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By Nicholas Lombardi
The New York Fall Mega Show returned to its usual location at the Javits
Center on the west side of Manhattan. The show floor was occupied by
more than one hundred dealers, postal administrations/agencies and
societies, including the United States Stamp Society. Our booth, located
along the north wall of the hall, was staffed for most of the four day
show and served as both a meeting place for current members as well as a
means of attracting new members. Unfortunately, the call for volunteers
to help staff the booth apparently fell on deaf ears and with only three
members who had signed up to help, we were only to keep the booth open
for two hours on Sunday. Our society banner along with a display of our
current books, reprints, and past copies of The Specialist did make an
attractive showing and resulted in three new members.
The show served as the venue for the First Days of two U.S. issues. On
Thursday, the 37¢ Madonna and Child stamp was issued and on Friday, the
newly designed 37¢ Hanukkah stamp was released. Although both ceremonies
were well attended, the overall attendance for the four days of the show
was about average for the Fall Mega but was nowhere near the crowd at
the Spring Mega which had returned to Madison Square Garden. The
difference between a venue such as The Garden with easy access to public
transportation and one with next to none such as the Javits Center was
very evident.
One area of the show floor that always did seem to have a good crowd was
the youth area. The kids enjoyed themselves and did appear to be
genuinely interested in stamps. They were given a nice assortment of
free items and enjoyed the computer activities. The only complaint heard
was that by Saturday, none of the printers were functioning and no one
knew how to fix them.
Since New York City is only allowed to have one World Series of
Philately qualifying show, which is the Spring Mega Show, the Fall event
has traditionally featured the Dealers Choice Competition composed
invited exhibits. This year, however, the Exhibition Committee decided
for the first time to extend a special invitation to the members of the
Grand Prix Club and winners of international large gold medals to
present non-competitive exhibits. Fourteen exhibitors showed a wide
variety of spectacular material, including Omar Rodriguez's 2004
Champion of Champions winning exhibit of the Hidalgo First Issue of
Mexico. Three time C of C winner George Jay Kramer showed his eight
frame exhibit "The Telegraph in America."
As mentioned earlier, our booth was a popular place for members to get
together and exchange information. Although most of those who stopped by
were from the immediate area, we were pleased to meet members from as
far away as Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia. A special thanks goes
out to Joe Chervenyak for helping man our booth and to Tom Jacks of
Mountainside Stamps who transported our booth material to and from the
show. Those visiting the booth included:
| Stan Sablak | Steve Spoenl | Frank Braithwaite |
| Bill Ainsworth | Jorge Serra | Alfred Zallson |
| Edward Stern | Kris Haggblom | Ken Zierer |
| Joe Chervenyak | Mark Sommer | Andy Kupersmit |
| Jacques Schiff, Jr. | Stephen Goceliak | Jim Kloetzel |
| Doug D'Avino | Gordon Morison | James Natale |
| Stan Polchinski | Roger Brody | Dave Steidley |
| Alan Warren | Ron Edwards | Steve Suffet |
| Frank Magnauito | Andrew McFarland | Tom Jacks |
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