Stamp Dealers

Williams Stamp Company.

Just came across my desk.

P.Burnham Stone. San Diego California.
Must be from 1960's

Just became aware of this thread. Three others come to mind:

Viking Stamp Company, Great Neck NY
Downtown Stamp Company (NJ) - they STILL offer approvals
Castle Stamp Company, Flushing NY. If you google them, their ads appeared routinely in Boys Life and Popular Mechanics Magazine in the 1970s

Here is a link to the classified ads from the November, 1971 issue of Popular Mechanics. So many approval dealers!

https://books.google.com/books?id=S...20ny&f=false

And here is a link to the October 1970 issue of Boy's life, which also has a lot of ads for stamp approvals:

https://books.google.com/books?id=E...1970&f=false

Within the app on Google Books it's possible to find most issues of these and other vintage magazines, revealing many more stamp companies that were active "back when."

I recall seeing those adverts as a kid, at the back of "Phantom" comics.
(I am well read)

Charles Atlas was offering a route from getting sand kicked in your face.

I also see ....10c for a "Inverted error" Dag Hammerskjold.

Someone commented how many approval dealers at one time were based in New Hampshire. Anyone else remember Gordon Davidson? I cannot remember his location but he was in NH and had a long run, I think from the 30's up to around the mid 80's.

Collectors of British material may recall J. Sanders, philatelist. I still recall their address- 7, Commercial Road, Southampton.

My philatelic roots tie directly to Kenmore stamp company. I used to see their ads in all sorts of magazines when I was a lad in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One ad specifically- "100 British Colonies, 25c with approvals" pretty much started all this madness. When the envelope would arrive, they would also have another packet of 100 British Colonies for $1, and as I recall these were all different from the ones that came from the ad.

For whatever reason, Commonwealth stamps just reached out and grabbed me and were my sole collecting interest until perhaps 6 or 7 years ago. I used to save spare change from my allowance and from odd jobs I did, then gave the change to my Mom who would write a check for the the initial shipment and for the approvals. There was supposed to be a limit of one per household, but I sent for those stamps at least 4 times a year, sometimes in my brother's or sister's name. Shameful, but I was hooked badly by the time I was about 9.

Does anyone know the general time frame that North American Society of Philatelists was offering approval packets?

I have a handful of Canadian covers that are from Canadian dealers, somehow I don't have any US yet.. I'll post pictures a little later today.
-Willie

Alright so here are my dealer items.

The first is an approval sheet from The Carl Stamp CO.


The next is another approval sheet from Alfins Philatelic Connection.


This cover is from the Patapsco Stamp CO. That is from a mail plane that followed Lindberg on his flight.


These next 2 are from Marks' Stamp CO of Toronto.



And my last one is from The Hobby Club of Winnipeg.


Enjoy,
-Willie

Broadway Approvals, from my earlier days of stamp collecting.

I seem to remember Broadway Approvals's small ads at the back of comics in the early-'60s!

There was one I used to buy from when I was growing up in London (so we're going back to the late 1960's - early 1970's) called 'Omniphil.' No clue if they still exist or not. I also used 'Broadway Approvals' (love the covers shown above...I have a few of those buried somewhere as well...they bring back great memories of simpler times).

The Mission Stamp Mart.
Carey, Ohio.

This thread jogged my memory:

Continental Philatelics

I started receiving stamps from them when I was around 13 and continued through my early 20s. I found out they're still around.

Turns out that a lot of their material helped me build a great St Helena and New Caledonia collection. I did not know how valuable my collection was until many years later (in my early 40s) when I undertook the necessary endeavour of cataloging every single stamp I had.

I remember their logo, and the orange envelopes they came in... Plus the unique penmanship of the owner. I also remember being fascinated with the computer-generated invoices... They seemed so modern at the time - dot-matrix printing and all.

I just came across this one today.

Doug