narrative version

Thanks all for the information about the S.P.A and its demise. My internet search for it was obviously inept, which I guess shouldn't be surprising to a geezer. Now I wonder about the magazine titled "Stamps" that I used to buy at a city newsstand (remember those?) in the 1950s, which carried many hundreds of periodicals including a dozen or more out-of-town newspapers.

Stamps and Meekel's were purchased by John Dunn and now issued as "Meekeel's and Stamps"

sample issue
http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Ol...StampsTrial/

The Stamp Collector enjoyed some time as a Krause publication until Amos Publishing bought the Minkus line and the SC from Krause. It ceased operation. I thought it was good.

Sounds like the same old story. Small group of friends run the leadership of the S.P.A. and the same guy runs the sales department, running everything year in and year out with no outside audit .