I just want to take a moment to thank Claude R. for his generous contribution near the end of February to help support Philosateleia. Claude is the latest of several readers who have given cash gifts over the past few months, and I really do appreciate every one of them. Thanks again!
I’ve fallen rather dreadfully behind on sharing scans of some of the awesome pieces of mail and stamps that I’ve received over the last few months, but I’m going to try to rectify that starting with this:
This item came from Linda W. of Happy Day Mail. Linda has done some marvelous things with scraps of postal history, bug-eaten and half-missing covers that have virtually no philatelic value left. As you can see, the collage she created includes part of an old cover front dating back to the 19th century.
If everything that ended up in my mailbox looked like this, I’d be even more excited about checking the mail!
If you live in the Atlanta or Fort Lauderdale areas, the next few weekends have some exciting stamp-related events in store for you.
First, AmeriStamp Expo is being held in Atlanta this weekend, Friday–Sunday. AmeriStamp Expo is the American Philatelic Society’s annual winter show, and has both exhibits and a sales area with dealers from all over the country. I do wish things had worked out for me to go this year. Alas, there’s just a bit too much going on and a bit too little spending money available for me to be able to justify the journey north.
Next, the ASDA Winter Postage Stamp Show will be held in Fort Lauderdale two weekends from now, February 12–14. Although not quite on the same scale as AmeriStamp, it’s still kind of a big deal especially for those who are actively looking to add material to their collections.
While 2015 was a busy year for Philosateleian Post, my private local post, it didn't quite match 2014’s numbers for mail carried. It looks like I mailed just over 340 pieces of mail last year, nearly a piece per day but only about 83% of my total from the previous year.
The totals in most categories remained about the same, the exceptions being packages—we sold a few odds and ends after doing some cleaning out last year, which meant I had a lot more stuff of that sort to ship—and what I call “business mail,” which consists of bill payments and donations and such. For whatever reason, I sent much less of that sort of mail in 2015 than in the year before, probably because I wasn’t quite as active selling on eBay. It certainly doesn’t feel like I had fewer bills to pay!
This year, more than two dozen pieces of mail bearing Philosateleian Post stamps have already gone out. Roughly half of those were first day covers for my local post stamp celebrating The Philosateleian’s 10th anniversary, but still, it’s a busy start to the year.
I wrote last week about how James F. made a generous donation to support Philosateleia. This week, one of Philosateleia’s most consistent supporters over the past several years, Suzanne M., also chipped in with a cash gift that will be applied toward the site’s Web hosting expenses. Thank you, Suzanne!
As always, there are several ways you can help, too, many of which don’t involve money at all.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I’ve been trying to catch up a bit on various things in life following lots of time with extended family during the last couple of months of the year. My goal is to get several blog posts written this month, so check back soon!