Little Windows

Heath Heist

Melissa Scott Sinclair writes on the Richmond [Virginia] Monthly Magazine website, "Stamp collecting is not a pursuit for the young. How many children today have pen pals, or ever stick a stamp on a letter? "

Heath Heist, 39, partner in Alan Blair Stamp Auctions, however, is "optimistic that the art of collecting will persist." He goes on to say it’s “just beautiful and great, the artwork, the history, the stories. I love them too much to think it’s a dying hobby.”

Sinclair goes on to pen, "Chris McElfresh, a watercolor artist who photographs the thousands of stamps for auction, is the lone person who professes no interest in them. “It’s a piece of paper,” he says. “It’s, like, a square inch.”

“Yeah,” Heist says. “But it’s a piece of history.”

To read the entire article, click here.

David Bowie UK Royal Mail Stamp Collection Announced

The late music icon David Bowie will be honored with the collection of stamps shown above on March 24 by U.K.'s Royal Mail.

The set features a mix of album covers and live images - marks the first time the Royal Mail has dedicated an entire stamp issue to an individual music artist or cultural figure.

According to the announcement posted on the Anti-Music website, "The only other music artists to have been honoured [sic.] with a dedicated stamp issue [by Great Britain] are groups, including The Beatles in 2010 and Pink Floyd in 2015."

Four stamps feature Bowie performing live on tours across four decades: 1973's The Ziggy Stardust Tour, 1978's The Stage Tour, 1983's The Serious Moonlight Tour, and 2004's A Reality Tour. 

To learn more, click here.

​Royal Mail Issues Alice in Wonderland Stamps

England's Bath Chronicle reports, "The Royal Mail is issuing a set of Alice in Wonderland stamps to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s tale."

According to the paper's website, "2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, one of the most enduring stories in the history children’s literature.
To celebrate the anniversary, Royal Mail commissioned award-winning illustrator Grahame Baker-Smith, to illustrate ten key scenes from the story.The White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and Alice herself are among the characters depicted in the stamps."

It goes on to say, "To coincide with their launch, Walker Books will be publishing a three-dimensional gift edition book with pages that fold out and artwork from the stamps teamed with excerpts from the original book.'

To read the entire article, click here.

The "Go-To" Guy to Sell Stamp Collections On-line

Joe Cortese, 62, owner of eBay company NobleSpirit, is featured in an article by reporter Nick Reid in the Concord, NH, Monitor.

Cortese (shown here in his office)is eBay’s "go-to guy"for anyone who is looking to sell a stamp collection. With 150,000 sales under his belt since 1998, Cortese has a staff of 20 including 18 photographers according to Reid,

Cortese is quoted in the piece as saying, “That’s our unique competitive advantage.We take something, starting at a penny, which could be worth at least $3,000, but we’re taking enough photos so that the market can see what it is. We allow the market to arrive at what it believes the market value to be.”

According to the article, "Besides the photographers, there are also a couple of shippers – 65 percent of business is international – and a team of fact-checkers, who ensure the lots that are sent in for sale are what they purport to be. They compare minuscule details of each stamp against catalogs that point out the slight differences between different editions and note common forgeries. There’s also an IT guy, who designed software that streamlines the eBay posting process and gives the auctions a unified look."

To read the entire article, click here.

Reporter Visits National Post Museum

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

Royal Mail Promotes Stamps on Side of Vans

Linn's Stamp News reports in November, Great Britain’s Royal Mail began advertising its Christmas stamps on its postal vans.

According to the article, "In a press release dated Nov. 10, Royal Mail reported that the images of the stamps will be displayed on approximately 1,500 vans used in 26 towns and cities around the United Kingdom. The images were printed on adhesive vinyls and applied to the vans."

 Linn's added that Royal Mail will also promote some of its other 2015 commemorative stamps on the vans.

Linn's quotes Andrew Hammond of Royal Mail as saying, “This is the first in what will be an on-going campaign to feature our special stamp programme across the country using our familiar red postal vans. The size and reach of the fleet should help create high levels of public awareness.”