Proposed Merger Of The APS And Asda

Great commentary EC. Your points about inventory hit home. There was a time when I thought about dealing in stamps. I had accumulated enough inventory of WW and US to fill hundreds of sales binders full as well as over 100 red boxes of 102 cards. It all filled over 30 large footlockers. Then came the realization that there was no cost-effective way to inventory what I had. As I acquired material, I processed it by identifying it, noting condition and of course noted the catalog value. All of that information was written on each sales sheet or card. Engaging in data entering and scanning each item was an insurmountable task for me. The thought of it gave me a migraine and eventually I sold everything in bulk.

Your Penny Black example is spot-on and applies to just about every stamp. Margins, faults, centering, cancels etc. could mean dozens or more inventory line items for just one Scott number.

The other issue is that you really have to have a broad selection unless you are highly specialized. People will only try you a couple of times if you don't have anything that they want to purchase and will move on.

I have to wonder how NYStamps handles inventory. Likely in a 35,000-foot fashion while turning and burning? I mean they don't have a store really. They just list as it comes across the desk.

Rather than apples & oranges, you have apples & stamps which are very very different in so many ways. Instead of growing apples, you have to compete with other sellers to buy inventory. Instead of selling large numbers of the same apple to a grocery store or apple sauce or pie maker you are selling a single example of a stamp to a collector. Two growers might grow the same type of apple, but no two stamp dealers have he same stock, and different collectors collect different things, and even if two collectors come into show looking for the same thing, they might head to two different dealers even if they both have the item in the same condition at the same price.

Inventory is a distinct pitfall for most dealers. I think most show dealers are approximating.

My ( ebay) stock is small enough that I code every item and track it (in excel); it's a burden but it generates very precise results. For dealers who buy and sell in the same year and everything goes, individual items don't really matter (just the aggregate). Where inventory is held and revenue is recognized in different years, things can get complicated.

On the issue of internet versus dealers, one problem is stock organization. For my ebay stock, I keep everything sorted by my inventory code (so I can find it when it sells). That makes a big mess for a show - I realized that I would have to keep a whole second stock to do shows meaningfully, either to have a stock where people could find things or to make sure that I could track what was selling and take it down off of ebay.

EC.. helping out a female stamp dealer? Not too many out there. I'd love to hear more about your experience being a part timer and helping out.

I guess I would fall into a younger crowd. I've run non-philatelic conventions and stamp shows (really browses) Here in Minnesota, there's really no comparison between the two. Perhaps 40 years ago there was a closer proxy. I could go on and on about non-philatelic hotel contracts... the room blocks, AV and the food requirements (coffee costs HOW much a gallon?) It's an interesting business.

I run Metropex, the second largest show/browse in the state (insert joke here) It's two days with about a dozen dealers. We have no hotel, we are in a banquet room of a city building. The rent is reasonable and we did O.K. in 2022. I have the show booked for 2023 and as long as dealers will show up, I will keep on running it. One has to be clever to keep costs down. I worry about our monthly browses. Hard to get enough dealers and attendees. One word of advice to any show promoter... Don't skimp on the advertising but be smart about it.

My goal each show is to have as many people as I can find to show up and sell collections to the dealers. One aspect of being a dealer that Herman Hearst would say is that it can be hard to find stamps for one's stock. I've coaxed some bigger collectors to give stamp dealing a try and some really like it. Box lots at shows tend to go well in these parts.

Can Stamp Collectors be cheap? You bet! At our local club there was a motion to give free membership for those 90 or above was narrowly defeated. It could have bankrupted our club!

What's the next date for Metropex? Absent a family health emergency, or a haircut appointment, I'll make a point to attend...

I was stationed in Boston in the Coast Guard during the early 1990s. At the time, there were three bourses every month in the greater Boston area. I visited their booth one Saturday because she seemed to be the only dealer enjoying herself in this decent-sized bourse. Her husband (he'd been a career Naval officer) helped out (mainly handling their postal history), and over time, I befriended both. I expressed an interest in entering the trade, and she took me under her wing - a little - just letting me help her at shows when her husband couldn't go or helping during extremely busy periods with fulfilling orders if I wasn't at sea. She was a bourse/mail order dealer with a reasonably healthy mail list.

When her husband passed, she pulled back on the bourse side of her business and, in time, decided to retire, sold off her stock, and spent a good deal of her time traveling. She was generous with her time and knowledge. I remember a couple of years after the passing of her husband, she asked if I wanted to attend a concert. I thought, why not, then she told me it was in Vienna, Austria. I was just like, "what?"

She has long since passed, and I have many fond memories.

I would agree with the approximating. My point was the complexity. I can't even imagine getting the photos to upload tens of thousands of stamps to a website, ebay, or elsewhere. My game store friend can get photos for his website from his wholesalers/distributors and in many cases, their games are already in his inventory system, he just has to update the numbers.

