Freestyle Philately!

Finally! Somebody is doing something to make stamp collecting more accessible, less intimidating and dare I say, more popular. The Kitchener-Waterloo Stamp Club is hosting Royale 2026 , the convention and exhibition of the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada (RPSC) this June:

Here is the information from the linked page:

Who can participate?

Anyone who has something they would like to share with other collectors and the public at a stamp show: stamps, covers, postcards – anything philatelic. You can also include related non-philatelic material. The sky’s the limit!

How to participate?

Arrange your items on one or more pages and write something about them – for example, tell us why you like them, what do they commemorate, how and where did they travel through the mail? You can include philatelic and/or non-philatelic information. The items and text can be format ted any way you like. You can submit one letter-sized page (8.5×11 inches) or the equivalent of up to 8 letter-sized pages. Other page sizes can be used (for example, double-width 11×17 inches, square 11×11 inches). Insert your page(s) into clear sleeves to protect your items.

What will happen at the show?

Submitted pages will be mounted in frames for public viewing during the show. There will be no judging.

A time slot will be scheduled in the program for Freestyle Philatelists who wish to interact with visitors at the displays. A facilitator will also be present during this time to answer any questions participants may have about practical aspects of their displays.

If you have thought about exhibiting but don’t know where to start, this is a great opportunity to get friendly feedback and advice in a no-pressure setting.

Why participate?

Sharing is one of the greatest joys of our hobby. Take this opportunity to share something you love from your collection. Let us know what you like to collect – you may find others with the same interests. Most importantly, have fun!

EUROPEAN EXHIBITIONS

Does this look like fun to you? Traditional exhibition halls from recent European stamp exhibitions. Note the glass 'barrier', the cumbersome-looking exhibit frames, the ample unoccupied floor space and the near total absence of viewers:

Freestyle philately sounds like a welcome innovation to me! I'll be interested to see the level of uptake and participation. Based on accounts in the current issue of the Federation of European Philatelic Associations (FEPA) Journal, high costs were cited by the vast majority of participants as a major constraint on traditional exhibiting, followed closely by declining attendance, aging exhibitor bases, and shortages of volunteers willing or able to take on demanding organisational roles. A variety of innovative approaches already being tested across Europe. Many federations are experimenting with smaller, more flexible exhibition formats, including one-frame shows, micro-exhibitions, and specialised events focused on a single class or theme. These formats lower barriers to participation and can be organised with fewer resources.

SAVE US, A.I.!

Could AI and social media ride to the rescue? Philately faces a demographic challenge that is openly acknowledged within the hobby: the average age of organized collectors is high, and sustained growth in membership of philatelic societies has proved elusive for decades. Part of the barrier to entry for new collectors is precisely the accumulated and gatekept expertise that makes the hobby so rich — it is also, for many, bewildering and unwelcoming. AI could serve philately as a patient and knowledgeable guide: answering the novice’s questions about postal history, identifying the stamps in a mixed lot acquired at an estate sale, suggesting areas of specialization that might suit a collector’s particular interests. It could translate the specialist vocabulary of exercising certificates, decode the abbreviations of old auction catalogues, and locate relevant literature on any topic. This is the kind of ambient expertise that currently requires personal connections to established collectors or dealers — connections that new entrants to the hobby may simply lack. The real promise of AI in philately is not speed or scale alone, but the redistribution of access to knowledge.

MEANWHILE, IN AMERICA...

The American Philatelic Society (APS) 2026-2030 Strategic Plan notes today’s mailbox rarely delivers surprises, and communication has largely gone digital. The natural exposure that once sparked a lifelong hobby is far less common. Yet the underlying curiosity that drives people to the hobby remains as strong as ever.

Over the past decade, APS member attrition has exceeded new member acquisition by 37%, resulting in a 27% overall membership decline and a 19% reduction in operational revenue. Age-related attrition remains the primary driver, with 80% of members aged 65 or older as of 2025. While there is no accurate data on the total number of active stamp collectors in the United States, market indicators demonstrate that the hobby extends far beyond APS’s approximately 22,600 individual members. One major national stamp dealer reports more than 100,000 active customers annually—nearly five times the size of APS membership. Additionally, the stamp and postal history categories on eBay are vibrant marketplaces, with tens of thousands of listings and continuous buyer and seller activity at any given time.

One more image from the APS document:

MaxScore!

A partner-managed MaxSold online estate sale this past week included this lot of Canada Post hockey stamps. The owner was clearly a hockey fan and amassed a small collection over several years and denominations: 46, 48, 49 cents and Permanent stamps. I had an eye to not only adding some to my own collection, but also for their potential use as postage for stamp mailings. 

