Updated October 9^th with comments from Don Sundman.

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Mystic Stamp Company Announces Appointment of New President

Mystic Stamp Company of Camden, NY, begins another chapter in its 100-year history as it welcomes new president Tom Vasiliauskas. Tom comes to Mystic with 25 years of leadership experience in specialty retail marketing and merchandising. Don Sundman, Mystic president for the last 50 years, remains as chairman of the board of directors.

The newly minted president says, “I’m excited to build upon the 100-year legacy Mystic Stamp Company has forged with its loyal customer base, and to expand stamp collecting to an even larger audience… I look forward to cementing Mystic’s position as the go-to source for collectible stamps in the U.S.” Don Sundman adds, “I’m very excited for Tom to join our team. He’s got the experience and skills to take Mystic forward. I’ll stay involved with Mystic as chairman of the board and work on future projects. I love our company, our colleagues and customers, the hobby, and greater Camden. I want to see Mystic remain a force for good in all areas.”

“We hired Tom as president now so Tom and I have time to work together. I turn 70 next month and have worked at Mystic 50+ years. I’ll share what I’ve learned about our hobby and business with Tom,” Sundman told The Virtual Stamp Club in an email. “I started at Mystic in 1974 so worked here 50 years this spring. I’m proud of Mystic’s achievements in those 50 years. It’s time for a younger leader with great ideas and energy. Tom can build on our success.”

Mystic Stamp Company is America’s Leading Stamp Dealer. Founded in 1923, the company was sold in 1974 to stamp pioneer Maynard Sundman of Littleton, New Hampshire. 50 years later, under Don Sundman’s leadership, the employee-owned mail order business is the largest stamp company in the nation. It offers a wide range of U.S. and foreign stamps, First Day Covers and collecting supplies. Mystic has sponsored over 8,600 collectors for APS membership. The company is a founding donor of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

Don Sundman has received major philatelic awards, including the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award and the APS Luff Award. He brought national media attention to the hobby by uncovering CIA connections to the Candleholder Invert error. Purchasing America’s rarest stamp – 1918’s 1¢ Z Grill – for a record price of $935,000, he later traded the stamp for the unique Jenny Invert Plate Block in a $6-million swap with bond king William H. Gross.

“For me, it’s a sense of responsibly for the business and hobby,” Sundman told The VSC. “I want Mystic to continue serving collectors and continue as a positive part of the hobby.”

Mystic and Sundman personally each donated $25,000 to Boston 2026, the upcoming U.S. international stamp collecting show.

His daughter reports on Facebook that former American Philatelic Society president Randy Neil passed away Wednesday, March 6, 2024. He was 82.

In real life, he was a professional cheerleader, helping create the Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader squad and running a shop for cheerleading supplies, The Spirit Shop, in Kansas City. In philately, he was also a cheerleader — warm, friendly, humorous and a great “front man” for our hobby. I had the pleasure of serving with him on the APS Board, and I will miss seeing him at shows.

To give you an idea of how gregarious Randy was, he told me at StampShow 1994, when he was President, that it took him two hours to cross the bourse!

Randy moved from professional cheerleading to, well, another form of cheerleading: Publicity and public relations, as well and editing and establishing a number of stamp collecting publications.

He is shown above at the first-day ceremony for the U.S. stamps promoting World Stamp Show-New York. There are some photos of him at his last board meeting as APS president in 1997 here. That same year saw a major change on the board, with five first-time members, including three women: Secretary Janet Klug, Directors-at-Large Ann Triggle and Jeanette Adams, and Directors-at-Large Wayne Youngblood and myself. There was also a hotly-contested election for President between Ken Lawrence and John Hotchner, rather than the usual “passing of the torch” successions.

Randy then became Immediate Past President, but just two years later, he stepped off the board when Hotchner decided not to run for re-election as president. During a small party after his retirement, I was standing near Randy when he muttered, “We got exactly the Board that we wanted.”

