D2, IO,
My sense from talking to people after a couple of recent sales is that in fact, there are some new stamp collectors out there at the top end of the market. People aged around 60 who have had successful careers and put away some nice cash, still have a competitive streak (hence the successful careers) and are looking to recapture a bit of the fun they had when they collected stamps as a kid - only now they can afford the good stuff.
I don't think this trickles down much to the ordinary stuff, except where grading has made it possible for them to competitively aquire splendidly graded copies of common stamps. That's where you see the $6 stamp go for $350 - it's the "nobody's gonna beat mine" attitude, and money's no obstacle.
I wrote about this recently here.
saphilatelics
Yes, it would be a great idea for the yellow boxes (which, by the way, are in desperate need of updating and redesigning!) Maybe that would be a good topic for a meeting Mitch? "Stamp shops and philatelic points of interest in my home town/state/country"
Then we could collect all the posts and make a little website out of them all at once...
Here, here and here are some scans of stamp shop listings from a philatelic directory I bought when I lived in Prague four years ago (2003). I think it's mostly up to date. Some shops had to relocate after the floods in 2002. (Po=Monday, Ut=Tue, St=Weds, Ct=Thur, Pa=Fri, So=Sat, Ne=Sunday)
The shop in Legerova I mentioned in my earlier post is actually the Filap shop in Sokolska (I was off by a block). You have to walk through to the courtyard in the back. Nice friendly old guys, they speak German, one of them speaks decent French too. They have some good stock in some areas.
Below are the bourses, from the same 2003 book. I can't vouch for whether the info is still correct, but I would guess that it mostly is:
Monday: Urxova street no 11, Praha 8 - Karlin. Even-numbered Mondays, except holidays (18:00-20:00)
Tuesday: Palac Charitas, Karlovo nam. 5, Praha 2. Every Tuesday except holidays (15-17)
Tuesday & Sunday: Dum armady, Vitezne nam. 4, Praha 6. Every 2nd and 4th Tues. of the month (17-18:30), and every 2nd Sunday of the month (9-11:30)
I never visited the above three, so I can't vouch for them. I did visit the following two quite often:
Wednesday: menza VSE, Italska street (look for the broad stairs of the modern building on the left as you go up the hill from nam. W. Churchill). Every Weds. (15:30-19). This is the one I used to frequent. It has 30-40 dealers with all kinds of good stuff. Also they have floor auctions, and you can get a beer in the hall next door if you get there before 5. Lots of fun!
Saturday & Sunday: Kulturni dum barikadniku, at the end of Mrstikova street by the Strasnicka metro in Praha 10. A little out of the center but worth visiting. Big and busy. Sat (7-12) and Sun (8-11).
Enjoy your trip!
Mh
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on Dec-02-07
at 21:33:39 PST
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member
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on Dec-02-07
at 17:55:35 PST
I'm a catalog king, expert and philatelist - whoopee!!
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on Dec-01-07
at 20:31:33 PST
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on Nov-29-07
at 15:52:26 PST
