Bileski Letter And Envelopes.

Hi guys...Just picked up this letter and 2 small envelopes that have been done by typewriter...Looks real..???

Robert

Bileski had an amazingly long run as a dealer. I have old stamp publications from the 1930's with his ads. I think he was active into the first decade of this century, and always from Winnipeg.

And he would use nice covers when mailing orders

Funny that Bileski comes up twice in one day. I found this researching the inverted Seaway stamp.

The first report of the discovery of the Seaway Inverts was when a young office boy from the Marlborough Hotel in Winnipeg purchased 30 stamps from a Post Office outlet in the Eaton's store on August 20, 1959. Kas Bileski told me he purchased 26 of those in early September of 1959 from the office employees for $1,000 each. In Charles Verge's article in Scott Stamp Monthly, April 2003, he reported that those other four were used on letters mailed by Mildred Mason, the lady responsible for the mail at the Marlborough Hotel on that same day.

The Marlborough, really?! I stay there for a few days every year when I hit the Fringe Festival. The Eaton's was just down the street; it closed 10-15 years ago.

I collect stamp dealer covers from time to time. Here's one from Kasimir Bileski from 1945. Probably carried an order or maybe a price list. He was one of the long-time dealers for sure. The return corner of the cover says Stamps Since 1940, but from what I have read he started dealing stamps in 1920 and operated from his Winnipeg address from 1937.

Don

The covers shown all have Bileski's address as "Station B, Winnipeg" an address he had used for decades. When Canada Post made him add a Box number he was resistant and very unhappy with the post office.

Bileski was probably the best stamp dealer in history. He had - I think - a list of steady customers - and he would send them stuff that he knew would interest them - always with an explanatory letter and the price. He was also one with an eye to increasing value and investment. I've seen several of his notes which detailed the rarity of an item and what he thought would happen to it.