WESTPEX Stamp Show, Burlingame, California, 28-30 April 2017

Scott English, the APS Executive Director, will be at Westpex and hold an APS Town Hall at 11:00 a.m. on April 29th. If you're able to attend, I'd be interested in learning what was addressed.

I for one will look forward to reading about the Exhibition. Some pics too please.

On a more personal note, I would be grateful if you could pick up the show souvenir/s. It's the 50th Anniversary and although the sheet is but a shadow of past offerings, it would be nice to have one. If you come across a dealer or maybe the Westpex stand selling previous years sheets, I might be interested in those too. I will send you a message later tonight or tomorrow. I have some but there are many !! (Only Cinderella items of course !!)

Past souvenirs have been a mix of good, bad and ugly. Israel featured quite often, or at least the Society of Israel Philatelists.

Thanks and enjoy the show !

Hello Beryllium Guy,
That looks a great stamp show and I've just had a quick look at their website. I say Stanley Gibbons will be there and a few more British stamp dealers. I don't think you could possibly get around the whole show as it's so big but I bet you've got dealers and exhibitions pencilled in that you particularly want to see.

How many miles will you have to drive to get there?

If there are any exhibits on Victorian stamps I would be interested in reading about them in your article. Have a safe journey and enjoy!

Hola,

 in the middle of next month I will be going to PIPEX the Portland show wont be as big as the SF show but hopefully will have some items I am interested in.

If ya happen to notice and exhibit panels on the provisional issues of Ukraine I would be interested in hearing bout it or a photo. I know its not a big area but hey ya never know

Thanks

Progress Report:

First of all, thanks to everyone for the messages and for your encouragement to seek out items of interest in both the exhibition and the bourse. I will do my best to be on the lookout for everything that was mentioned.

Yesterday, we did the first leg of the drive, a 400-mile (~600km) journey from Arizona to Southern California, which took 6 hours or so.

As I write this, we are now driving north through the Central Valley of California, in the middle of another 400-mile leg to the SF Bay Area. It will be late afternoon local time when we arrive.

More as it happens! Stay tuned......

Ha, ha, Steve! Yes, indeed, my wife is doing the driving today, freeing me up to check email and make posts on TSF. She is a great help to me!

Glad you got there after an uneventful journey.  Have a great time!

WESTPEX Day 1

What a great day!  It all began with registration, where I saw a couple of old friends who were working as volunteers, one from the Philatelic Society of San Leandro, and the other from the Southern Oregon Philatelic Society.  That got things off to a good start.

My next move was to the WESTPEX Souvenir counter, where I was in search of cinderellas for Londonbus1.  Amazingly, they had an archival collection of cinderella seals and souvenir sheets going back to 1964, and I was able to get LB1 one copy of each item available on his list.  I did learn, however, that there was a period of several years (particularly in the 1990s) when no seals or sheets were produced.  LB1, I will PM you with details.

After getting the WESTPEX souvenirs, I saw APS Director Scott English standing all by himself at the APS booth, so I stopped by to chat.  I introduced myself as an APS member, and explained that I was attending the show as a representative of TSF.  I further explained that TSF is an APS affiliate, and he seemed genuinely pleased to hear that.  He asked if TSF was participating in the APS Ambassador Program, and I admitted that I wasn't sure.  Steve (tomiseksj), can you comment?

The "Town Hall Meeting" will be tomorrow morning, so I will get to hear Scott's comments then, and the ensuing question-and-answer session--more on that tomorrow.  And of course, I did avail myself of the wares of a number of the dealers, but I will go into greater detail about that tomorrow, too.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon looking at the exhibits, and there were some very interesting ones.  I regret to say that due to the glassed-in frames and the overhead lighting, I had a very difficult time getting good-quality photos.  So, the photos I am posting had to be taken at less-than-optimal angles, simply to reduce the glare from the lights.


Cinderellas: World's First Christmas Seals - Denmark 1904


Cinderellas:  Denmark Christmas Seals 1905 tied on cover with postage stamps


Warsaw-Lvov Local Post 1926 (requested by tridentcrazy)


Warsaw-Lvov Local Post 1927


Chefoo Local Post in combination with stamps of Hong Kong (thought of Anping)

tregeor, sorry to say that there were no exhibits which really featured stamps of Queen Victoria.  I will have another look tomorrow, and if the exhibits don't yield anything all that exciting, then I will see what I can find in the bourse.

Well, that's the report for Day #1.  More tomorrow, so stay tuned.....

