Member Story Tellers at Hip Stamps
Hip Stamps has 731 stores on their listings. If the average dealer with a store had 20 years or more in the business that would be approximately 15000 years of potential stories. My first ad in the local Toronto paper was when I was about 14 years old and I have sold stamps part time or full time ever since. I am 79 years old now and operate from Toronto, Canada that means 65 years of stamp selling.Recently I have seen members complain about the lack of stamp stories here. What can we do to encourage these dealers with so many interesting stories to finally put them out there for the enjoyment of all of us. May I start the ball rolling to encourage all of you to put that story on this thread.
TRIPS TO NEW YORK CITY
If memory serves me right back in the 1970's and early 1980's I was probably going to New York about once or more per month. Harmer's and other major auction houses were an attraction plus the odd visit to a customer there. Flights were cheap, hotels were reasonable and since the stamp market was so great it all seemed so easy to do.One of my contacts in New York was a New York detective we will call "A" who was a stamp collector and also acted as security for at least one dealer most of you have heard of. He was and is my friend and though I didn't hire him we made our way around New York together.On one of my visits we went to the stamp store of Jeffry Morowitz who is the brother of Arthur Morowitz who I think still has Champion Stamp Co. Inc. in New York. Jeffry, "A" and I were talking stamps when a young man showed up , in a stamp store, asking about having his typewriter fixed. Strange! This set off alarm bells in my friend "A" and discreetly behind a cement post out came his service revolver. Jeffry told the young man that he didn't fix typewriters and the guy quietly left the shop. "A" who had some gun confrontations with criminals over the years would not have had any hesitation in using that weapon if it had been an attempted robbery. Fortunately nothing came of it but it was an interesting scene to see.
"A" was also the Liaison Officer between New York City Police and various Consuls. One day we were out with the Canadian Vice-Consul which works out great when it comes to certain taxes. They are exempt.At that time Ken Taylor was the Canadian Consul to New York City and I was able to visit his office there.It was interesting to see his various awards for saving Americans in the Canadian Embassy in Iran where he had been Ambassador at the time of the uprising.
Stamp dealing puts you into many interesting situations. The purpose of this thread is for you to get your stories published here. Many others and myself would love to hear your stories and I don't want to bore you with another of mine at this time. Just ad your story to this thread. John Talman
TRIPS TO NEW YORK CITY
If memory serves me right back in the 1970's and early 1980's I was probably going to New York about once or more per month. Harmer's and other major auction houses were an attraction plus the odd visit to a customer there. Flights were cheap, hotels were reasonable and since the stamp market was so great it all seemed so easy to do.One of my contacts in New York was a New York detective we will call "A" who was a stamp collector and also acted as security for at least one dealer most of you have heard of. He was and is my friend and though I didn't hire him we made our way around New York together.On one of my visits we went to the stamp store of Jeffry Morowitz who is the brother of Arthur Morowitz who I think still has Champion Stamp Co. Inc. in New York. Jeffry, "A" and I were talking stamps when a young man showed up , in a stamp store, asking about having his typewriter fixed. Strange! This set off alarm bells in my friend "A" and discreetly behind a cement post out came his service revolver. Jeffry told the young man that he didn't fix typewriters and the guy quietly left the shop. "A" who had some gun confrontations with criminals over the years would not have had any hesitation in using that weapon if it had been an attempted robbery. Fortunately nothing came of it but it was an interesting scene to see.
"A" was also the Liaison Officer between New York City Police and various Consuls. One day we were out with the Canadian Vice-Consul which works out great when it comes to certain taxes. They are exempt.At that time Ken Taylor was the Canadian Consul to New York City and I was able to visit his office there.It was interesting to see his various awards for saving Americans in the Canadian Embassy in Iran where he had been Ambassador at the time of the uprising.
Stamp dealing puts you into many interesting situations. The purpose of this thread is for you to get your stories published here. Many others and myself would love to hear your stories and I don't want to bore you with another of mine at this time. Just ad your story to this thread. John Talman
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Out of respect for Mark, Justin & the Community there will be no further response to you.
Classy John. Real classy. Are you 12 years old or is this the first time you've ever used the Internet in your life? Because you're coming across as a complete dick, just so ya know.
