August 2018 - Sneak Peek

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Disposing of a Collection? Try Working with APS
I just finished reading the printed responses to the sad
tale of a collection that yielded a low percent of expected value
when sold through an auction house. I am very surprised
that none of those responses pointed out the obvious.
The American Philatelic Society has two excellent options
to sell stamps; the internet StampStore and circuit books.
I have been disposing of my third generation collection
over the last decade and both of those options have been important
ways to get value from all my stamps cataloging $1
and more, not just big ticket items that might retail for more
than $500 apiece. I price healthy stamps in the 20 percent to
40 percent of current Scott catalogs, depending upon centering,
gum and cancels. I get stamps I think might go for several
hundred dollars or more expertized through APS and,
while disappointed to learn some results, donate any fake or
altered stamps back to APS to get them out of circulation.
And the best part is that I am having as much fun preparing
stamps for sale as I did collecting them.
David Ball
North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Airmail Pioneer Fleet Acquired Gallaudet Assets
I would like to add an epilogue to Charles P. Wentz’s article
about the origins of airmail in the May edition of The
American Philatelist.
My father was a member of The Early Birds and I fully
expected to find Major Reuben H. Fleet listed as a member,
but he was not listed in the directory that was printed in 1996.
However, searching Wikipedia for information on Gallaudet
Aircraft Corp., which employed my father as an engineer,
I found that Major Fleet had acquired the assets of
Gallaudet after the founder retired in 1924.
Fleet used the assets as a core around which he founded
Consolidated Aircraft Corp. Presumably he used the assets
to bolster his Fleet Aircraft Co., which Mr. Wentz cites at the
beginning of the epilogue in his May article.
Regrettably, my father was never an airmail pilot.
Edmond E. Bates
Rockport, Texas
Philatelic Tour of Old St. Louis
Neighborhood was a Delight
I especially enjoyed reading Wayne Youngblood’s article
– “Discovering Old St. Louis: Philatelically Mapping a
Long-Vanished Neighborhood” – in the June edition of The
American Philatelist.
I never knew about the past of the space surrounding the
St. Louis Arch, designed by Eero Saarinen, completed in October
1965. Having a historical tour of the area from a philatelic
point of view was an enjoyment. I also recently started
collecting postal history and this article gave an interesting
example of how a story can be told through philatelic covers.
Alex Gill
Bethel, Connecticut
Post Office Machine Pops Out a Curiosity
I recently purchased some stamps at the self-service machine
at the Pleasanton, California Post Office.
The machine uses the pre-printed stock with the American
flag. The stamps were printed with the USPS logo on top
of the design. Some years back, this logo was used on blank
stock, but no longer.
Is this a significant error, or just a curiosity?
George Fulton
Pleasanton, California
Sarawak Article Prompted Search
Through Collection
I found the column on visiting the British Empire in the
June 2018 issue that focuses on Sarawak quite interesting as I
have a postcard from Sarawak.
A friend of mine, Gordon Jones, is a tour guide in Niagara
Falls, Ontario, Canada, and a retired high school teacher. He
and his older brother are religious, and when they were much
younger did missionary trips, Gordon to Costa Rica and
Cuba and his older brother to the Pacific, including Sarawak.
Gordon, who has a love of history as do I, and is a bit of a
pack rat as am I, has given me on a number of occasions some
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