World Stamp Show Ny2016 - At The Show

Have to say that I did adore the show. Both husband and mine first. It was great timing so we turned it in to an anniversary/belated honeymoon trip and was worth going broke lol. He finally succumbed to the bug and decided to start collecting and I saw some stunning exhibits and pieces of postal history. The talks could have had more beginner level topics and the talk on the impact of Internet and stamp collecting was really just a big ad for StampFinder, but it was still a wonderful show.

Does anyone know what the final attendance/registration figures were? I've tried to find announcement -- no success.

The future-of-the-hobby panel discussions feel more like future-of-the-business-side-of-the-hobby panel discussions.

To be fair, the dealer-advertisers see more of the hobby than individual collectors and, thought we are all omniscient geniuses, even we tend to be more interested in hearing what people who see more of the hobby see (for a change).

After all, we can listen to each other - or just talk past each other - right here.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I liked the show

I was able to attend the show only for one day (opening day on Sat) and got a terrible case of food poisoning after that and ended up taking the train back home early. I spent enough of my money on the day I was there. When to one talk and as noted above was very disappointed with it..."just a big ad for StampFinder"

Otherwise I enjoyed what I could see on the one day I was there.

I was able to pop in to the show a few times while I was up visiting my kids. A few random impressions:

-- The show itself was great; I still find myself wishing that I had had more time to spend there. Although I was disappointed that I wasn't able to participate more in the auctions due to the relatively high level material being sold most of the time, I did get a relatively modest item in one of the Siegel auctions in a funny way. The auction room was full and I hadn't had time to get a paddle, so I sat outside and bid online through SAN while listening to the auctioneer inside the room call out my bid and award me the item.

-- I found myself almost hyper ventilating trying to take in the exhibits since there were so many of them and the material was unbelievable. I focused on a few of the award winning ones as well as some of the topical exhibits and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I will say that the lighting left something to be desired, at least to my tired old eyes; I had a lot of difficulty reading the exhibits particularly in the back of the room.

-- I visited with a few dealers, all of whom were welcoming to a relative novice like myself. They all seemed pretty busy at least at the time I was there. However, I didn't venture near some of the higher end folks like Columbian Stamp Co where there was little activity and the folks behind the counter seemed to be vying for the "Best Dressed" award for the show.

-- The clerks at the U.S. Postal Service station were very helpful and kept things moving although most of us were spending a fair amount of time looking over the merchandise available. I happened to be looking for a particular item that apparently had been in high demand, but the clerk and her supervisor spared no effort to search through the piles of material until they finally found one for me.

-- The Court of Honor was simply amazing with the greatest collection of rare items and fascinating material that I will probably ever see in my lifetime.

-- For me the various meetings and seminars that I was able to attend represented the best part of the experience. Even though the ones I attended were quite specialized and in areas that I wasn't much familiar with, I learned a lot in a short time and was very impressed with the passion that the folks in the room displayed concerning the subject at hand. In one session the guy sitting next to me managed to talk me into joining the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society as an additional resource to help me with my continuing education since I collect mainly U.S.

-- Re a point on which revcollector properly reprimanded me a while back when we were having our headbutting on NY vs NJ, the extension of the 7 subway line to the beautiful new Hudson Yards Station made getting to the Javits Center a cinch. Since I was staying in NJ with the kids and driving into the Port Authority, having the subway available made a big difference in getting to the show more easily.

-- Although I tried to go to the show on another day, the traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel was at a standstill for a long time so I literally gave up and decided to run around NJ and NY State on a nostalgia visiting where I was born, where I lived for a while, and finally ending up in White Lake NY visiting the museum on the field where the original Woodstock music festival took place in August of 1969. Nothing to do with stamps, but it made the overall trip more enjoyable.





Overall, the experience has me thinking a bit more about possibly attending the APS show in Portland in August

The dealer I worked for had a sales total that was 25% higher than he had at the 2006 international in Washington DC. Of course being NYC, his expenses were also higher, and I'm not sure if his bottom line net was higher or lower than in 2006.

@Ikey

I totally see what you mean and having someone on the business end would be great in general. But in this case the seminar claimed to be a look at the hobby as a whole and its evolution in regards to the Internet, not just one site's business therein. A good number of people left once they saw it wasn't going to be a look at other aspects of the web/philately marriage.

Just needed more honest billing is all.

I suspect a major issue at the show was simple logistics. I didn't see any lockers there. Security issues could be addressed by having only booth holders bringing merchandise to the lockers, but a buyer should be able to rent a locker, browse the bourse and stock up on heavy items such as collections in albums, and then at the end, drive up and load everything. I was only there part of one day but I did not see any such opportunity. I bought loads of discount postage and had to lug it around.

This is 43 minutes long and it still missed a large chunk of the show, but it does show a lot.



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That must have been the first day of the show. I never had to stand in line to enter the Court of Honor in the seven days I was there.

I'm part way through the video, have seen one SCF member so far.

My brother, who was also working at the show is in it, but I am not. That area of the show is not shown. However some friends are at the American Revenue Assn booth. I went into the Court of Honor 4 times and never had to stand in line. It must have been pretty early too, since the kids area only seemed to have volunteers, no kids yet.

Strange we gone almost three weeks since the show and NO press release , NO numbers for attendance , NO dealer comments , NO official statements yet . What's going on ?????. This is the computer age ,balanced the books and show some kind of financial data like I did for 12 years in the brokerage business before 9:30 am each morning . This tells me something is up and no one wants to open their mouth .
3 weeks and NO general statement of how it went -----

floortrader,

I am with you. I have long suspected that this hobby is dwindling down and is causing a significant reduction in demand. I also suspect that if the results are publicized, it will reflect my suspicions. They haven't even issued basic statistics such as attendance.

Jack Kelley

Seriously, how hard is it the release attendance, or at least a general ballpark figure?