The 2021 Virtual Edition of Stampex International closed on 27 March 2021, which was the second virtual international stamp exhibition held so far. There were over 90 representatives from all over the world to attend the show this year and the author also took part in the show representing the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL). Now let the author say a few words about what he thought about this show.

Many Big Names as Sponsors and Partners

In comparison with last year’s Virtual Stampex, this year there were more big names in the philately world sponsoring and being partners such as the Royal Philatelic Society London (Fig.1), the American Philatelic Society, The Association of British Philatelic Societies Ltd., FIAP, Corinphila Auktionen, Heinrich Kohler, and Spink.  

Fig.1, RPSL booth at the show

Many Lectures by the Famous Philatelists

At the show, there were over ten lectures/talks about philately by some famous philatelists and dealers including RPSL President Richard Stock FRPSL, FIAP president Prakob Chirakiti RDP FRPSL, 2022 London World Stamp Exhibition organizing Committee Chairman Frank Walton RDP FRPSL, former editor of London Philatelist Steve Jarvis FRPSL, two past presidents of GBPS Howard Hughes FRPSL and John Davies FRPSL, past president of the Collector’s Club of New York Mr.Thomas C. Mazza, JPS director Dr. Renichi Yamada, and friends from APS, SPINK, SG, and the Museum of Philately. 

The first opening talk was given by Mr. Chirakiti RDP FRPSL about FIAP (Fig.2). Mr. Chirakiti also answered some questions and gave a brief introduction about his own philatelic life. He also mentioned that FIAP will organize such a similar virtual stamp exhibition soon. He pointed out the benefit of the virtual stamp show, for example, the dealers can attend more such shows than the physical ones because attending such virtual shows can save money, time and also avoid traveling. The exhibitors can also send their PDF exhibits to the jurors before the show so that the judges can study the exhibits beforehand to give a fair judgment and feedback. Mr. Chirakiti also talked about his signature of RDP and said that he was honored to be recognized by the philately world for his contribution and service. Mr.Tay Peng Hian, past president of FIP also attended this first lecture and congratulated Mr.Chirakiti on his wonderful talk.

Fig.2

RPSL President Richard Stock’s lecture titled “Preparing a PowerPoint Presentation,” explained how to do a nice, powerful, interesting PowerPoint presentation. A few friends from APS gave a lecture entitled Making the Hobby Stronger Together (Fig.3), they introduced APS and discussed APS Education, Sales, The American Philatelist, Expertizing, Membership, American Philatelic Research Library (APRL).

Fig. 3

The author has learned a lot from the presenters. Sorry to say that the author can not list all the details on other talks. If you are interested in these talks, you can still log in to the Stampex website to watch them, but of course, the author does not know how long the lectures will be shown on the London Stampex website.

The Philatelic Friends Attending the Show and Meeting Friends at Home

This kind of show’s advantage is that we can stay at home and just use our computers, mobiles, or iPads to visit the show and talk to our philatelic friends from different countries. You can carry out these talks by using the function the Stampex organizers provided. The author was so happy to use this Cam. function to have nice chats with many friends such as Mr. Peter Cockburn (RPSL President-Elect), Ms. Cheryl Ganz RDP FRPSL, Mr.Gary Loew (Editor-in-Chief of the American Philatelist), Mr.Graham Beck (founder Of Exploring Stamps and advisor of www.philatelymuseum.com), Mr.James Gavin (founder of Digitalphilatelist), Mr.Guy Croton and Ricky Verra of David Feldman, and Miss Victoria Lajer (MD of Stanley Gibbons). We all enjoyed such video talks like a face-to-face talk. Everybody likes this function. The author had also exchanged some text messages with Ms. Suzanne Rae (Chairman of PTS and founder of ArtStamped Ltd) and some other friends and texted best regards to each other.

Fig.4. Jack talking with Graham, Photo by Graham Beck.

Many Philatelic Organizations, Dealers, Auction Houses Attending the Show

According to the Stampex website, there were over 70 booths at the show. Some world-famous names like Sotheby’s, SG, Spink, David Feldman, Linn’s Stamp News, The Postal Museum, Collectors Club, GBPS, and eBay participated in this Spring show. At Sotheby’s booth they also provided us with a video regarding the most famous stamps and coin in the world -- the 1856 British Guiana 1¢ Magenta (Scott 13), the plate block of four of the United States 1918 24¢ carmine rose and blue Jenny Invert airmail error (C3a) and the 1933 Double Eagle, which are now owned by the famous shoe designer Mr.Weitzman and will be auctioned by Sotheby’s New York on 8 June 2021. The author trusts that the June auction will attract great attention in the philately world.

Exhibits

At Stampex, there were no competitive exhibits, but ABPS did host some exhibits and also listed some exhibits for the Northern National Competition 2021, so visitors could see these and learn about excellent collections and exhibitors.

Conclusion

Overall, in the author’s own opinion, this Spring Virtual Stampex was much better and improved than last time. Its advantages include that visitors around the world can visit the Virtual Stamp show, watch exhibits, listen to the lectures/talks at home, or even obtain some free PDF philatelic materials and information. Many people think that such Virtual Stamp shows may become an inevitable part of our philatelic life in the future. The author also downloaded some materials from Spink. RPSL also allows the visitors to download the current three issues of London Philatelist free of charge, therefore, many friends tweeted by saying “What a great event it is!” Here the author would like to say many thanks to the Philatelic Traders Society (PTS) team led by Ms. Suzanne Rae for their wonderful job and also to the people who got involved in this show! Well-done! Many congratulations to you all! See you next time!