Overheard & Interviews

A write up of stuff heard at Stampex (see previous post), I once had a customer, he's dead now, but we went to auctions together. Henry was a millionaire, and I would spend three grand on the business and he would spend thirty on his personal collection, & I asked him what was the best bit for him? Was it finding the right stamp at the right price, or just the right stamp, or putting it in the album or looking at it. He said the best bit was crossing it of his list.

Animals? Birds? Eagles? Bald Eagles? Do you have any?

Collecting is an opiate, it charms and gets in your blood & you're finished.

The stranger things are more interesting, when compared to the rarer stamps. All you can say about them is, well they're rare. At least the stranger ones are interesting.

Many wise people collect the envelopes- single stamps are intrinsically worthless bits of paper, but the envelope gives the use and history of the stamp.

It's in your hand one moment and then you don't know where then into the person you sent it to.

It's all National Trust bags, F1 T-shirts, Insignias, Beards & Boxes (me).

Stampex

I went to the Business Design Centre for Stampex, the British National Stamp Exhibition. So many stamps. So many old men. Didn't manage to get quite the interview material I had hoped for but once I'd decided to treat it as an observation thing and as research it was great. The catagorisation of stuff was mental. A map led to a stand which declared itself as 'specialist in Maritime Stamps and Postal History' and then this had a catalogue which referred you to a box or album, which was split into price, or country, or date, or whatever and then the stamp was presented often with it's own label underneath it within these. The tools element was also present: tweezers, magnifying tools, and shoulder bags for albums. The stamp with the tiger on it shown here I like, as it shows how the collector gets these special contexts which the regular user or reciever wouldn't. stamp_03stamp_02stamp_04stamp_01stamp_07stamp_05stamp_06stamp_08