South African Collectors’ Society

Stampex London Autumn – 25th October 2024

Stampex in London has been Britain’s premier philatelic event for a very long time. Recently popular events held outside of London, like York, have emerged to rival it. Many agree that it needed to change.

Stampex Autumn 2024 in London ran from October 23rd – 26th. Its organiser, the PTS (Philatelic Traders’ Society Ltd), has dealer members all over the world and want this event to be known as ‘Stampex International’. This emphasis describes a philatelic event that has now down-sized very considerably on previous years. As a result, Stampex International is now not much bigger than York, the largest regional stamp fair.

A new regional event is looming on 2025’s horizon. EuroPhilEx is to be held in Birmingham’s Hall 9 at the NEC (National Exhibition Centre) on 7th – 11th May 2025. It is promoting itself as ‘Britain’s next major international stamp exhibition’ and promising ‘over 50 dealers and trade stands’. It aims to do all of what Stampex once did but no longer does, specifically provide a venue for “over 2,000 frames of exhibits”. It is clearly making a play for the what was once Stampex’s domain, the heart and soul of British philately.

Previously some dealers among the PTS’s membership complained about the cost of Stampex and a perceived decline in visitor numbers. To be fair, there was nothing the PTS could do to ameliorate Covid’s effect on falling footfall or the fact that our hobby is in decline as senior collecters dodder off into that dark night, one with no prospect of a sunny morning bright with the young green shoots of philatelic recovery. It was in this harsh light that dealers and collectors urged the PTS to change Stampex for the better.

It is hard to believe that Stampex’s organisers did not see the problems afflicting our hobby. For years their solution was simply to perpetuate more of the same while resting on their laurels. We had the Royal Mail selling First Day Covers, ‘Kids having Fun’, (you’ve never seen such a sorry lot when stripped of their smartphones), and 1000s of frames of exhibits in empty echoing halls that few bothered to go and see. The worst of Stampex was the high prices that dealers had to charge to cover the cost of attending.

To their credit, the new regime at the PTS have initiated changes. They have now dropped Stampex’s opening day entrance fee to the benefit of both its members and visitors. This small and sensible adjustment indicates bigger changes are coming. I visited Stampex on Friday 25th October eager for something different and better. What I saw at Stampex was an encouraging return to its roots as a stamp fair that puts the interests of its dealer members and their customers first, not those of organised philately.

I travelled up from Cambridge North on the 9.03 train begrudging the £21 fare I could have spent on eBay without leaving home and running the risk of catching a contagious disease on the train and or robbery on the streets of London. (The longer journey to EuroPhilEx in Birmingham will be over £50. That’s not ‘Ouch’, it’s a string of expletives!) Needing some exercise after my train journey, I made a brisk walk from King’s Cross to the BDC (Business Design Centre) in Islington where I arrived at 10.27, just before the main doors opened. A small queue of philatelists and postal historians waitied outside.

A well-attired member of the establishment arrived by taxi and inserted himself into the queue moaning about his four hour train journey from Torquay. The security guard who was marshalling the queue grinned and politely reminded him that some people had flown in from half way around the world for this event. I said I had come from Cambridge. The lady next to me said she had come form Hampshire, some two hours on the train.

As it is a little unusual to find women interested in stamps I asked her why she was at Stampex. She said that she was the editor of Stamp Collecting. Wow! What luck! Her magazine is probably the most difficult of all the UK philatelic magazines to make contact with. This fortuitous meeting gave my day at Stampex a very positive start.

Whereas Stampex used to occupy the large central ‘groundfloor’ hall and the upper gallery of the BDC at great expense, it now occupies only a small part of the main gallery and all of the smaller hall on the side that previously housed the mounted exhibits. Organised philately’s need for a large and expensivehall to accomodate exhibit frames has now largely disappeared. This will have a significant impact on the way in which federated philatelic society organises, judges and displays its members’ achievements.

Someone said to me (i.e. its hearsay), that the Royal Philatelic Society London will be taking over the judging of displays in future. I do not know if this is true. What I have read is that EuroPhilEx in Birmingham next year claims that it will have ‘2,000 frames of exhibits’. They are, it appears, intent of making EuroPhilEx everything that Stampex once was and currently is not. There does seem to be some sort of a tie-up between the Royal and EuroPhilEx.

