Where Have All The Stamp Shops Gone?
By James E. Lee

My first stamp album arrived on Christmas Day 1955. Don and Bonnie Lee never dreamed of the long, strange journey upon which their son and his album would embark.

Shown from the pages of a 1936 issue of Stamps Magazine: the attractive storefront of a Pittsburgh, Pa., stamp shop.

I attended my first stamp show, COMPEX, with my father in May of 1958. After the show he took me to the stamp counter in the Fair Store on Wabash Avenue to buy the 3-cent Iwo Jima stamp. Today, both the album and the stamp are still in my philatelic archives.

At age 13 in 1961, my parents allowed me to take the Rock Island train downtown on Saturdays to visit many of the 30-plus stamp shops that dotted Chicago’s Loop area. My favorite was the International Stamp Company on the 7th floor at 171 West Washington Street. I would spend hours going through his U.S. bargain books.

When I returned from college, in Champaign, Illinois, in 1971, I went back to my hobby and to the Loop in search of stamps and stamp stores. By that time only a handful of the old-time professionals were left. I remember spending Saturday with Doug Lee (no relation), Tony Russo and the Rasdales. Today, only the Rasdales are left downtown. The sole street-level stamp store remaining in the Loop is Steve Eaton’s Liberty Stamp Shop.

In 1972 I started buying and selling at stamp shows with my uncle, Jim McCray, who owned Mac’s Stamps in Racine, Wisconsin. It seems that stamp shows were becoming the stamps shops of the 70’s. But why had all the old-time stamp shops disappeared?

The economics of the 1970's and old age had forced the marketing and distribution system for America’s leading hobby to take a new direction. Higher rents and overhead coupled with stagnant, but stable, prices had become the lodestone of America’s stamp shops.

It became more economical to do one and two-day weekend shows. You now had a marketplace that didn’t require full-time professionals. Instead you had weekend stamp warriors out to make an extra buck.

By the mid-1970’s the word, investment, had entered the philatelic vocabulary. Prices across the length and breadth of U.S. philately started to rise, shows expanded to three days, full time show dealers emerged to traverse the country. Auctions also started to grow to become another source of supply for the collector. As post-Vietnam War disposable income grew so did the attendance at stamp shows.

In the late 1970's the price bubble and philatelic euphoria continued to grow. The prices for quality United States stamps rose like stocks in a raging Bull Market—remember the $10,000 C13-15 Zepp sets? Shows were now major events to be attended if you collected stamps.

In 1979 Stamps Magazine interviewed Andrew Levitt about the Stanley Gibbons acquisition of the Marc Haas postal history collection. One of the questions he was asked: How long will the present market last? His response: Possibly two more years. Wow! What vision...by 1981 the bloom was off the rose and Zepp sets began to look like the Hindenberg at Lakehurst!

The hobby had taken a direct hit.

As prices consolidated and bottomed out in the 80’s so did the number of dealers and auction houses. Gone were the go-go years and collectors went back to basics. It was a painful time for the stamp industry and even more so for their customers.

Families now found that both spouses either wanted to, or needed, to work. Incomes were once again on the upswing and family time became known as weekend time. Attendance at shows dropped and a new method of marketing began to emerge: mail order.

Today, we still have four full-service stamp shops within the boundaries of Chicago. There are now two auction houses and it seems like there is a stamp show somewhere every weekend. However, show attendance is static and you will find very few full-time professionals set up at most local shows. So where have all the stamp shops gone?

We are entering an age of specialization and niche development to meet the needs of time-starved collectors. Mail order, proactive telemarketing, the Internet and large public auctions are fast becoming the major sources of distribution. Shows are still important to dealers and collectors alike. However, the Internet just might become the old-time stamp shop of the future.

With all this in mind I will continue to build my business around the four facets of philately that I have nurtured the past seven years: postal history, essays and proofs, fancy cancels and literature. Shows were my lifeblood in the beginning. However, today over 60% of our business comes via the phone, e-mail and snail mail. In the not-too-distant future I fully expect this figure to approach 90%.

Despite the technological whirlwind you will always be able to talk to me by phone or chat in person at major shows...or visit my office while passing through Chicago. And yes, when clients have asked, I will even make house calls...because providing you with unmatched service excellence is still my number one goal.

NEW PURCHASES:

• Be sure to inquire about the following:

• An important British and British Colonial library

• Collection of 1847 proofs

• An exhibition collection of fancy cancels

• Portions of the Randy Neil Grand Award-winning

THANK YOU...

Thank you to our clients. We have enjoyed a successful year of business. May you and your family have an enjoyable holiday season. I know I am looking forward to gathering all of my family to our home here in Wheeling for this wonderful time of year.

James E. Lee

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