Just got back home about 3 hours ago.. exhausted and broke as expected.
Weather for the drive up on Thursday and back today was great: chilly in the mid '30s but sunny. Apparently there was rain and snow in the intervening days, but since I stayed at the show hotel, I didn't have to deal with it.
The hotel had been remodeled somewhat since last year; actually last year it was under construction during the show, which was a pain. It now has a bit more open feel in the lobby, all the eateries have been redone, and the hotel giftshop is gone, replaced with a large area with couches, chairs, and tables for people to sit.
It all works, but... and this is a huge BUT... the lobby and and sitting areas are dark as [CENSORED]. That sadly hasn't been improved by the remodel. It is virtually impossible to do any reading or any other activities that don't involve a backlit electronic device.
Thursday afternoon I met up with a few fellow collectors to catch up on how things had been since last year. I spent Thursday night with a revenue-stamped paper collection that a dealer brought for me that I ultimately did not end up buying... too expensive.
When the show opened at 10AM Friday morning, the queue waiting to get in seemed a bit shorter than in past years. Some of the dealers remarked the same. Over the course of the weekend I didn't hear anyone complaining about sales though.
There was a shoplifting incident at a dealer booth and a man was taken out in handcuffs, all the while loudly proclaiming that he was going to sue the dealer. It takes all kinds...
Friday afternoon right after the show closed for the day, I met up with a fellow collector to do some horsetrading (no horses were harmed in the process). I think we both got some interesting new material.
I REALLY had to prioritize and balance my purchases this year, more so than usual. There was a lot of fresh material. Three dealers that almost never have U.S. revenue material had good stuff, two of them having stocks of cancels that had yet to be plundered. I changed that status.
I bought not only for my collection, but some items were so cheap that I just had to buy them to flip.
I had the opportunity to buy an R84a on document (only 2 currently reported), and while I could have afforded it, it would have meant buying virtually nothing else. It had a great socked-on-the-nose handstamp cancel, but it had some downsides IMO: (1) cut in at the bottom, (2) late 1864 date along with a darker shade than I like to see on an R84a. It had an APEX cert, but I think I would have always questioned it. I could have sent it into the Philatelic Foundation, but given the high catalog value of the stamp, the cert cost alone would have been $550.
I think I'll ultimately get more enjoyment out of the things I ended up buying...
Speaking of which, the material I bought runs the gamut of things I have posted about here in the past:
Cancels
Plate varieties
Documents
Illegal usages
I also purchased several covers for my half-cent postage due collection, including the J88 cover I posted about earlier. Through some discussion and sumo wrestling, I was able to get the dealer to come down 60% off his original asking price, which brought it into the realm of what I was willing to spend on it.
Another fellow collector happened to have his revenue-stamped paper duplicates with him and was willing to leave them with me, so Friday night I worked until midnight going through them and ultimately picked out 73 pieces to add to my burgeoning RN collection.
So that's it for 2017. Pictures coming... eventually.
Posted 11/19/2017 10:12 pm
