Proposed Merger Of The APS And Asda

W/r to A & D stamps, the owner, Jim Dempsey, is over 90 years old and his wife passed away a short while back. Given that and the massive size of his stock, I assume that getting started w/r to developing an active website may not be a priority at this stage. It'll be interesting to see what develops in terms of what happens to his business/stock when it passes on to whomever.

I see what you did there.

Yes, but he has a lot of young people working with him too, half the time, he hardly shows up at the table at shows, he just wanders around. Besides, that was just an example, there are plenty of sellers doing the same thing.

Well, I suggest you pick another example. To call the A&D situation "ludicrous" is a bit over the top. It's his business and I presume he's happy; maybe when the young people (or whoever) take over, they can cater to your wants and needs.

"Then you can look at people like A&D Stamps. They have a ton of stock but you can either walk into their physical store or see them at a show, otherwise, you can't buy from them at all. That's ludicrous. "

First of all, they do not have a physical store. More importantly, they were so successful and so busy working up stock for and doing shows that they had neither the interest nor the time to also do internet sales. In more recent years, they started doing less shows as the travel wore on them as they aged and then did do some want list by mail sales, but it was solicited thru their mailing list and thru contacts at shows and not by internet. Worked for him and you don't have to like it.

"Yes, but he has a lot of young people working with him too, half the time, he hardly shows up at the table at shows, he just wanders around."

At the office, it was just him, his wife and one woman. The others you have seen at shows are merely working for him during the show. I worked for him at his booth at the 2016 International show in NY and a couple of other shows and "half the time, he hardly shows up at the table at shows, he just wanders around" is far from the truth.

" It'll be interesting to see what develops in terms of what happens to his business/stock when it passes on to whomever."

The stock will be sold and not passed on as his daughter does not have the knowledge to run the business.

I don't know the last time I went to an individual dealer site. I will buy some from a mass site like Hip but I spend way more at the 2 brouses I go to each month and way more at the shows.

The ASDA website seems out of date.

I saw one person elsewhere stated the purpose was to hire Dana Guyer.

I like the phrase "reputable dealer and honest collector". Has there been a problem with honest collectors?

Not updated web site is not surprising for a mostly volunteer run association.

Yes there are lots of non honest collectors just like anything involving money. Buying then not paying, bad checks, credit charge backs, swapping items on approval and on and on.

Any data to back these claims up?

Not to get political, but with the unexpected passing of Stanley Piller, the new ASDA president appears to be solely fixated on his pet social cause and his personal efforts therein, which has been placed front and center in the pages of the ASD&C magazine in recent issues. It wouldn't be the first time that an organization's vehicle has been hijacked thusly, but it doesn't look good, especially when there is potential controversy surrounding an issue; the appearance is that the entire organization and it's membership are as supportive as the person banging the drum.

I've heard some grumbling, and I'll leave it at that.

It has been every time I've seen him recently. They were at SESCAL and Jim was mostly wandering around the show floor talking to other dealers. He had 4-5 other people working the booth and he came and went as he pleased. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, Jim is a great guy, he's earned the ability to step back and A&D was an example of how a lot of dealers operate, not a condemnation of their inner workings.

Dealers LIKE A&D need to get out of the 80s. Dealers like the ones in the back of American Pholatelist need to develop a web presence. Otherwise they will not survive moving forward. Heck, my wife was asking how some of these companies made it through the pandemic since there were no shows and nobody could go into their shops. It's a basic survival tactic.

Cephus, I've found that dictating how people should run their businesses is the province of people who have never had to run one. Do you have numbers that would justify expanding a stamp business enough to offset having more genuinely useful employees (instead of part-time minions) and offset more expenses including the cost of borrowed money to fund expansion?

A&D has always been Dempsey's hobby and retirement business; expansion has never been a concern. The stock size is based on what could be stuffed in a van to be taken to shows. The stock was purged once (and not very thoroughly IMO) where there were once many dozen copies each of common packet-type stamps plus (expected) faulty or misidentified to boot. It's trending back in that direction. Instead of having a general backup stock, The Boxes generally included everything worked up and priced including duplicates. So the stock size was always rather deceptive vs. what collectors thought was there.

It's really sad how many people can't read.