Henry Gitner Philatelists

The Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record reports Henry Gitner Philatelists is one of the largest independent stamp dealers in the U.S. and has just received a $62,000 loan from the city to upgrade security, computers and the company Web site, and to expand the business he does in collectible coins and paper money.

Gitner, shown above, is quoted in the article by Heather Yakin as saying, "One of the things about stamps is, you can't sell what you don't have. One of the hardest things is finding what you want, when you need it. A lot of times, you just keep something until the right customer comes along."

Gitner explained some of the fine points of collecting stamps and cancellations Yakin and others who were visiting his shop.

"People get very, very deep into really esoteric things," Gitner said. "It gets very specialized, very intense, and very small things can make things very valuable."

Gitner's wife, Debra, who handles the bookeeping is also quoted in the article, "Retail stamp sales have dipped some recently because of the economy. But coin sales are strong."

To read the entire article, click here.