Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
So I've been thinking of applying for exhibition in the future. Not in the near future of course since I don't have presentable collection for now.
So for a beginner like me, what is your advice if I want to make a stamp exhibit?
for example should I make a topic right now then collect necessary items for the exhibit? or just make exhibit with what I have.
How do you find an interesting topic for exhibit? etc.
Thank you in advance.
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Most people exhibit items they are interested in or passionate about. They study an area, become an expert, and put together an exhibit to share their knowledge. Before you start accumulating items for exhibit, think about what interests you about stamps. A particular country, postmarks, forgeries, ship mail, crash mail, mourning covers, topical items . . . You can exhibit anything, but most importantly (I think) it should be something you care about and want to pass on your knowledge to others.
Jackie
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I just started two months ago to be honest, so for now I don't belong to any club or ever attend a stamp show.. There will be one in December but it's in Bali which require me to fly so I think I'm going to skip that one too. Hopefully this pandemic will end soon so I can visit a stamp show.
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I acknowledge you for aiming to exhibit. You are interested in all of the things besides just the pretty images on stamps.
We (fellow SOR members vinman and BenFranklin1902) are well acquainted with some VERY seasoned exhibitors, and Bill Schultz in particular makes it his mission to be a mentor to budding exhibitors. If you can connect with someone like Bill, you'll be inspired.
I would advise reviewing as many exhibits as you can, to find a style you can identify with. Here is an incredible exhibit recently posted. The exhibitor, Mark Schwartz won the 2020 American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors Champion of Champions award with this exhibit!
It is truly awesome:
Boston's Use of the 1847 Issue
Mark is a charter member of The Gathering, our postal history club.
-Paul
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go on the website of the AAPE (the american association of philatelic exhibitors) they have much information for the novice exhibitor
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What is the objective of your exhibiting?
If it is education and wanting to introduce others to philately and/or a specialize philatelic topic, I think that you could reach far more folks doing online exhibiting. Not only COVID free, but it would reach exponentially more people than doing stamp shows.
If the objective is notoriety and ‘gold metals’ than doing stamps shows is the way to go.
Don
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Don, i don't know about gold medals.. i attended an awards where the gold medal winner spent what i spent on a 2019 Subaru for an item he NEEDED to complete his exhibit.
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I served as exhibits chair for VANPEX in Vancouver, British Columbia, for five or six years. Here's my advice (which echoes much of what your have already seen in this thread):
Attend actual exhibitions. You'll see that exhibits universally zero in on one topic — postage due stamps of a particular country, for example, or wartime slogan cancellations, or believe it or not, an actual VANPEX exhibit examining the varying thickness of the paper used to print of one issue of early Canadian definitive stamps. I never saw exhibits in which the exhibitor simply exhibited one of his general collections. Among my exhibits:
• A 10-frame exhibit focussing on the economy of Great Britain during the Second World War
• Another 10-frame exhibit about the brief "lifetime" of the KLM DC-2 airliner Uiver (Stork), which crashed in Iraq in 1934 on its maiden commercial flight, following its first-place finish in the handicap portion of the McRobertson International Air Race between London and Melbourne.
• An eight-frame exhibit tracking the development of military medicine from the mid-1850s and the concept that led to the creation of the International Red Cross through the Vietnam War.
If you've been collecting for awhile, and have mainly purchased stamps that you especially like, look at your collection and try to determine if there are individual stamps or sets which attract you more than others. Those stamps could be the basis of a exhibit, which could include souvenir sheets, postal usage, overprints, varieties, multiples, and collateral, non-postal items such as postcards, maps, photographs, ticket stubs, etc.
Perhaps the most important suggestion I have is to exhibit for yourself instead of trying to please judges. For years, I resisted exhibiting because I thought that exhibiting was tantamount to bragging, and that the only collectors who won gold medals were those with deep pockets. Nothing could be further from the truth. (Well, there are still some "old school" judges out there who turn there noses up at anything other than exhibits of "classic" stamps and covers, but they are few and far between.
