The Timeless Writings of Earl Apfelbaum

During Earl’s many decades in the stamp business, he estimated there were between 50 and 100 thousand stamp collectors he met and invariably liked well enough that, had there been the time, he would have kept in contact. Apfelbaum’s Corner was the nearest thing to letters that he had been able to devise. Earl felt that through the column he was able to reach thousands of collectors, many he may have even met. Earl depicted, with great clarity and humor, the life and times of collectors, their collections and the world around them. Thousands eagerly awaited the weekly perspective brought to them by philately’s leading authority.

Today, you can enjoy the timelessness of these writings as we bring the most popular ones back for your reading pleasure. We hope you enjoy them as much as the tens of thousands of philatelists world wide have.

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 15

For the sake of future generations of collectors, let’s take better care of the stamps we have. Let’s avoid those practices which might further diminish our already vanishing supplies of desirable stamps. Let’s think twice before buying cheap album paper that contains strong chemic …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 14

It has always been our opinion that stamp collectors get the most fun out of arranging their own collections. However, some years ago we had a client with a different opinion. He brought his albums into our office one day and said that he had fifty dollars a month to spend on them. Would we take car …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 13

Stamp auctions have been developing as a form of stamp merchandising for close to a century. The catalogs of the first auctions were no more than listings of the stamps to be sold. Condition wasn’t mentioned because it wasn’t of importance. All that the buyer expected was a stamp. Its qu …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 12

The McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, one of the world’s leading publishers of business magazines, recently conducted a survey of philately in the United States. The survey doesn’t present any startling or hitherto unknown information about our hobby, but actually confirms the “off-t …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 11

Rarely will you find perfection in the work of a man. All things we make or do have their faults. Certainly stamps, stamp collecting and stamp dealing are no exceptions. The tolerance that others expect for their less-than-perfect work is sought just as much by stamp dealers. They can only sell the …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 10

Stamp exhibitions need an addition to their classifications, because at present they ignore the largest body of collectors: those with general collections mounted in printed albums. Let’s face facts; more people collect in printed than blank albums, and are general or one-of-a-kind collectors, …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 9

One of the loneliest times in life is the period just after a loved husband or wife has passed away. It them seems that nothing is worth doing. Days become full of emptiness. Remorse and self-pity frequently get the upper hand. All too often, the greatest therapy in this trying situation is overlook …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 8

There aren’t many collectors today who would remember my father. This is their loss, because in today’s hectic world it is a novelty to find a person like him. Spending an hour with a new collector, man or boy, instructing in the “house” of philately, was far more important t …

Apfelbaum's Corner – Volume 7

Recently, I heard a man who claimed over forty years of collecting tell members of a club that they should never spend a cent for anything but United States stamps and they should always be sure that the postal clerk gives them a plate number with each purchase. There are similarly misguided exponen …

Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 6

Mortality in the stamp business is said to be higher than in other lines of business. A check of the advertisers in this paper compared with those five years ago will well prove the point. If one goes back ten, twenty or thirty years, it will be difficult to find many firms that have survived the ye …