Show Report: New York Mega Show March 16-19, 2006

The Spring Mega Show was once again held in Madison Square Garden in the heart of Manhattan.  This is now the fifth consecutive time that this four-day show has been held in "The World's Most Famous Arena" and both the show attendees and dealers have expressed their pleasure with the arrangement.  The central location with easy access via public transportation has proven to be the magnet for drawing large crowds.  The show floor was occupied by 80 dealers, postal administrations/agencies, and societies, including the United States Stamp Society.  Our booth, located near the front of the hall, was staffed throughout the four days of the show and served as both a meeting place for current members as well as a means of attracting new members.  Our Society banner along with a display of our current books, reprints, and past copies of The Specialist made an attractive showing and resulted in the recruitment of four new members along with good publication sales figures.

Unlike the Fall Mega Show, the Spring Mega is a World Series of Philately show and did feature 31 competitive exhibits along with several non-competitive ones.  The entries covered a wide range of U.S. philately including beer, cigarette and other revenue stamps, Prexie postal history, vending and affixing machine coils, postal stationery and stampless letters.  The Grand Award went to Richard Malmgren's "Hawaiian Revenues," which had won a previous Grand in 2005 at TEXPEX.

Steve Belasco with his Reserve Grand Award at the New York Mega Show.

The Reserve Grand, however, went to a resurrected exhibit by a well known USSS member.  Steven R. Belasco, the longtime Chairman of our Vending & Affixing Machine Perforations Committee, had not exhibited his wonderful material in ten years.  Since his last competition, he has been gathering new material, conducting additional research, and reworking the exhibit.  The result was nothing short of spectacular in that he won, not only the Reserve Grand Award, but also the American Philatelic Congress Award, the APS 1900-1940 Medal of Excellence, and the USSS Statue of Freedom Award.  Let's hope it isn't another decade before we can see this exhibit again.  Congratulations, Steve!

On Thursday and Friday, Steve Rod had an unexpected treat for those who happened to be visiting the booth when he was there.  A few days earlier, he had received an advanced copy of the Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting fresh off the press from the printer.  To say that the book is outstanding is a gross understatement.  All who had the opportunity to view it were amazed not only by the comprehensiveness of the content but also by the sheer beauty of the layout and illustrations.  Several philatelic literature dealers commented that it is by far the best value in philatelic literature to come along in many years.  I strongly urge any member who has not pre-ordered this book to do so as soon as possible, since at the price of only $30 ($25 for members), these will be flying out of the cartons after the release ceremony is held at Washington 2006.

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, Washington, DC, and Ohio.  Those visiting the booth included: