Most Influential Philatelists

I, too, am aware of this person and his various crimes. It is hard to not do business with this person, due to the size and breadth of his current operation. Over the years, I have had a SEVERE problem with patronizing his company.

In his defense (this almost makes my stomach turn...) his crimes do appear to be in his past. Other than the typical disagreements between collectors and dealers, I am not aware of any crimes (or rumors of them, but I am certainly not in the loop as much as I used to be) in the last many decades. My mother taught me to "forgive and forget", but I must say she was a better person than I. I have certainly not forgotten, and have only forgiven to the point where I do business with this person, as needed, begrudgingly.

As for making this particular list, I agree that this person should not belong. But then, my 'list' and Linn's list would be quite different throughout. I agree with perhaps half of their entries. I disagree vehemently with one or two only.

Who cares. What difference does it make. The amount is however much the collector felt like putting into it. The fact remains, that without those types of collectors, dealers would have a more difficult time selling inexpensive material to everyone else, because too many of those sales are not particularly profitable. And as I said before, most collectors would never see many rarities without them exhibiting.

There must be some number that gets you on "the list". I bet it's a BIG number.

I would apply that criteria for an honors list not an influential list. Bad characters can be very influential and it would be fair game to note it in their writeup on what they did that influenced the hobby.

Of course it's a BIG number. They are/were in a position to spend a BIG number. That should not be held against them. Serious money is always going to be influential somewhere, and doing so in this hobby is a much better place then many others.

I say the number is irrelevant. It is more about celebrity and fame. If Kim Kardashian came out as a stamp collector there would be a huge increase in collectors even if she collected CTO Dunes in a $5 stockbook. People are sheep. How many average people actually know who Bill Gross is?

I discovered something interesting this week. Apparently, Lee Harvey Oswald and his brother collected stamps in their youth. Source: Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi.




I'm glad you framed the question in this manner. I would answer, "Probably a lot fewer than who know that Bill is gross!"



John

Given the criteria of the list, I would agree. But then frame the page-long 'tribute' explaining the person's 'warts' that got him on the list.

I have been a continual subscriber to Linn's for decades (3? 4?) and have tended to renew at the last minute. In recent years, I have found that I have been reading the paper less and less. A few weeks ago, I received one of those "We Miss You" notices from them in the mail. I looked back in my records and realized that I had not been receiving Linn's for a few MONTHS and I hadn;t even noticed until they told me. I had to ask myself, "How did you miss that??" I decided that I am getting all my stamp news from other sources like right here, the AP, etc. Although Linn's has some value in the hobby, I realized that it's value TO ME has waned over the years, to the point where I don't even miss it. Oh well.

While I don't have Bill Gross' money, I respect his stamp collections AND his donations to the stamp collecting community, chiefly through the National Museum. That, alone, has had an influence on many, many stamp collectors and potential collectors. Most certainly not gross.

Just to be clear, I was not referring to THAT Bill. I was referring to a generic Bill.



John

Most collectors of that stature are already well known if they want to be. Especially in the past, anyone with that kind of money was known. Most of those collectors did not seem to care about celebrity, or at least did not use philately per se to achieve it. The average person couldn't care less about stamps anyway, and fame among other philatelists is hardly what one would call "big time".

Bill Steiner revolutionized my collecting, that's for darn sure. But Linn's isn't about to give him free print space - they'd just as soon that no one in the wider collecting community was even aware that his work exists at all. They sure as heck don't want people knowing that they can get access to pages covering the entire world to date for less than the cost of what Amos charges for a single binder.

I can't imagine that anyone is remotely surprised by this.

So the three most important people in the past 20 years who improved the collecting experience and made a impact on the most philatelist are Bill Steiner with his pages , with Tom at SAN's and our Don on this board ,all working with hundreds if not thousands of people all with their computer work .

This was no mistake , notice the company and people who made that Influence list were better off before the acceptance of the internet and computers .