THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WASHINGTON 2006
The United States stamp collecting world threw virtually everything it had into Washington 2006, the country’s once-a-decade international exhibition, and the result was fantastic – well beyond just about everyone’s expectations. Roughly 226,000 people attended over the eight days ending in early June, with an estimated 85,000 different people attending the $3.3 million show for at least one day. Some 6,000 of them were children, and judging by the happy looks of the kids the hobby has won some of the recruits that it so desperately needs to help ensure the future of the hobby. I would guess 80 per cent of the adults who attended were serious or very advanced collectors, which meant the dealers who had invested vast sums ($10,000 for a double corner booth, for instance) enjoyed a rare bonanza.
The event was not all smooth sailing, to be sure, however. Booth setup was running far behind schedule on the main floor; dealers who had been promised completed booths by the morning of the day before the show opened found only piles of construction materials and their stock on pallets in the aisles. I had a table at the dealers’ bourse the day before the main event opened, and the boothing problems quickly reared their head.
David Canning, the veteran Scottish-based dealer returning to international shows after a 20-year break, looked worried and expressed deep concern about the state of the booth he was sharing with John Auld and Trevor Harris under the banner of British Philatelists. Early in the morning the bourse temporarily came to an embarrassed halt when a top US postal history dealer loudly gave vent to his frustrations at my table when I asked him how things were going. "This is a disaster -- I want my $10,000 back. I want to go home!" he sang out plaintively.
He explained he needed strong dealer sales before the show opened to have a realistic chance of winning the $50,000 in sales that would cover his $10,000 investment in a double corner booth. Modern collectors’ interests are as narrow as laser beams, he added, and he could only count on $30-50 from each, while dealers are likely to spend much larger sums.
Another early casualty in the booth fiasco was Allan Grant of Rushstamps Ltd., who had to abandon his table at the dealers’ bourse to oversee the furious catch-up work on the floor.
Joe Savarese, executive vice-president of ASDA, and his newly recruited replacement, Jim Roselle, had more on their plates than ensuring the bourse went smoothly (and indeed its tables too were still going up at the last minute). They were extolling the virtues of ASDA membership, especially to internet dealers, three of whom had joined recently for "the value of the logo".
However the ASDA officers were especially keen to talk up their latest, highly ambitious initiative -- a glossy magazine designed to sell stamp collecting and the services of dealers to the general public. They were handing out 50,000 free copies of The American Stamp Dealer, an impressive-looking 64-page publication edited by Randy L. Neil, a veteran editor, that is trumpeted as a 10-times-a-year "full-scale national stamp collecting publication".
Savarese said the magazine developed from a regular ASDA brainstorming session and is designed to be "a positive voice for philately today, not political. We want to show the positive side of stamp collecting." At from just $15 a year delivered (in the US) the price looks attractive, but only time will tell, of course, if the magazine can attract enough subscribers in the declining US philatelic market to survive.
The organisers knew, despite the problems, that they were probably on to a winner even before the show opened at 10am the next morning. Advance registration was brisk and continued to be so strong that workers ran out of registration forms after a couple of days. Indeed, the two-block-square exhibition area was jammed, with queues to see the fabulous stamps in the Court of Honor, to have collections value and to buy US stamps. The demand was similarly great to view dealers’ wares, though the vast amount of space and wide aisles meant the floor rarely seemed overcrowded. The Cover Man of New York reported that he had 10 to 30 people at his booth virtually nonstop for the length of the exhibition and that sales had been tremendous.
What’s more, the feeling on the floor was of excitement, with a real buzz of the sort that is rarely present at philatelic events these days. I kept running into people I know from previous trips to the States, including three from Scotland. I concentrated on buying European postcards, and indeed took home more than 500, so people who visit my tables at British stamp and postcard events or peruse my eBay listings should find plenty of interest in the coming months.
Grant of Rushstamps, as ever, had more than a few robust views pro and con about the exhibition. He was deeply unhappy, as were most dealers, about the serious boothing troubles. The delay in building them situation forced him to abandon his table at the dealers’ bourse the day before the exhibition opened – "That was $225 down the Swanee. It should have been more professional. It was just one of those crazy things." He was one of many dealers who noted the lack of numbers on the booths, which was corrected by the second day. (Numerous misspellings could be spotted on the signs as well.)
