The Quad City Stamp Club (APS Chapter 249) in Moline began in 1935. It was 1978 when a local stamp dealer and his wife, Dick and Jane Castner organized the very first Stamp Out Cancer Auction. They were able to raise $1750 for the American Cancer Society. They chose this organization because so many of their friends were affected by cancer.
Last year was the first year without a Stamp Out Cancer Auction, due to the COVID-19 restrictions. This year is making up for lost time, as there will be 2 SOC auctions. The first one will be June 19 with mainly U.S. materials to be auctioned off and the second (and last) auction will be October 9 with mainly foreign and worldwide materials.
Over the first 42 auctions a total amount of over $294,000 has been raised for the American Cancer Society. This year, the club is expecting to sell over 700 lots. The auction catalog shows estimated or catalog values for all the lots and when adding it all up, the total amount is around $160,000 for the materials being sold this year. Typically, materials get sold for about 10% of their estimated value. Some go for more, some for less. But never has a lot not been sold. A tradition within the club that there is always some member that will purchase a lot for $1 (our minimum bid). Lately, we have named those bids Leiby bids, to honor Jack Leiby, who died several years ago (also because of cancer) and was well known for the number of $1 bids that he would put in to make sure that all lots were always sold.
The many donations we have received over the years were from all over the USA but have also come from other countries. This year we have donations from 55 different people, from Rhode Island to Texas, From Washington to North Carolina. thanks to the generosity of all these donors we know that we have been able to allow the American Cancer Society to do much to support research to fight cancer and to help people affected by this disease.
The location for our Stamp Out Cancer Auctions this year (June 19 and October 9) will be:
Faith Lutheran Church Moline, 1611 41st Street, Moline IL 61265. The viewing of the lots will start at 10 AM and the auction will begin around noontime.
The auction was usually held with 2 parallel auctions, one for the US material and the other for the foreign material. Some people would find strategic positions between the 2 auctions, bidding in both.
Other bidders were mail or later email bidders, where they can send in their bids in advance and club members would be their proxy bidders during the auction itself. For those readers that are interested in participating through mail bidding, please send a request for an auction catalogue with the (e)mail bid sheet to [email protected].
Over the years, our club in the Quad Cities (on the Mississippi in Illinois and Iowa), has seen its membership rise and fall. There have been times when the club had well over 200 members, but currently we have about 30 active members. That is one of the reason why it has become increasingly difficult to find new volunteers to run this Ctamp Out Cancer Auction. Maybe there is another stamp slub in the U.S. willing to take over the torch and keep this wonderful initiative going. If so, please contact us. We would be more than happy to explain what it takes and how we have managed to organize this year after year. Our club website is https://www.qcstampclub.com and or email is [email protected]
The auction lots this year show a lot of variety, from simple boxes with stamps on/off paper in bulk, to very nice lots with singel stamps or nice sets, full albums, and much needed stamp supplies too.
Some highlights are: a couple penny blacks, a group of some 20+ Minkus albums (from one former collector) that contain great material, post cards, including a unique set with hand embroidered material attached from Portugal. WWI and WWII postal history. FDCs in luxury albums and of course great stamps from U.S. and various other countries. The auction lots will be posted on our website https://www.qcstampclub.com where you can find a picture of just about every individual lot.
We can honestly say that sorting through all this material and organizing it all into auction lots has been a wonderful and rewarding experience for the various club member volunteers.
We are both sad that the end has come for the Stamp Out Cancer Auction in the Quad Cities as well as every product of what this club has been able to do for the American Cancer Society.