In the past it was unthinkable not to have exhibits at Stampex. It was the pinnacle of most philatelist’s ambition to display their work and receive the public acclaim and awards from their peers at this premier UK event. A central assumption of organised philately is that collectors want to see award-winning displays. As a result, various parties went to great lengths and added costs to make this possible at Stampex. In large part, this made Stampex the prestige event it was. However, this insiduously added to Stampex’s costs which had to be born by dealers who charged the customer higher prices.

Undoubtedly, many will regret not being able to view competition entries at Stampex in future but I am not one. While I enjoy my SACS meeetings and being in the company of collectors who have the same interests as me and who share their displays and knowledge with me, I do not go to Stampex to see displays. Nor will I go to EuroPhilEx to see them. (Is it even possible to view 2,000 frames in a day?) Judging by the empty display halls, more mausoleums of philately than a museum show piece, few collectors are interested in viewing displays. I believe this disinterest led the PTS to regard frames of exhibits as largely superflous to their members’ greater need which is to sell philatelic material. That suits me fine. I go to Stampex to buy stuff. Most people do!

The PTS has not entirely done away with the concept of philatelic displays, just the space needed to house their frames as well as the associated issues and costs that come with organising them. The PTS says it “is passionate about giving collectors of all levels and areas of interest the chance to show off what they love, and for Stampex visitors to feel inspired by seeing other collections and philatelic stories in a fresh and creative light.” In order to do this the PTS has turned to technology which promises a useful solution. The downside is that technology is often an anathema to older collectors who cannot use it.

At Stampex the PTS introduced a solution called ‘Display Your Way’. It has the potential to be a useful tool, ultimately even a great benefit. It is based on a large touch screen from which viewers can select a range of on-line collections by using ‘tap and swipe’ technology like that found in a smartphone. There is a good case for this technology.

There is no charge to display at present. Displays can be submitted as PDF files to the organisers from anywhere in the world without risk or courier costs. In marked contrast to organised philately, there are no formal rules about exhibiting. You can show what you like entirely as you like. There are no associated logistical and security costs such as mounting, guarding and storing displays overnight. But what appeals most to exhibition organisers is that there is no need for an additional large and expensive hall in which to house frames of exhibits. Occupying about 1 square metre of floor space, the ‘Display Your Way’ device can be parked against a wall in any free space. It adds up to money saved.

In addition, the ‘Display Your Way’ technology allows viewers to vote for their favourite display in a People’s Choice Award. Ironically, at Stampex this required an old fashioned pen and paper ballot, something senior philatelists unable to work the ‘Display Your Way’ system would immediately understand. When I looked at it at about midday there were very few ballot papers in the glass container. Clearly, if federation or philatelic groups were to use such a system it would have to be be adapted to suit their requirements.

Adel Bulpitt, the visiting President of the Pretoria Philatelic Society, ran me through the system which had four displays by SACS member Jamie Smith, co-founder of the South African Philately Club. Adel is a supporter of technology in philately and hopes to see something similar to ‘Display Your Way’ being used in South Africa. I was impressed by the system in theory and in practice and how it presented Jamie’s beautiful layouts up close and personal in great detail. However, the system was slow and clunky and needs to be faster. Adel furiously tapped buttons at one point trying to get something to come up. I saw no-one except Adel use it! When I returned an hour later it was still open on the display page where we had left it. What good is it if no-one uses it?

I subsequently attended an ABWPS (Anglo-Boer War Philatelic Society) meeting in London where an attendee asked me if I had seen the wonderful letters on display at Stampex. As I had not, he explained that they had been on a gantry wall in an obscure part of the upper hall which was, I believe, closed of on the day when I was there. As this young man was technically literate, I asked him what he had thought of the ‘Display Your Way’ system. “I didn’t know there was anything like that there”, he said. “I would have liked to have seen it”. Had he found it he would have had no trouble using it, unlike senior philatelists. So, for starters, ‘Display Your Way’ needs to be better promoted.