There really are no rules in exhibiting, except for the injunction to follow the guidelines set cup by the exhibition committee. An example: I did a one-frame exhibit about my experiences as a hospital corpsman during the Vietnam War. To start off, it was clear that I was the exhibitor. I event used a photo of myself in uniform. I also used a lot of collateral material, including my Marine Corps liberty pass and photos that I took in Vietnam, and I printed my exhibit pages on light green stationery featuring a background of bamboo. In traditional exhibiting, coloured exhibit sheets are a no-no. Nevertheless, I got a silver medal for that exhibit. But awards aren't the be all and the end all. To me, the best thing about exhibiting is that it forces the collector to look carefully at his or her collection, and to buy carefully. It's absolutely the best way to learn about your stamps, because, if you don't exhibit, your collections are mainly going to collect dust. How many times, really, do collectors actually look at completed album pages? About as often, perhaps, as they look at their wedding albums or last week's newspaper.
At all costs, avoid building a boring exhibit, especially if you are bored with the topic! One of the most boring exhibits I ever saw consisted of 10 frames of nothing but first-flight covers flown by the Concorde supersonic jetliner. Such covers have little commercial value, and are visually similar. The exhibit included nothing whatsoever to do with the troubled, costly history of the Concorde itself. In short, the exhibit taught virtually nothing about the Concorde. As I recall, it received a bronze medal, little more than an award for participating.
Bob
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Agreeing with Bob-
I started exhibiting as a teenager back in the last century. I had drooled over exhibits of rare stamps and covers I couldn’t afford, and decided that I would mimic the techniques with a serious study of a stamp I could afford. As per my avatar, I loved the Ben Franklin One Cent stamp from The Series of 1902.
Back when I started the stamps and covers cost pennies instead of hundreds or thousands of dollars. I created a story about color shades tied to years through stamps used on covers and postcards. The judges loved it! Over time I managed to build it to a constant Silver award winner.
At the time I didn’t know that I stumbled into a very interesting period (1903-1909) of postal history and this stamp has kept me interested for nearly 50 years!
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11:28:01am
Hi, it's me again. A newbie and wannabe philatelist.
So I've been thinking of applying for exhibition in the future. Not in the near future of course since I don't have presentable collection for now.
So for a beginner like me, what is your advice if I want to make a stamp exhibit?
for example should I make a topic right now then collect necessary items for the exhibit? or just make exhibit with what I have.
How do you find an interesting topic for exhibit? etc.
Thank you in advance.
Login to Like
this post
07:13:37am
re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
Most people exhibit items they are interested in or passionate about. They study an area, become an expert, and put together an exhibit to share their knowledge. Before you start accumulating items for exhibit, think about what interests you about stamps. A particular country, postmarks, forgeries, ship mail, crash mail, mourning covers, topical items . . . You can exhibit anything, but most importantly (I think) it should be something you care about and want to pass on your knowledge to others.
Jackie
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this post
10:52:39am
re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
I just started two months ago to be honest, so for now I don't belong to any club or ever attend a stamp show.. There will be one in December but it's in Bali which require me to fly so I think I'm going to skip that one too. Hopefully this pandemic will end soon so I can visit a stamp show.
Login to Like
this post
11:42:52am
re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
I acknowledge you for aiming to exhibit. You are interested in all of the things besides just the pretty images on stamps.
We (fellow SOR members vinman and BenFranklin1902) are well acquainted with some VERY seasoned exhibitors, and Bill Schultz in particular makes it his mission to be a mentor to budding exhibitors. If you can connect with someone like Bill, you'll be inspired.
I would advise reviewing as many exhibits as you can, to find a style you can identify with. Here is an incredible exhibit recently posted. The exhibitor, Mark Schwartz won the 2020 American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors Champion of Champions award with this exhibit!
It is truly awesome:
Boston's Use of the 1847 Issue
Mark is a charter member of The Gathering, our postal history club.
-Paul
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
go on the website of the AAPE (the american association of philatelic exhibitors) they have much information for the novice exhibitor
Login to Like
this post
re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
What is the objective of your exhibiting?
If it is education and wanting to introduce others to philately and/or a specialize philatelic topic, I think that you could reach far more folks doing online exhibiting. Not only COVID free, but it would reach exponentially more people than doing stamp shows.
