Great American Stamp Show - Anybody Attend?

What happened to the Jenny? It looks as if a truck ran over it.

It does. Maybe they thought no one would notice Also, I noticed in the write up it says that C3 was issued in 1924 to inaugurate air mail service when it was actually 1918.

Rick2 and others - thanks for the followup comments and pics. GASS in Hartford and grandkids hopefully next year. Made hotel reservation already.

Angore.....it was during the pre show set up.....some volunteers got to get in early to help. The dealers were visiting other dealers, making their "deals".

Yeah.....wth? The Jenny case looks like it was splattered with snowballs containing rocks.....

I did not attend the GASS but I think the comments made regarding demographics at the two shows is telling. I have collected historical autographs and manuscripts and Facebook forums for this tell a similar story.

The younger generation with money to spend in autographs and sports appear to confine themselves primarily with slabbed items authenticated by Beckett, PSA and the like. They do not feel comfortable buying raw and often lack the confidence to recognize genuine items without a TPG telling them so. They also, appear to favor cut signatures, words purported to be in the hand of someone famous (again slabbed by TPG) and partial or fragmentary manuscripts as opposed to complete documents or letters. Historical documents being cut up to reach these proportions not uncommonly done. This would have been sacrilege in the past. They do not however confine themselves to recent history and as with card collectors going after famous people of history, often distant history.

Coins, also for the most part, slabbed also appear to be readily accepted by all age collectors. By contrast, stamps, which by their size and fragility would appear to be perfect fr slabbing remain the only collectible of the types mentioned, where slabbing has not been accepted. The historical documents and currency as well as early coinage are not used anymore either but the younger crowd nonetheless have tracked them down. It remains to me an unanswered question as to why stamps seem to lag comparatively in the world of collectibles or the consciousness of the younger generation. The digital age has replaced letter writing to a great extent and yet historical letters are readily collected and postal history seems to alive and well but the adhesives I think are dwindling—the interest shown by members of this forum notwithstanding.