Simon Carson of the PTS says: “The PTS believes strongly in the need to adapt to new technologies, and this includes bringing digital concepts to physical events. These displays can inspire visitors to turn their collections into something more structured or more compelling as a story, to share with others.” The poor response that I saw at Stampex to ‘Display Your Way’ calls into question the belief that this technology provides ‘inspiration’, let alone a solution. It needs more than an enthusiastic soundbite. Visitors to Stampex need to know that it is there before they can begin to be inspired.

Stampex’s new layout, while not ideal and a little awkward, generally had an enjoyable feel and buzz to it. It was probably the most personable Stampex I have ever been to. Hopefully, some disillusioned absentee dealers will return, notably Alan Berman whose presence I missed. However, it is not just buyers who feel the pinch. It is also expensive for dealers to stay five nights in London. Many dealers can do as well on-line without incurring the dubious benefits and all the costs of attending a long London show.

I spent some time looking for items to buy. Some dealers were just too expensive and I backed away fast. It is embarrassing to stay polite while your alarm bells are ringing. Adel, being a South African and an Afrikaner, had no trouble being honest and saying ‘I can’t afford these prices’. Whatever your fears for the future of our postal history or stamp collecting hobby, enthusiasts will continue to buy according to their budget. I bought a number of interesting items from Cover Story and Bill Pipe aka ‘The Magpie’. Bill was recovering from a recent stroke by working at Stampex. I wish him a speedy recovery. He is always a good source of fine material at reasonable prices.

Some of my Stampex Purchases

I bought six items for my various postal history displays. For my nascent (still unmounted and a box) ‘Paquebot Mark’ display I found a useful large ‘UNION OF SA OCEAN PO 2’ postmark on a slightly grubby but cleanable postcard (below). The ‘2’ in the UNION OF SA OCEAN PO postmark shows that it was posted on the Balmoral Castle.

I found a sepia photo dated 1918 of the old paddling pool at Camps Bay for my ‘Beaches of the Cape Peninsula’; as well as useful pieces for my displays on the ‘Invasion of GSWA’ and the ‘Cantonments of the Imperial Garrison’. Associated with these subjects is my interest in ‘WW1 Internment’, as seen in the postcard below from Fort Napier outside Pietrmaritzburg. This interests me but probably not to you. (Which is probably why so few people go to view other collectors’ displays at Stampex – and elsewhere!)

My most expensive purchase of the day is the cover shown below. I hope it will contribute to understanding a puzzle about a pre-war UDF Army camp that was held in Worcester in 1913. It would appear that the cover below, used in September 1914 at the start of the Rebellion, was produced for the 1913 Camp.

And for my Namibia display which covers all of SWA including GSWA, WW1, Forerunners and the inter-war years as well as the struggle for independence, I always like to go home with something pretty even if it is philatelic, which this cover by Giovanetti most certainly is.

By 3 pm, I was done. I departed the the BDC, Islington and London in good spirits, richer in postal history but a little poorer in the pocket. It was worth the visit. It had been a good day meeting and mingling with philately’s movers and shakers. Whereas I had previously always left Stampex with a feeling of relief at escaping its over-bearing self-importance, it now seemed to me that I was leaving a more comfortable and familiar stamp fair. By removing the filatelic phuddy-duddies Stampex has recaptured its mojo. Long may it continue.

I look forward to returning in 2025. (22nd – 25th Oct, 2025.) The only disappointment was that there were not more dealers. I really wasn’t at all bothered by the absence of an Exhibit Hall or the shortcomings of the ‘Display Your Way’ system. I did visit the Royal Philatelic Society’s table and found them welcoming but stuck-up. Some things never change. I can sense their influence on EuroPhilEx already. With a £10 entrance fee on the first day, a Court of Honour and 2,000 frames of exhibits that I do not care to see, EuroPhilEx is gearing up to be everything that made Stampex top-heavy. I want it to succeed but not as an elitist Stampex Mark II. EuroPhilEx offers a great opportunity to do something better. We’ll have to see. I will monitor its progress and write about it here.