However he noted that the show proved "It pays to advertise because we have had a flood of people with good, mixed and indifferent material to offer." He said Rushstamps had given out 1,000 pricelists and met a lot of customers who would not go to New York. He was selling lots of British commemoratives, with strong demand for a Brunel prestige booklet with an unofficial Washington 2006 overprint at face value.
He was pleased that the Royal Mail had a large and highly visible presence near the US Postal Service area. "I think it’s good they are here – the more stamps they sell, the more people will go back." However he questioned the lack of a Royal Mail Washington 2006 souvenir on sale only at the show (Washington ‘06 Smilers were available). Furthermore he suggested someone had failed to do their sums because British mint stamps were going at 10 per cent below face value for the first four days of the show, and the Royal Mail had to pay sales tax out of that.
Despite the large amount of talk about the Afinsa of Spain selling scheme debacle, it seemed to affect the exhibition or the operations by Greg Manning and the other Afinsa-owned firms present little if at all. Grant suggested of the immense rotating circle over the group’s stands: "I’ve heard they are going to take it down tomorrow and put it in the shape of a pyramid."
A hotter topic of conversation among dealers was the release of 10,000 $15 duck stamp conservation mini-sheets during the show. These were introduced last year, but only in an edition of 1,000 that quickly sold out, and I heard of collectors paying up to $1,750 for the 2005 MS. Ten copies were reserved for each booth at Washington 2006, and dealers who took up their quota typically sold them for nearly ten times faces value. This potential for instant profit created some tension, with one dealer threatening to sue one who had promised to resell his booth’s MS at $700 but couldn’t because another standholder had already done the deed.
John Auld said: "Generally speaking it was an excellent show – and I could come again." He added that it was not all work, as ever-changing groups of British dealers had worked hard to sample local hostelries, including one with 80 different draught beers and 600 different bottled brews, including a Scottish one made from seaweed.
David Canning, the Scottish-based dealer behind the revival of Caledonian Auctions, said the show was his first international since 1986 so "It’s a learning curve. But I’ve been pleased. I’m more here to pick up customers for the auction and that has been very successful," he said. He brandished a fistful of sheets from customers who had asked to be put on his mailing list as soon as they heard of the auction.
Trevor Harris added: "It’s been great. There’s much more atmosphere than at past internationals and a more exciting atmosphere." Furthermore, he suggested: "It would be nice if the organisers of London 2010 saw how the Americans did it here and they could do as well."
The event was not all smooth sailing, to be sure, however. Booth setup was running far behind schedule on the main floor; dealers who had been promised completed booths by the morning of the day before the show opened found only piles of construction materials and their stock on pallets in the aisles. I had a table at the dealers’ bourse the day before the main event opened, and the boothing problems quickly reared their head.
David Canning, the veteran Scottish-based dealer returning to international shows after a 20-year break, looked worried and expressed deep concern about the state of the booth he was sharing with John Auld and Trevor Harris under the banner of British Philatelists. Early in the morning the bourse temporarily came to an embarrassed halt when a top US postal history dealer loudly gave vent to his frustrations at my table when I asked him how things were going. "This is a disaster -- I want my $10,000 back. I want to go home!" he sang out plaintively.
He explained he needed strong dealer sales before the show opened to have a realistic chance of winning the $50,000 in sales that would cover his $10,000 investment in a double corner booth. Modern collectors’ interests are as narrow as laser beams, he added, and he could only count on $30-50 from each, while dealers are likely to spend much larger sums.
Another early casualty in the booth fiasco was Allan Grant of Rushstamps Ltd., who had to abandon his table at the dealers’ bourse to oversee the furious catch-up work on the floor.
Joe Savarese, executive vice-president of ASDA, and his newly recruited replacement, Jim Roselle, had more on their plates than ensuring the bourse went smoothly (and indeed its tables too were still going up at the last minute). They were extolling the virtues of ASDA membership, especially to internet dealers, three of whom had joined recently for "the value of the logo".
However the ASDA officers were especially keen to talk up their latest, highly ambitious initiative -- a glossy magazine designed to sell stamp collecting and the services of dealers to the general public. They were handing out 50,000 free copies of The American Stamp Dealer, an impressive-looking 64-page publication edited by Randy L. Neil, a veteran editor, that is trumpeted as a 10-times-a-year "full-scale national stamp collecting publication".