(This isn't news to most members here but it may come across as news to you.)
Lately that has changed. Argumentative, disrespectful bullies who always have to get in the last word appear to have free reign on the forums now.
Can someone explain why some of these posts do not violate the terms and conditions;
“Contribute to an unfriendly environment either through offensive or abusive messaging (whether made using the internal message system feature or otherwise) or on our community and forum pages.”
Paul created a de facto “dislike” button which has received10 votes so far …. that seems to go unnoticed.
Joining the ranks of those who can find something better to do with my time until such time as a modicum of civility returns to these pages.
If we believe there is an issue which needs to be moderated - as is the case here in this post - we'll step in and take appropriate action. While we do ask that members keep posts on topic, we do not have any issue with members discussing items which are related to the original, or previous posts - even if indirectly. In this case - the conversation is perfectly fine, and again, if it were not, we would step in to moderate - as we do not currently designate any members as moderators, and acting as such is not appropriate; and again ask that you cease attempting to do so any further.
Dan and Kurt and George---- excellently stated!!
Ted (who has no stamp stories to share, because he's an asocial recluse [which is probably a redundancy]).
When the Opal Company sold out the so called Opal booklets I supplied them with some discount postage and they sold
them in little covers thru the same machines. Animal stamps and Prime Ministers were among those I supplied them to the surprise of any collector who made a purchase from the machine.
A couple of years later I decided to go full time into the stamp market which was really starting to take off and the rest is history.
Paul Molloy - 10 or so posts up. Followed by Rod Tiltyard
The first interesting story that comes to mind for me, that also includes a moral, involved a Canadian mint stamp collection/stock in a stockbook.
I don't remember where I got it, but it was in amongst a bunch of stuff (I'm a junkboxaholic).
The collector, to ensure the safety of their good stamps, had hidden them behind a bunch of old MNH 5c stamps in the rows of the stock pages, so there were full sets of MNH singles to the $1 destroyer, the $1 chateau etc all neatly tucked away behind common MNH 5c commemoratives. Of course nobody ever saw them or stole them, and when the stamps were sold, nobody noticed them until I deconstructed the pages. What a find and of course a bargain. Unfortunately it is finds like this that stimulate my junkboxaholicism.
It is also a good reminder that if one is "securing" stamps that those who will look after them after you know where the good stuff is!
I'll maybe post some other stories/recollections later....
(PS you'll notice that I have a propensity to invent new words on a somewhat regular basis....sometimes simply because my spelling is woeful or because I simply have a use for that new word!)
We used to have an exchange program where people could send stamps against purchases.
We received a somewhat damaged bubble envelope from a fellow in Scotland that looked like it had dried blood on it!
At that time the queue was pretty long so it was quite a while before I got to the point of evaluating the material.
Around the same time we got a subsequent letter from the fellow telling us that he was sorry he hadn't written for a bit because he had been hit by a bus while walking on his way to dropping off his letter at the mailbox! The envelope of stamps he had with him had been lost, and he had been in the hospital for a while!
It seems that someone found the letter on the street afterwards and put it in the mailbox for him (despite the blood!!!) and it made its way to us!
He was very lucky to have survived ok, (he was in his 90s) and it was surprising that someone put the envelope in the mail and it made it to us ok!
When I sold it to a leading collector he submitted it to V.G. Greene Foundation for expertising and they gave it a bad certificate due to the UHU glue. I had sold it cheaply for under $1,000. and though I knew it was genuine I gave my customer his money back. Jim Sissons was deceased by this time but fate put me in touch with Chuck Firby of Michigan.
He is a Canada Pence expert and was an auctioneer in the US at that time. We both had noticed that the rings cancel on the stamp that tied it to the cover actually left an impression on the cover as well. Apparently the date on the cover also confirmed that it had to be a #1. In any case he sold it for me in one of his auctions and as I recall it brought about $2500.
I bought many gems over that counter at that store and many of them give me pleasant memories to this day. Thanks for bringing this memory back Ron. By the way a mint Canada #3 the 12 Pence was sold in Ottawa, Canada this week for $285,000. plus 15% commission.
Just another day in a busy stamp store,