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