Visiting The APS Headquarters?

I'm a 23-year member of the APS, but have never visited Headquarters. Just so happens that I will be traveling to Penn State University (State College, PA) for work on Monday. I would have a couple of free hours Monday afternoon and thought about going over to APS for a visit.

Is a visit to APS Headquarters worth it? Are there things to see and do there? I assume it is not a far drive from the university?

Any thoughts or personal experiences welcome.

Chris

Visitor review.

https://goscf.com/t/55872&whichpage...arters,visit

Chris ----Before you go ,sit down and make a list of all the philatelic subjects you want to know more about . Make a good size list on various subjects . Then plan on visiting the Library section and walk out with as much as you can because you can mail back the books .Make a list of extra books that can be mailed to you later on in the year.
Please leave a few bucks as a donation to the library .The last time I was there I spend three days just photo/scanning various books or chapters onto a micro chip that I purchased at the drug store and inserted into their scanner .Went home happy with a whole library to install into my computer .

Thanks ! I knew I saw a discussion on this topic before, but I search skills failed me.

Great ideas floortrader, I will do that.

Sounds like it will be well worth the trip since I will be in the area.

We hope you'll stop by while you're in the area. There is more than enough to do in a single day. I highly recommend visiting the library and the Gift/Stamp and Cover Shop. For your planning purposes, the shortest tour takes about 30 minutes. The full tour is 60 minutes. You can also stop by Circuit Sales if you want to look through the sales book, that can last as long as you want. Typical visit time there is three hours.

If I can answer any questions, please let me know.

Scott

Definitely take the tour. As for the library, you can search online for its holdings in areas of special interest to you. Once you get a feel for what they have and how they work, then you can work with them online or by mail.

As for buying stamps, the circuit books are available. I skipped the stampstore holdings as I can see them online.

I enjoyed the tour which I did about a month back. They have some interesting wall displays. The staff treats you like royalty. They have a small store with books and stamps. The original post office is cool. I could probably spend a day just browsing the library.

It is not that far from the university I would say give your self a half hour drive time. Remember the entrance is in the back of the complex.

Let us know how you made out Chris.....as mentioned, I went through Circuit books while I was there and picked up a Stamp Store order which I had placed in advance. As I understand it, you can not physically examine or just peruse any of the stamps that are listed on the Stamp Store. The library could occupy you for days, just going through the periodicals that are available.

Hi everyone,

I just returned from my trip to State College (had a meeting at Penn State). I went through Bellefonte on my way in on Monday. Got to the APS a little later that I hoped, but still had about one and a half hours there before they closed at 4:30. I briefly toured the build, loved looking at the stamp displays on the walls, then spent the rest of my time going through the circuit books. Got some nice Turkish stamps to add to my collection!

Then, before driving back home today, I decided I'd go back for a couple of hours, which I did first thing in the morning (this morning). I spend my time in the gift shop, and I purchased 30 stamps and a whole set of used Scott catalogs...total bill was $7.50

On Monday, I did walk around the library a bit, but found it to be a bit overwhelming unless you know exacting what you are looking for.

Overall, I had a great time, got some nice stamps for my collection, and picked up some much needed catalogs cheaply without needing to incur any shipping charges! And it was a beautiful town and a beautiful drive up from Maryland.

Thanks APS!

Good to hear you enjoyed the experience . Yes the library is overwhelming but as I said in a earlier posting have your list of interest made up before you enter because the place is a store house of information .