The pressing question was...how much to bid? Judging from these photos included in the auction, I estimated the total value at $60...if the booklets were complete. (They were not!) With a bid, taxes and fees totalling $30, I was the successful bidder. Picking up the lot north of Kingston, someone had penned "Value $81.78" on the envelope. Score! I was estimating low $60's, but realized I was overlooking some huge $1.80 goalie stamps from 2015 that I didn't know ever existed - in fact I thought these were just cardboard hockey cards. Accepting the penned-in total and total bid amount, this was postage purchased at 36% of face value!

An accompanying one-looney lot included this 1978 Coles Bookstores how-to one-inch paperback with black & white illustrations and...

... a few stamps that one of our grandsons enjoyed looking through. He actually took one of the pre-printed 6-cent envelopes and glued some other used Canadian issues on front and back to make a unique take-home stamp art piece! Now, should I use the other pre-printed envelopes for stamp mail, simply by adding make-up postage to them? Is there enough room?

The key lesson here for inexpensive postage via MaxSold bidding is: know your bid limit, stay within it, appraise the photos realistically and trust that the seller has described the lot appropriately. He stamps, he scores!

Eighty-Seven Bucks o' Fun! Kingston Spring Stamp Festival

Here's another haul-from-the-haul post, based on yesterday's visit to the Kingston Stamp Club Spring Stamp Festival at Crossroads United Church. Unable to make it for the opening bell, it was 12:30 when I arrived, large reusable shopping bag in hand and ready to fill. As always, first stop was the Club consignment table. LOTS of good offerings - country collections separated from an album, those always-tempting US precancels priced per page, and yes, bagged lots of mostly off-paper. I found two and headed to the club desk. "Oh, good, someone is buying them", said Val. "Oh, I love those bagged lots", I replied. (The bags were already marked down from 10 bucks to $7.) Val then said, "Any that are marked $7 you can have for $5". So I returned for two more. Another club volunteer was enthused and we discussed our love of sorting, also happy that someone was buying them. So I returned (top photo) for two more! That's twenty-seven bucks o' sorting fun!

A few more consignment lots (above): Africa, Commonwealth, Philippines and another burgeoning bag of Commonwealth! Dealer Don had some tempting stuff, too. Fortunately, $9.25 black mounts in just the two sizes I had written on the back of my hand to look for. And just as (when we used to) cross the border, we buy a bottle of booze, when you go to a stamp show, you always buy hinges. Don's shoebox (I love shoeboxes and cigar boxes just as much as those large Zip-Locs!) and this $7 Canada off-paper caught my eye. Some are stuck together, but can be soaked. 

As usual, my sorting hierarchy was in my mind:

• keepers for my collection
• traders for fellow collectors 
• thematics for Michael Lynn's free stamp program
• common definitives for charity
• damaged stamps culled for future stamp art projects.

Politics Meets Philately - Again!

Though I'm not involved with organized philately, this recent philatelic news item did catch my eye. I can identify with the Royal Philately Society of Canada president's position. It shows just how far US-Canada relations have been damaged by poorly-informed and rashly-made decisions of the current US administration. Their effects reach out like troublesome tentacles, cross-border cancers, like woebegone weed roots choking out an otherwise green garden of goodwill. I mean, this is stamp collecting, for goodness' sake! How much more far-removed from the headlines can one pastime get? Apparently not far...

“I do not wish ill on Boston 2026, the attendees or my American philatelic colleagues,” he wrote, adding he had originally planned to attend before making his decision. “I wish the exhibition the best and hope it will be successful.” Redner explained that his decision not to attend stems from a broader moral objection to the current political climate in the United States.

He also addressed criticism that philately and politics should remain separate, arguing that such a distinction is no longer realistic. “To those of you who say philately and politics should not mix … I say to  you, that today everything is political and to think otherwise is naive,” he stated.

While Redner noted that attending international exhibitions has never been a formal requirement of the presidency, he acknowledged that some members of the RPSC board were concerned about the optics of his absence from a major global event. “As it is not my wish to harm the reputation of our national stamp club, I have made the decision to step down immediately,” he wrote. Redner said his resignation would allow the board to appoint a new president who can attend and represent the RPSC in Boston, framing the move as one made in the best interests of Canadian philately.

The 2026 Eastern Ontario Spring Stamp Festival

Kingston Stamp Club Announces the 2026 Eastern Ontario Spring Stamp Festival

The Kingston Stamp Club is delighted to announce the 2026 Eastern Ontario Spring Stamp Festival, taking place on Saturday, April 18, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Crossroads United Church, 690 Sir John A. MacDonald Boulevard, Kingston, Ontario. The venue is wheelchair accessible and offers ample free parking for all attendees.