You can read or listen to The Virtual Stamp Club radio feature on him from 2016.

This story is evolving and may be updated more than once. Keep checking back for the latest.

by Lloyd A. de Vries

Nancy B. Clark, president emeritus of Boston 2026 and a former treasurer of the American Philatelic Society, has died after a long illness. She was 77.

Nancy and her husband Doug were among the founders of Peachtree State Stamp Show in Georgia, which is now called “Southeastern Stamp Expo.” The 2024 edition was held this past weekend, and Doug attended. The couple chose the judges for the exhibit competition.

And Nancy was following news from the show on Facebook up until the end, “liking” and commenting on posts.

She ran for APS president in 2003 against Janet Klug, thus guaranteeing the U.S. national stamp federal would have its first woman president. Klug won. According to her candidate statement for Treasurer on The Virtual Stamp Club, she was president of Olymphilex 96, the American representative to the FIP Commission for Youth Philately, as a Commissioner for MLADOST `84, JUVALUX `88, DUSSELDORF `90, and CANADA `92. She earlier headed the Rochester (NY) Philatelic Association and the Athens (Ga.) Philatelic Society, was secretary to the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors, editor the Georgia Postal History Society’s Georgia Post Roads and president of the Georgia Federation of Stamp Clubs. She had retired from her “teaching and minister of music careers.”

For several years after her service on the APS board, she hosted the “APS Stamp Talk” internet radio program. Most of the time, she worked from home on the show, but in 2006, she hosted it live on the floor of the Washington 2006 international show. She hosted the show for about 17 years. “I’m an evangelist,” she told Linn’s Stamp News. “I want to share the word about this wonderful hobby. It’s given me so much joy that I want to share it with folks.”

Nancy headed the group that made the successful bid for the 2026 international show that will be held in Boston this May. “It’s going to be a fabulous gathering in Beantown,” she told me in my own radio interview in 2016. (You can hear the edited feature here.

She was an internationally- and U.S.-accredited judge and won the APS’ Luff Award for Exceptional Contributions to Philately in 2008.

In 2022, she was named one of U.S. philately’s “Most Influential People” by Linn’s. She told the newspaper that she began collecting as a child in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of two stamp collectors. “I’d be plopped on the floor with an album and my parents would bring me a couple packets of stamps” at the Rubber City Stamp Show, she said.

She and Doug moved to Cape Cod after his retirement from the University of Georgia, but they were still active in the Southeast Federation of Stamp Clubs: She was on its board and advised even on this year’s show.

Much more importantly that her philatelic curriculum vita, Nancy was a friend to everyone, and someone I looked forward to seeing at shows. Someone commented, “May her memory be a blessing.”

It already is.

Further details are not yet available. Check back for updates

Her Wikipedia listing.

From Boston 2026:

[press release] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
Nancy Clark

It is with great sadness that the Boston 2026 team and the philatelic community as a whole mourn the passing of Nancy Clark, the founder, patron and president emerita of Boston 2026 World Expo.

Recognized most recently in the 2022 edition of Linn’s Stamp News Most Influential Philatelists and Their Epic Stamp Stories, Nancy’s story began in her home town of Akron, Ohio, where both her parents were stamp collectors and began encouraging her interest in the hobby at the age of 5. She became a music teacher and found employment in Rochester, New York. There she joined the Rochester Philatelic Association in the 1970s, taking an interest in exhibiting, judging, stamp show organization, and creating youth stamp programs in local grammar schools. Quoting Nancy, “When my kids were kids, that’s when I first began working with beginning collectors.”

Nancy’s talents in these areas became well known to national philatelic leaders at the time and she was tapped to lead youth activities at the 1986 Ameripex international exhibition in Chicago. However, there was a greater need for qualified judges at the time and she reluctantly agreed to turn youth responsibilities to others to judge instead. Around the same time, she received a grant from the Council of Philatelic Organizations to design and develop youth areas for national shows.