If the objective is notoriety and ‘gold metals’ than doing stamps shows is the way to go.
Don
Login to Like
this post
Auctions
re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
Don, i don't know about gold medals.. i attended an awards where the gold medal winner spent what i spent on a 2019 Subaru for an item he NEEDED to complete his exhibit.
Login to Like
this post
re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
I served as exhibits chair for VANPEX in Vancouver, British Columbia, for five or six years. Here's my advice (which echoes much of what your have already seen in this thread):
Attend actual exhibitions. You'll see that exhibits universally zero in on one topic — postage due stamps of a particular country, for example, or wartime slogan cancellations, or believe it or not, an actual VANPEX exhibit examining the varying thickness of the paper used to print of one issue of early Canadian definitive stamps. I never saw exhibits in which the exhibitor simply exhibited one of his general collections. Among my exhibits:
• A 10-frame exhibit focussing on the economy of Great Britain during the Second World War
• Another 10-frame exhibit about the brief "lifetime" of the KLM DC-2 airliner Uiver (Stork), which crashed in Iraq in 1934 on its maiden commercial flight, following its first-place finish in the handicap portion of the McRobertson International Air Race between London and Melbourne.
• An eight-frame exhibit tracking the development of military medicine from the mid-1850s and the concept that led to the creation of the International Red Cross through the Vietnam War.
If you've been collecting for awhile, and have mainly purchased stamps that you especially like, look at your collection and try to determine if there are individual stamps or sets which attract you more than others. Those stamps could be the basis of a exhibit, which could include souvenir sheets, postal usage, overprints, varieties, multiples, and collateral, non-postal items such as postcards, maps, photographs, ticket stubs, etc.
Perhaps the most important suggestion I have is to exhibit for yourself instead of trying to please judges. For years, I resisted exhibiting because I thought that exhibiting was tantamount to bragging, and that the only collectors who won gold medals were those with deep pockets. Nothing could be further from the truth. (Well, there are still some "old school" judges out there who turn there noses up at anything other than exhibits of "classic" stamps and covers, but they are few and far between.
There really are no rules in exhibiting, except for the injunction to follow the guidelines set cup by the exhibition committee. An example: I did a one-frame exhibit about my experiences as a hospital corpsman during the Vietnam War. To start off, it was clear that I was the exhibitor. I event used a photo of myself in uniform. I also used a lot of collateral material, including my Marine Corps liberty pass and photos that I took in Vietnam, and I printed my exhibit pages on light green stationery featuring a background of bamboo. In traditional exhibiting, coloured exhibit sheets are a no-no. Nevertheless, I got a silver medal for that exhibit. But awards aren't the be all and the end all. To me, the best thing about exhibiting is that it forces the collector to look carefully at his or her collection, and to buy carefully. It's absolutely the best way to learn about your stamps, because, if you don't exhibit, your collections are mainly going to collect dust. How many times, really, do collectors actually look at completed album pages? About as often, perhaps, as they look at their wedding albums or last week's newspaper.
At all costs, avoid building a boring exhibit, especially if you are bored with the topic! One of the most boring exhibits I ever saw consisted of 10 frames of nothing but first-flight covers flown by the Concorde supersonic jetliner. Such covers have little commercial value, and are visually similar. The exhibit included nothing whatsoever to do with the troubled, costly history of the Concorde itself. In short, the exhibit taught virtually nothing about the Concorde. As I recall, it received a bronze medal, little more than an award for participating.
Bob
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like this post.
Login to Like.
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re: Advice if I want to apply for exhibition
Agreeing with Bob-
I started exhibiting as a teenager back in the last century. I had drooled over exhibits of rare stamps and covers I couldn’t afford, and decided that I would mimic the techniques with a serious study of a stamp I could afford. As per my avatar, I loved the Ben Franklin One Cent stamp from The Series of 1902.
Back when I started the stamps and covers cost pennies instead of hundreds or thousands of dollars. I created a story about color shades tied to years through stamps used on covers and postcards. The judges loved it! Over time I managed to build it to a constant Silver award winner.
At the time I didn’t know that I stumbled into a very interesting period (1903-1909) of postal history and this stamp has kept me interested for nearly 50 years!
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.