APS Stampshow 2017 Richmond, VA

Nice, angore. Thanks for letting those of us who couldn't make it to Richmond have a taste.

Nice looking show!

I recognize a few faces.

A few dealers I recognize... but quite a few I do not... presumably ones that don't make it to flyover country very frequently.

That's me seated in the light blue shirt and glasses in the first two pictures. Spent a solid 8 hours at the show today; it was not nearly enough time to see and do it all. Found some additions to my Barbados Ships and Marine Life varieties collections, lots of new Belgium Parcel Post cancels and quite a few 7-1-71 covers...among other interesting things. On the way out, found two postcards from areas near my small Pennsylvania hometown. All in all a quite satisfying vacation day. Get there if you can!

Thanks for the pics. I'm much looking forward to the 2019 APS show in Omaha.

I'm here in Richmond with my kids for the show. It's a good one!

Thanks. I plan to get more today. The lighting in the place is a tad dim to me but not unusual for exhibition hall.

Just curious since I never went to a stamp show. The crowd looks extremely light and not to be rude but old. At least I would feel young. What is the large table with all the stamps in he first picture?

The event does look large from the overhead view makes me want to drive the 5 to 6 hours to Richmond.

mkfarm, these pictures were taken on a Friday, so yes, a lot of the younger crowd have been working, and traffic would be lighter than on a weekend day. Stamp collectors do tend to skew older, but I did see plenty of kids there working the staff in the special kids area. There are 100! dealer tables, ranging from 10c stamps and quarter covers, all the way up to material that is more than you or I can probably afford. If you can't find it here, you either have a very niche specialty or a very highly developed collection. The table with the stamps spread out is for filling a bucket with stamps donated to the APS; $1 for kids, $5 for adults. Small expense for the time, not great material, but it depends on what you are looking for. There are also boxes and boxes and boxes (...) of covers in that area, all very affordable. There are many tables with dealers that specialize in certain eras or regions, and plenty of just general material: covers, postcards, mint sheets, plate blocks, stock certificates and the like. Worth the 1 hr drive for me.

Agreed, the stamp collecting hobby is not renowned for it's diversity.
Don

A word of caution. At least one car was burglarized in the parking garage on Friday. (Via door window). Victim, who was parked near me, said suitcase containing clothing was taken from back seat. Obvious suggestion here is be sure nothing is left in plain sight.

To Angore, thanks very much for posting those pics!

I am back at home (less than 3 hrs drive) and will post a few pics tomorrow. The APS meeting was packed and the town hall Q&A was curtailed due to conference room scheduling. The show seemed slow today as well but will let others chime in.

Scott English's message was quite good about the hobby. He made a comment about too many shows as diluting the product hence the move to do a joint show with ATA. I wonder if AFDCS declined. Americover show is next week.

I spent more time in the exhibits that I normally do but they still do not excite me. I think of it like trying to write a book on something but you being required to have actual artifacts before you can publish it.

Spent a couple days at the show. I've only been to about a half dozen shows, so I don't have a large sample size. But this is the first one where I had no trouble finding a seat at any dealers table at any time - several times I was the only customer. Just seemed pretty slow to me overall. The Harmer-Schau area was very busy though, as some of the pics above show, with folks inspecting lots they might bid on in the auction.

I also was not thrilled when I arrived at the hotel and found out the parking was in a public garage with no apparent security in downtown Richmond. My car was going to be there for three nights after driving all the way from Arizona on an extended trip beyond the stamp show and I really didn't need any broken windows for my trip back. So I literally cleaned the car out, brought all bags and stuff to my room so anyone peering in could see there was nothing to steal. Sorry to hear that other folks encountered some trouble.

I did enjoy some of the single frame and thematic exhibits - frankly a lot more interesting to me than the in depth treatment of various specialized subjects put together by the more serious exhibitors. I admire them for all of the knowledge they have accumulated over years of experience and the effort they put into their exhibits, but I just can't get into these exhibits much.

Great Pics...well done Angore.