Moving out of the area in the early 1980s, she and her husband Doug Clark were the driving force behind the creation of the Georgia Federation of Stamp Clubs in 1990, eventually becoming the current Southeast Federation of Stamp Clubs that annually hosts the national WSP Southeastern Stamp Expo. An even bigger assignment awaited her as she was chosen to head the Olymphilex 1996 international exhibition taking place in conjunction with the 100th Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Nancy has always had strong ties with the American Philatelic Society, holding several committee positions and offices over the years, including Treasurer and Director at Large. She was accredited as an APS chief philatelic and literature judge and FIP international judge. Many will remember her for hosting “APS Stamp Talk with Nancy Clark” for more than 17 years, interviewing leaders from organized philately.

In more recent years Nancy was appointed Interpretive Master Planner for the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History in 2010 before heading up Boston 2026 activities.

A recipient of many prestigious award from a variety of societies, Nancy’s philatelic recognitions include the APS 2006 Kehr Award for work with beginning collectors, APS 2008 Luff award for exceptional contributions to philately, the Philatelic Foundation’s 2018 Neinken Medal for distinguished service, and an appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of London for noteworthy contributions to philately.

Anyone who met her will always remember her smile, kindness and encouragement in whatever philatelic ventures awaited.

We’re a little late to observe the centennial of a major event in U.S. railroad history, but there is still time to get covers with the pictorial postmark: One of the last great train robberies. Four Southern Pacific Railroad workers were murdered on October 11, 1923, during what became known as “The Tragedy at Tunnel 13” in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon and California.

It changed the way such crimes were investigated and, although it took four years, the three thugs — three brothers — were eventually caught.

Both the U.S. Postal Service and the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum have much, much more on this. You’ll find information on how to get the special postmark on the Museum’s virtual exhibit, near the bottom of the “Resources” page. Pictorial and commemorative postmarks are supposed to be available for 30 days after the date, which gives us until November 11 to request this one.

[USPS press release] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
New Chairman Announced for Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service today announced that Dr. Joseph L. Kelley will be the new chair of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, or CSAC. Appointed to CSAC in 2021, Dr. Kelley brings a science background to the stamp development process, as well as a deep love for stamps and stamp history. He will begin his term Oct. 20.

Kelley succeeds Bolivar Jose “BJ” Bueno, who completed his term as chairman.

Created in 1957, CSAC selects subjects for recommendation as future stamp issues, keeping in mind the interests of all postal customers, including stamp collectors. Appointed by the postmaster general, committee members are knowledgeable about history, business, science and technology, fine art, education, performing arts, sports and other subjects of public interest.

Dr. Joseph Kelley
Kelley is a stamp collector. His collection includes stamps from the United States, including U.S. Fish & Wildlife federal duck stamps, as well as the United Nations, Ireland, Vatican City and the Antarctic territories. He’s particularly interested in stamps related to the COVID-19 pandemic and honoring Mother Teresa. He recently became interested in stamps made of leather or other unusual materials. He is a member of the American Philatelic Society, Éire Stamp Club, Vatican Philatelic Society, American Topical Association and the Wilkinsburg Stamp Club.

Kelley says he became a stamp collector at his wife’s suggestion as a way to relax from his work as a gynecologic oncologist. An accomplished clinician, surgeon, educator, researcher and administrator, Dr. Kelley recently retired from medicine. He is professor emeritus in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh and serves on the board of directors of Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Kelley earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Colgate University, a masters in physiology from Rutgers University, and a medical degree from St. Louis University. His postgraduate training included a residency at Magee-Womens Hospital and a fellowship at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas.

Within his community, Kelley has served on several academic and medical not-for-profit organizations. He and his wife, Karen Dunn, have three children and reside in the Pittsburgh area.