Most large online dealers upload by .csv file, and they get their imaging done by a minimum-wage employee. I've worked for a major dealer as a describer for an hourly rate, and I took careful note of his inventory system for my own use.

That's how the big guys cope.

I have only around 600 items in my ebay store. I do a few a day and build slowly, and inventory at this level is easy.

I've never done a show and likely never will.

Here you go cjd!
METROPEX STAMP SHOW - 2023
Friday, Oct. 20, 2023: 10am to 5pm
Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023: 10am to 4pm
Roseville Skating Center
2661 Civic Center Drive
Roseville, MN

ec.. sounds like a pretty cool experience. I like stories when dealers really like being dealers and have fun with it. A few can be crabby! I almost got into a fistfight at a show with one particularly mean dealer once! If you ever want to quiet down the din of a show... I have the answer.

I consider that one of the the problems. If you go to many conventions, the seminars. keynote speakers, etc. are part of the attraction and gets people to pay to attend. Again, it is to broaden appeal. Many seem to want a free ride. I consider it a lost opportunity.




My point was there is something wrong with the fee system. If the group committed to give seminars (not one of those meet and greets like most are) in exchange for a free or reduced table that would be one way to handle it. Now, I have been told that people only come to buy and see exhibits. That is a dwindling group (dealers etc).

As long as these societies demand traditional venues one will have to deal with all the complaints (groups that have exclusive rights to perform certain tasks, union or not). It is life so accept or do something different.

Yes, free if you offer a talk, fee if you don't is a decent idea.

But I don't think it is the attending societies that are demanding shows be held at traditional venues.

Show fees suck if one of the objectives of the show is to introduce the hobby to non-collectors. A non-collector is typically not going to pay an admission fee just to take a look. They are not likely to enjoy looking at a 20 frame specialized exhibit that covers some philatelic minutia. Nor are they going to care about attending a 30+ minute highly detailed Power Point presentation on perforations or the marginal markings of US beer stamps. It is true that some shows have a 'kids area or activities' but not many non-collecting adults are not going to be found there.

In my opinion, the show scene has evolved to towards attracting existing collectors and having admission fees for these is just fine. So one big challenge is trying to support a wide diversity of audience.

Exhibits and presentation are also very difficult to put together in a way that makes them attractive to a very broad audience. To be honest, the same is true for a website or writing an article or book. Of course, if you make a new discovery folks will show up to see or hear about it, but this alone does not make it 'good'. Consider an author like Ken Lawrence, a person who knows how to write in a way that bring the topic alive while presenting outstanding research and maintaining accurate historical context. He is the kind of person who makes an admission fee seem very much worth it and would probably be enjoyed by even non-collectors. Unfortunately, very few of us can attain that level of content development.
Don

It's easy to sit back and throw criticisms at APS, ASDA, various shows, societies, dealers, etc. But I would challenge ALL collectors who want to portray the hobby as a "glass half full" to get off their butts and do something positive to "fill" the glass. To aspire higher. As broad comment about society, there are too many "someone else should do something" people and not enough actual doers. Make a New Year's resolution to DO something positive for the hobby.

Don't like the seminars at GASS? Volunteer to help APS recruit different topics and speakers. Or better yet, give one yourself. Don't like the exhibits? Then put in your own. Don't like the articles in the American Philatelist? Then write one for them. Don't like the decisions of the APS board? Then run for a board position. Or even just talk to a board member. Etc.

As for GASS, collectors attend GASS for many reasons. The sum is much greater than the parts. It is a combination of dealers, exhibitors, exhibits, societies, seminars, first day ceremonies, the USPS, youth area, etc. The absence of any one part diminishes the whole. Not each cog in the GASS wheel makes a profit, but is still a necessary part of a successful wheel. Much of it depends on unpaid and under-thanked volunteers. It is a wonderful social gathering to see long-time friends and meet new ones.

And thank the volunteers!

Re online inventory tracking, once you've established a system it can run pretty smoothly.

Currently have around 16,000 items listed on two stores, so not big but mid-size I'd say - and use a number of tools to keep track of it. Everything goes into an excel file - which I also use to bulk upload to my stores. Scans for all, usually done in bulk. My son helps with ID, organizing, etc.

Works well - except when one of the platforms changes the format, introduces a bug, etc. But that's life and is usually resolved pretty quickly.

Having it all in a spreadsheet also helps with analysis - which categories sell better, which collection lots had the best return, where my customers are, that kind of stuff... This really helps make the buying decisions more rational - since finding good material at a reasonable price is key.

~Greg

Well said John, helping out at a show can be fun. I can truthfully say our show would not exist without volunteers. I've tried to run a show with too few and it's a nightmare. I'm also thankful for the dealers, and the organizations and clubs who still do shows. I love to listen in on their stories. "I was only shot down once in Vietnam..."

I would think most people on this forum could give an awesome seminar or talk. Who here doesn't have a story to tell? One of the better recent talks I've seen was from a first-time presenter on scrambled indicia stamps. There was quite a bit I didn't know about those.