Many thanks for checking out the exhibits for me Beryllium Guy and glad you are having a good time. Don't worry about the quality of your photos they looked pretty good to me!

Sweet!


One of the things I like most about stamp collecting is learning stuff. Today is one of those days!!! I never knew that there was a local system between Warsa and lviv simply amazing stuff.

thanks so much Berllium Guy

WESTPEX Souvenirs

Here is a sampling of some of the material that will eventually find its way to Londonbus1 .  Yes, there is way more than what I could fit into this photo.  There is an excellent book in the center which was written for the 50th anniversary of the show, and it also serves as a catalogue, illustrating the souvenir issues from each year, enabling the astute collector to know how complete his (or her) collection is.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Kristin Patterson, the author of the book, in person, and she autographed this copy.

WESTPEX Day 2

I only had a half-day at the show on Saturday. I spent the first hour hunting for treasures in the dealers' bargain bins, which brought me to the time for the "Town Hall Meeting" led by APS Executive Director Scott English.

I am planning to write a full report for the TSF Newsletter, but I would like to give an overview now. I should begin by saying that Scott is a very personable and engaging public speaker, and he represented the APS very well.

His talk took the first half of the allotted hour, and the second half was spent on Q&A. The talk centered on three key points with regard to the APS:

- Membership
- Marketing
- Education

On the subject of Membership, he cited some compelling statistics regarding retention, which is high, and the leading cause of losing members, which happens to be death. That last fact on its own indicates that the problem lies with the age groups of the existing members and of new members. This will be explored in detail in my newsletter article.

Regarding the Marketing situation, Scott said that the APS needs to revamp its program away from the traditional use of direct mail and focus on web-based platforms. To that end, the APS now has a daily blog, and other additions are planned.

As for Education, Scott said that the #1 request of members is for an online, on-demand philatelic library, and that is in the works. Putting his remarks into the physical context of the WESTPEX, Scott also said that APS-affiliated stamp shows need to become more family-oriented, if we are to start increasing younger membership.

I will explore these three points in greater detail in the upcoming TSF Newsletter. During the Q&A session, Scott addressed questions about the future of Circuit Sales and discussed the importance of the Ambassador Program to promote the APS in local club settings.

I have been writing this post while my wife is doing the driving back to Southern California. I will post photos of some of the material I acquired at the show later today.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly....  My WESTPEX Summary

Let me begin by stating that there was way more Good than either Bad or Ugly at the show for me.  But there are a few things I would like to mention:

The Good

• Meeting old friends and making new ones at the show, especially great for my long chat with APS Exec Director, Scott English
• Really enjoyed having "quests" suggested to me by TSF Members: tregeor, tomiseksj, Londonbus1, tridentcrazy.... thanks to you all!
  
• Acquired some very nice stamps from multiple dealers and got a few good deals
  
• Also really enjoyed meeting Bob, Jessica, and Kristin at the WESTPEX Souvenir counter who gave me a special deal on all of the LB1 material.... many thanks!
  
• Excellent, high-quality exhibits made even more interesting by all I have been learning on TSF, e.g. Chefoo-Hong Kong combination post for Anping
  
• Kudos to the Northern California Coin Clubs who offered free stamps at their table just for chatting with them!  See photo below.
  

The Bad

• Had planned to meet madbaker on Sunday morning, but a last-minute change in plans nixed that.... To quote Ryan: "Drat and blast!"
  
• Also, wish I had another day there!

The Ugly
Bought a U.S., Scott #236, 8c Columbian advertised as MNH for a great price, but when I got it home and looked under some good light....  It is lightly hinged, but definitely previously hinged, and worse, there is a thin in the lower right-hand corner.  The organizers really need to make some better lighting available so that stamps can be properly examined at the time of purchase.  Something similar to this happened to me once before at my very first WESTPEX 15-20 years ago.  I plan to contact the dealer to tell him what I found, but I doubt I will get very far.

Overall, WESTPEX was a great experience, and doing it as a representative of TSF made it even better.  It was one of the best show experiences I have ever had.

Thanks for the very interesting summary of your visit to WESTPEX. And the pics of your stamp haul was a bonus. 
I've been to WESTPEX once, a few years ago when I picked up a Nicaragua collection, if I recall. 

That was my first introduction to A & D Stamps, a Floor to Ceiling Dealer that had a long queue waiting for a seat.

I will try to make PIPEX in Portland, but probably just for a few hours. The auction on Sunday is the same day as Mothers Day, and you know who will win out there.