Savarese said the magazine developed from a regular ASDA brainstorming session and is designed to be "a positive voice for philately today, not political. We want to show the positive side of stamp collecting." At from just $15 a year delivered (in the US) the price looks attractive, but only time will tell, of course, if the magazine can attract enough subscribers in the declining US philatelic market to survive.
The organisers knew, despite the problems, that they were probably on to a winner even before the show opened at 10am the next morning. Advance registration was brisk and continued to be so strong that workers ran out of registration forms after a couple of days. Indeed, the two-block-square exhibition area was jammed, with queues to see the fabulous stamps in the Court of Honor, to have collections value and to buy US stamps. The demand was similarly great to view dealers’ wares, though the vast amount of space and wide aisles meant the floor rarely seemed overcrowded. The Cover Man of New York reported that he had 10 to 30 people at his booth virtually nonstop for the length of the exhibition and that sales had been tremendous.
What’s more, the feeling on the floor was of excitement, with a real buzz of the sort that is rarely present at philatelic events these days. I kept running into people I know from previous trips to the States, including three from Scotland. I concentrated on buying European postcards, and indeed took home more than 500, so people who visit my tables at British stamp and postcard events or peruse my eBay listings should find plenty of interest in the coming months.
Grant of Rushstamps, as ever, had more than a few robust views pro and con about the exhibition. He was deeply unhappy, as were most dealers, about the serious boothing troubles. The delay in building them situation forced him to abandon his table at the dealers’ bourse the day before the exhibition opened – "That was $225 down the Swanee. It should have been more professional. It was just one of those crazy things." He was one of many dealers who noted the lack of numbers on the booths, which was corrected by the second day. (Numerous misspellings could be spotted on the signs as well.)
However he noted that the show proved "It pays to advertise because we have had a flood of people with good, mixed and indifferent material to offer." He said Rushstamps had given out 1,000 pricelists and met a lot of customers who would not go to New York. He was selling lots of British commemoratives, with strong demand for a Brunel prestige booklet with an unofficial Washington 2006 overprint at face value.
He was pleased that the Royal Mail had a large and highly visible presence near the US Postal Service area. "I think it’s good they are here – the more stamps they sell, the more people will go back." However he questioned the lack of a Royal Mail Washington 2006 souvenir on sale only at the show (Washington ‘06 Smilers were available). Furthermore he suggested someone had failed to do their sums because British mint stamps were going at 10 per cent below face value for the first four days of the show, and the Royal Mail had to pay sales tax out of that.
Despite the large amount of talk about the Afinsa of Spain selling scheme debacle, it seemed to affect the exhibition or the operations by Greg Manning and the other Afinsa-owned firms present little if at all. Grant suggested of the immense rotating circle over the group’s stands: "I’ve heard they are going to take it down tomorrow and put it in the shape of a pyramid."
A hotter topic of conversation among dealers was the release of 10,000 $15 duck stamp conservation mini-sheets during the show. These were introduced last year, but only in an edition of 1,000 that quickly sold out, and I heard of collectors paying up to $1,750 for the 2005 MS. Ten copies were reserved for each booth at Washington 2006, and dealers who took up their quota typically sold them for nearly ten times faces value. This potential for instant profit created some tension, with one dealer threatening to sue one who had promised to resell his booth’s MS at $700 but couldn’t because another standholder had already done the deed.
John Auld said: "Generally speaking it was an excellent show – and I could come again." He added that it was not all work, as ever-changing groups of British dealers had worked hard to sample local hostelries, including one with 80 different draught beers and 600 different bottled brews, including a Scottish one made from seaweed.
David Canning, the Scottish-based dealer behind the revival of Caledonian Auctions, said the show was his first international since 1986 so "It’s a learning curve. But I’ve been pleased. I’m more here to pick up customers for the auction and that has been very successful," he said. He brandished a fistful of sheets from customers who had asked to be put on his mailing list as soon as they heard of the auction.
Trevor Harris added: "It’s been great. There’s much more atmosphere than at past internationals and a more exciting atmosphere." Furthermore, he suggested: "It would be nice if the organisers of London 2010 saw how the Americans did it here and they could do as well."
posted by Chad Neighbor at
21.6.06
|
0 comments