This year’s festival will feature several local stamp dealers and 20 plus tables presenting an extensive range of definitive and commemorative postage stamps, revenue, Cinderella, and topical stamps, postal stationery including postcards, envelopes with postmarks, and first day covers. As well as, catalogues, collecting supplies and a youth table offering complimentary stamps. The event provides experienced philatelists, postal historians, and newcomers with an excellent opportunity to enhance or begin their collections while exploring the ways in which stamps reflect history, culture, art, and nature in miniature form.

Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend.

For additional information, please visit http://kingstonstampclub.ca 

or contact Club President, Bob Gardner at 613‑389‑9587, or bandjgardner@cogeco.ca

 

MaxMeaning!

A recent MaxSold auction here in Kingston included at least five stamp lots. Three comprised card file boxes with a few stamps carefully mounted on cards, with Scott numbers pencilled in, filed by country. I thought, "Wow, that was an organized, meticulous collector!" I was unsuccessful on those three, the highest bid was $33. By contrast, I won these two - the shoebox lot on paper (below) for $23 and the mint Canada lot (above) for $29 - interestingly, when I added all the mint Canadian postage I've found so far, there is at least $32! Feast your eyes on this spread - doesn't that look like a huge, fun sort? As much as I wanted to view that philed philately, I really looked forward to the messy mélange looming in this lot:

Mint Canada 1976 Olympics. Some had been removed from the commemorative presentation books put out by Canada Post that year. Surprisingly, I was lacking one of these stamps, had several Used, and most of the rest of the Olympic stamps in my collection were Mint Hinged. I put these in mounts and albumized them already, so my complete 1976 Olympics collection is now MNH. Thank you, collector!

The binder at centre of the top photo caught my eye - check out this label on the inside front cover. When we made things here! DuPont, hmmm. A lot of Kingstonians have been employed there since the plant opened during WWII.

I became curious about some of the interesting covers...so many addressed to Montreal addresses, many from Estonia, and many of those bore Russian stamps! Utsal is an Estonian surname.

More covers - addressed to the same addressee but now in Oakville. As a former Quebec resident who also moved to Ontario, I can identify:

Yet more covers, now to two addresses in Kingston:

By now I was really curious, and I did an online search to find out more about the Utsals. If I could, I would write a small note beside many of the notable stamps I've collected over the years...where they came from, who sent them to me, but unfortunately that would visually clutter the albums. 

Nonetheless, I'll present several data points here. Jack Utsal arrived in Canada as a child, graduating from Grade 9 at Montreal West High School in 1954, then McGill University in 1961. They moved to Kingston in 1998. Mr Utsal was a prolific Letter to the Editor writer to the Kingston Whig-Standard, on topics ranging from wind turbines to the scarcity of downtown housing, to recycling. There was even a Whig photo that made it to the wire services showing him dropping off his leaves at the Kingston recycling centre! Carol also made it to the editorial page, and was a sorority member. Other auction lot photos were taken in the former mill at the foot of Gore St., with the Block D condos visible in the background, though I picked up the lots at a different location. It's obvious that the Utsals were prolific correspondents!

The Utsals had three children. Interestingly, their children Kate and Michael gave them grandchildren within a month of each other in 1995! Their youngest daughter Helen was married in 2002. In the mid-nineties, Jack's parents died within two years of each other in the Toronto area. Also interestingly, his mother Salme was a professional artist in Montreal, exhibiting in Westmount.  A contact in the UK continued sending Jack mint British issues in the 1980s. These will be enjoyable to go through, and I know several of these sets are Used in my UK collection - they too will now be MNH. Look at those interesting British baggies:

Here are the many, many mint UK sets!

Several of the newspaper notices I read revealed that the Utsal family was in tune with the environment, natural life and art. The Utsals' daughter Helen is a professional artist to this day on Vancouver Island, and her nature art is really impressive. 

One of the most touching, personal parts of this collection that I am now proud to be part of is that tiny piece of red construction paper you can see in the top photo. Written in a child's script is the inscription, "Merry Christmas Dad! love, Katie". Then, the red paper is wrapped in scotch-taped Saran Wrap, with five Canadian stamps floating around inside! His daughter definitely knew what he liked.

Royal Mail Millennium Stamps 1999/2000

 

This past week, I was fortunate to add two more stamps to my Royal Mail two-year millennium collection (top photo). That means only two are still evading me: 2000/27 and 2000/36, both high values which are the trickiest values to come by. It only took 26 years to reach this point! I continue to try to improve postmarks on all the ones I already have.

BOLO!

APRIL 2026 UPDATE: I found #36 in a Maxsold lot - slightly damaged over the denomination, but a great Space Filler!