APS Board Of Directors Takes Action On Two World Series Of Philately Shows

Oh no... disappointing news about SEAPEX and the Plymouth Show... let's hope things get better as the year goes on.

https://stamps.org/news/c/news/cat/...lately-shows

On January 26, the APS Board of Directors took action on two World Series of Philately shows, revoking the WSP status for SEAPEX and approving a bye request for the Plymouth Show.

SEAPEX

On June 12, 2023, the APS Board of Directors found the SEAPEX Committee violated the WSP rules. The Board gave the SEAPEX Committee until January 1, 2024, to remedy the violations. Although SEAPEX held a bourse-only show in September 2023, the Committee took no action to correct the violations or communicate with the APS. As a result, the Board unanimously approved revoking the WSP status for SEAPEX.

Plymouth Show (Scheduled for April 20-21, 2024)

The APS received a request from the West Suburban Stamp Club to waive the requirements under the approved rules for the World Series of Philately for the Plymouth Show. Specifically,

An emergency meeting of the show committee revealed the following deficits. First, the Plymouth Show has had a steady decline in attendance. Dealers have also decreased due to retirement and health reasons. Finally, inflation has continued to rise increasing the entire cost of the show. Declining revenues resulting in substantial financial losses at the past several Plymouth Shows demanded immediate action to downsize the Plymouth Show for 2024. The show committee will be reevaluating and considering options to bring back exhibits in 2025 and beyond. The bye request was unanimously recommended by the Committee on Accreditation of National Exhibitions and Judges (CANEJ) and unanimously approved by the APS Board of Directors.

We are definitely heading into challenges with stamp shows. Costs keep rising across the board and I worry more about the declining number of dealers than the number of attendees. I'm set with our show in 2024 (Metropex in Minnesota) but they do get harder to pull off each passing year

Yes, stamp shows if they do go by the way of the dodo will be a great great loss to the hobby. Sad to hear this news of decline in attendance. Thanks for posting.

I've seen multiple stamp shows cancelled in the last year alone and the ones that remain, they're tiny. Decades ago, there was a small monthly stamp show with local dealers and they had more dealers, month after month, than some of the big shows out there right now. My wife and I would say "there's only 60 dealers, we're not going to go." Today, if you can get 30, you're doing pretty good!

I am unsure that evolution can be considered either 'good' or 'bad'; just how the world works.

Philately has been evolving since it began, and it will always evolve moving forward in time. The elements of it that have run out their usefulness will fade away and new things will take their place.

This evolution is not viewed favorably if one feels nostalgic.

And the same evolution is also used by the pessimistic as 'death nails' of the hobby.
Don

Our show once had 45 dealers, now if I get 15 it's a pretty good show. Still lots of fun to put together and see old friends in person. Part of the fun is the challenge to put a show on and making collectors and dealers happy. It takes a lot of work, but it's very fulfilling. May shows have a long goodbye!

If dealers are dropping out because they're retiring faster than starting, that might be a bad sign. If they are spending more time online and less on physical shows, that could just be the evolution of things. I do love what SCF has provided for the hobby. We can talk to lots of collectors world wide any time here. My weekend schedules are packed and going to a show is extremely difficult.

With competitive exhibitions, the eventual solution will probably be to transition to online only exhibitions, as there simply are too few volunteers and too high costs these days for smaller regional shows to carry off what they could even a decade ago.

With regard to the exhibits, I wonder what the future of this integral part of major stamp shows will be. Are new judges being trained to gradually take over for the older experienced folks who have been handling this important duty w/r to competitive exhibiting? I have the same question w/r to expertizing - is the next generation of experts coming along to replace the knowledgeable folks currently evaluating the "patients"? Or will these activities be part of the "fade away" as the evolution of philately continues.

According to the APS website there are 82 accredited philatelic judges (I'm one of them) and 8 registered apprentices. There have been a number of new judges accredited in recent years, though my guess just looking is that there are fewer new judges coming in than will be retiring in the next decade. I'd say there is currently some stress overall in the judging system given the number of WSP shows but that might ease a bit as a few shows drop. Judging has, of course, never really been a young person's game but there a few comparatively young"er" folks in the system (I'm still under 50, just barely).