Courtesy image
This stamp issued by Ghana celebrates the Titanic.
If you go
What | 20th annual Myrtle Beach Stamp & Postcard Show
Who | Myrtle Beach Stamp Club, with nine stamp and postcard dealers
When | 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday
Where | Clarion Hotel & Conference Center (formerly Holiday Inn West), 101 Fantasy Harbour Blvd., just of Myrtle Beach and along the Intracoastal Waterway, off U.S. 501 and George Bishop Parkway
How much | Free admission
Information | 347-0087, sites.google.com/site/myrtlebeachstampclub/, or email lilfort@sccoast.net
Even with the U.S. Postal Service’s hike of first-class postage to 45 cents on Jan. 22, a local club continues getting extra mileage showcasing the history and art of stamps from as far back as stamps’ penny days.
The Myrtle Beach Stamp Club will have its 20th annual Myrtle Beach Stamp & Postcard Show 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center, in the Fantasy Harbor area, off U.S. 501, just west of Myrtle Beach. Admission is free, and nine stamps and postcard dealers will fill the room to capacity.
Donn Ebert of Conway, the club president, coordinates the shows. He said the theme for this gathering marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic, with a special show postmark and envelope available, and at least two exhibit areas dedicated to the ship that sunk in April 1912.
Ebert said the subject chosen each year reflects an element contained in that square inch or so that makes up a stamp: history, from what or whom it pictures or the time of its printing. The 2011 show commemorated the centennial of the transcontinental flight made by Calbraith P. Rodgers. For this year, though, Ebert figured everybody would know of the Titanic and its storied place in history.
Countries get unique
The “gimmicky” and peculiar nature of some stamps from around the world catches Ebert’s eye as well, such as a set from Iceland showing erupting volcanoes and containing bits of volcanic ash, and a stamp from Thailand made with an attached rice seed.
“Some stamps now come with inscriptions in Braille,” Ebert said, “and scented stamps are very popular now. Liberia just issued a couple of cookie souvenir stamps with bands of chocolate that are scented. One has those code squares to scan; it’ll tell you about the process of making chocolate.
“France just issued a set of four small sheets of stamps with real lace on them. So we get all kinds of things like that. A lot of the old-time dealers, they’re not special, but gimmicks.”
Harnessing the history in stamps, Ebert said each stamp issued has stories to tell.
“They’recommemorating someone, something or some period,” he said, “and you can learn a lot of history just from collecting stamps.”
Ebert stays braced for unusual stamps, such as planned U.S. issues he said range from a set of predatory birds for a 3-ounce rate, weather vanes and “Aloha” shirts.
He said the coils of 100 “Forever” stamps in Statue of Liberty and Stars and Stripes designs in a way represent competition through mass-market stamp sales for everyday use, but that’s one more reason the hobby of stamp collecting retains its appeal.
The pastime presents no age limits, Ebert said, and youth, with whom the club aims to engage more interest, can delve into stamps for reports and “show and tell” projects, while senior citizens can return to their youth with the wealth of details each stamp tells in its own story.
Overtures to children
At the show this weekend, the club will reach out for new audiences with a section geared to youth, organized by Ebert’s wife of 32 years, Georgine Ebert, who found her niche in postcard collecting.
Postcards could represent that ticket to connect with children, Donn Ebert said, by such overtures of showing “what makes a good card and makes a more valuable card.”
“We try to get the children into the show,” he said, “and it’s starting to pay off a little bit.”
Ebert said he started in stamps when he about 9 years old, and he figures the ages of 7 to 8 present good timing, after younger years of playing with bigger toys, to illustrate the more fragile nature of stamps “and how they need to be handled with care.”
The Myrtle Beach Stamp Club stays active, with 39 dues-paying members in 2011 and with winter vacationers returning, Ebert said. On average, the club’s monthly meetings draw more than 20 attendees.
One member, Tom Howard, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Hanover, Pa., migrates every winter to Myrtle Beach. He said he has joined the dealer ranks at the club’s annual show for at least eight years.
“I cart all my inventory down here to Charlotte and Raleigh, and Charleston and Columbia shows,” he said, calling the Myrtle Beach group “a very active club with programs and participation. It wouldn’t be what it is without Donn.”
Howard said sometimes at shows, he buys more than he sells, but overall that the number of collectors continues to fade. He described the activity as not a business to invest in, but a sheer hobby.
‘Found in the attic’
He said he sees widows, for example, whose late husbands amassed collections, and people who inherited caches of stamps “found in the attic.”
“There’s an amazing amount of dusty junk,” Howard said of what people might find their forebears hoarded.
Howard also looks forward to the Myrtle Beach Stamp Club’s annual extravaganza because of the carloads of folks and other clubs’ members the dealers see come in from places such as Wilmington, N.C., and Columbia.
The “old, more expensive” stamps remain the most difficult to find, said Howard, who focuses on U.S. wares only, but that many showgoers simply shop.
“A lot have special interests,” he said, “such as sports and golf.”
Howard knows of a Charlotte dealer who specializes in Confederate States of America and Civil War items, which stay popular, especially in this region.
“I live near Gettysburg,” he said, “but Union stuff does not really sell down here.”
Howard and Ebert each raised the benefits of scheduling the 2012 Myrtle Beach show on the weekend between that of the Super Bowl and the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon, so they’re happy nothing conflicts with or competes with their effort.
After Howard’s four children were grown, he said he got back into stamp collecting in 1980 and stepped it up to full-time, becoming a dealer in the mid-1990s in retirement.
“I said to my wife,” he recalled, “our entire pension fund is going to be gone if I keep this up.”
Contact STEVE PALISIN at 444-1764.
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