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San Diego Stamp Show 2025

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We went down to the San Diego Stamp Show today.  It was a 3-day show running at the Hilton Mission Valley.  In theory, a collector could go down there on multiple days and spent hours and hours at a show like that.  The exhibits were amazing, as always, including one for 1608-1750 Italian letter sheets, one showing foreign postal services in Palestine pre-WWII, and one that was a collection of fine profiles of cachet artists.  As always, there are exhibits of things I have never heard of, even after 50 years of colleting. In this case, a series of panels of California Gold Rush era local revenue stamps, and one with some amazing examples of Nevada state revenues from the 1800s.  One sad note showed a large Romanian stamp meant for use at an internment camp in WWI, where the design was pulled after 3-4 weeks after the Russians suspected the large size of the stamp encouraged people to write secret messages on the back of the stamp before putting it on the envelop...
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Stocking up at the show

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As we work our table at the stamp show,  I try to do a walk around to see what deals might be available.   I saw two good lots and made mental notes to check them out at the end of the show. One was an old notebook packed with Egypt mostly before 1950, for $195.  Clearly the first page with the old pyramid sets was worth $195 all by itself.  There were rows that were thick with mint 1930s-1940s sets,  2 to 5 each at $4-6 per set.   And in the back there were some early special delivery and postage dues at $5-20 each and a few salt tax and cut squares. The second lot was full of 5x8 stock cards with about 1000 typical sets, mini sheets and booklets that were marked at about $5 on average,  all for $240.  I don't usually get these kids but we have people asking for topicals all day long and many of these were from less common countries like Marshall Islands, Bangladesh and Comoros.  And they are in clear mounts so they c...
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Table By the Window = Sun Damage

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The Money Pit in San Marcos, CA is a great burger & hot dog & breakfast places with reasonable prices.  The interior design is amazing, with wlls full of movie and other memorabilia about money, and every table has a custom design utilizing some aspect of currency or economics.  There are tables done up with foreign paper money, stock certificates, cards and casino chips, stamps, coins, and more.  Even the floors have old silver coins embedded in the grout, and there is a full-sized bank safe embedded in the floor.  It looks great and has a unique feel to it.  And good food. This table by the window has a nice selection of worldwide stamps.  Stamps as a part of life, back when stamps really were a part of day-to-day living.  After a minute, I noticed that this was also a perfect laboratory example of how sun damage affects different stamps.  It's right up against a west-facing window, beneath a thick plastic layer, so it has been baking in...
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Jan 25 Yard Sale at the Library

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We were invited to a "yard sale" event at the San Diego Philatelic Library, and it was nice to see so much material on sale and so many of the regular collectors we've known for decades. Boy, they had some deeply discounted lots, including this batch of four to ten ounce off paper mixtures by country for only $1 or $2 a bag.  That's a surefire way to get things sold and to clear out a file cabinet of old stock.  At $10 a bag I would have skipped these, but there's no way to fail at $1-$2 a bag. There were a lot of folder lots, including one from Cambodia that said $325 CV for $20.  A first look saw just a lot of CTO topical sets, which actually list for LESS THAN the minimum catalog price of 25c each (a set of 7 for $1.50 for example).  But wait, the last 20 pages or so were all mint and most of the sets had the matching souvenir sheets.  Mint, the price is x2 or x3 or even x4 the CTO prices.  So yes, $20 is perfect.  We have already pulled most of the...
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Jan 19 Box Lot - the two big binders

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One binder caught my eye before I even bought the box, a big reason why I got it.  It started with about 10 pages of mostly USA Christmas seals, starting with 1917 to 1930 and some postal stationery versions I have never seen before.  Will go in a folder for $15. Then about 15 pages of Costa Rica with some good early issues: will go in a folder for $20. Then 15 pages of early Bulgaria.  Good selection but the prices are always disappointing.  Goes in a folder for $10. Finally, 20+ pages of Germany, mostly Berlin issues with pages of semipostals with 2-3 of almost every issue.  Starting with the transitional early issues with 5N, 6N, 8N numbers.  I pulled about $80 in sets/singles, moved the under-collection to some stock pages, and still have essentially full pages to go into a folder for $25.  And more stock pages to fill, probably $15 for those in the end. What's left?  About a 3-inch-thick stack of manila stockpages packed with common stuff....
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Jan 19 Box Lot - More stockbooks

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Next we looked at a small stockbook.  All that was needed was to move the old Japan onto a stockpage (probably $6), and the old Korea onto a stockpage (probably $6), take the rest out for a general mixture, and the stock book might get $2. Then there was a cluttered stockbook of manila pages, with lots of old but common USA stamps.  For these, we always look for precancels, perfins, and any unlisted oddities.  There were a bunch, including some narcotics stamps, some Washington State revenues, a label for a 1934 Potlach, and some other odd items.  Also a tiny corner of one page that had a spread of the very earliest USA Christmas seals -- an instant lot to sell.  Easily $20 of revenues and labels, and half a page each of the perfins & precancels ($4 each) and $10 for the Christmas seals.  And the stockbooks still looks full.  Maybe $5 for that, or break it down more. The stockbook of DDR was just packed thick with on-paper commemoratives, 1960s-197...
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Sandipex and a box lot

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We did the Sandipex stamp show again today (Sunday), but hardly any collectors came by, and half of them were grumpy.  Probably since they're almost all former military, and tomorrow is the inauguration from hell. Anyway, we made a few bucks over $100 and I bought a box of albums from a neighboring dealer for $100 as they were packing up.  That's always the best time for deals.  The box said $150, and they probably would have given it to me for $125 earlier in the day.  End of day?  $100. I looked at a few of their box lots.  This one had some binders with pages that caught my eye.  Packed stockbooks with old narcotics revenues poking out.  Postmarks, precancels, perfins, back of book stuff.  One binder had about 25 pages of Berlin issues with a lot of duplicates tucked under the others.  One binder had on-paper DDR just flopping out as I turned each page, but one pages had mint DDR souvenir sheets from the 1950s and I know those are $5-...
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