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-the-cuff” deductions that many dealers and professionals have been making through the years.

However, of far more importance than the data the report presents, is the fact that a “giant” of the publishing industry should recognize the popularity of philately— and spend the time and money for further investigation.

Through the years we have watched philately grow and prosper in an almost unpredictable fashion. And we are still excited when someone outside our philatelic world peeks in at us to take a look. For instance, a short time ago, we announced the purchase of a rather valuable and important collection. When this information reached local newspapers and radio stations, reports kept us busy for hours answering many questions about the purchase and about philately. One local television station even filmed the collection on its arrival at our offices and later showed the film on their evening news program because they estimated that their audience contained over 250,000 stamp enthusiasts.

Admittedly, we were somewhat flustered by this rash of interest. It kept our staff humming for days. But we welcomed the chance to display philately and ourselves to those who might be interested. This is the only way that philately will continue to grow and prosper, and this is important to every collector and dealer.