Submitting Stamp Suggestions
Due to the time required for research and approval in the stamp selection process, ideas for stamp subjects should be received at least three years prior to the proposed issuance. Each submission should include pertinent historical information and important dates associated with the subject. Proposals must be in writing and submitted by U.S. Mail. No in-person appeals, phone calls or e-mails are accepted. Mail your suggestion (one topic per letter) to the address below:

Stamp Development
Attn: Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300
Washington, DC 20260-3501

From Ken Martin of the American Philatelic Society:

“The American Philatelic Society has received reports of an email-based info-gathering scam targeting stamp clubs and other philatelic societies. In the emails, an individual going by the name Pierre Champion claims that he was referred to the society by the APS because he is relocating to the United States from France. He requests that an application and an introduction to the club via the mail, and shares anecdotes about his collection and history with philately.”

From: Pierre Champion <champpierre76@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2023 12:01 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Membership application

Dear Sir/Madam,

I was referred to your philatelic society by the American Philatelic Society. I am writing to introduce myself as I will be relocating to the USA, in your State, near your philatelic club in March 2024 due to a work transfer.

I have been a passionate collector of American philately for many years, especially as my grandmother was born in Vermont, which has reinforced my love for your country since childhood. I collect stamps, varieties, nice cancellations, and First Day Covers in beautiful albums. I have also started teaching my two children about the passion of philately and would be delighted for them to meet other enthusiasts as well.

It would be an honor to join your philatelic society. I would greatly appreciate receiving a paper membership application and a brief introduction to your association by postal mail. I will promptly return the completed application form to you by post with the required membership fee.

By joining prior to my arrival, I feel it will allow me to better familiarize myself with the local culture and feel fully engaged within the society.

In addition to American philately, I also collect stamps from France and Europe (around 25/30 albums with 64 pages each!) My albums contain many duplicates that I would be delighted to share with members.

I look forward to improving my knowledge of American philately thanks to you, the society members.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks in advance,

Mr. Pierre CHAMPION
20C Boulevard André SIEGFRIED
76130 MONT-SAINT-AIGNAN
FRANCE

“The emails seem genuine because the address is real, the scammer references the APS, and message is well-written and full of emotional anecdotes that appeal to philatelists, but this is a calculated strategy to increase the chance of receiving a response. The purpose of the info-gathering scam is to get access to materials and information like the letterhead of your club, the signatures of club leaders, and potentially even bank account numbers. This is the reason that the scammer requests the information by mail.

“Note also that the email’s To: field reads “undisclosed-recipients:” which shows the email was sent to a hidden distribution list — this means that the scammer is sending their email to multiple clubs at once, which would not make sense if the request were genuine. Another giveaway is that the email is not specific to the club or society that receives it. Phrases like “I will be relocating to the USA, in your State, near your philatelic club” seem relatively normal at first glance, especially if the reader assumes English is not the sender’s first language. However, the phrase is a smokescreen that allows the scammer to send the email to many targets at once without having to change the text of the message.

“If you receive an email from this individual or an email that follows this same template, we encourage you to delete it immediately without responding. The individual has also perpetrated the same scam in Europe using the name Pierre Bernard and the same mailing address.”

by Lloyd A. de Vries

Janet R. Klug, the first woman president of the American Philatelic Society, has died at the age of 72. She served 16 consecutive years on the APS Board of Directors, the longest of anyone in its history.

She also served as member of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists, its New Initiatives Committee, the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, and in many of the committees and programs of the APS.

She received many awards in her lifetime, including the Elizabeth C. Pope Award for Lifetime Contributions to Philately (2011), the Luff Award for Outstanding Service to the APS (2014) and the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award (2019). She was a gold-medal exhibitor, with several Grands to her credit, as well as an accredited philatelic judge.

She had been in declining health for several years, following a serious automobile accident. She lived in a Cincinnati suburb and is survived by her husband Russell.

I had the privilege of knowing Janet personally, since I served on the APS board with her for eight years, from her first election to it in 1997 as Secretary. We were two of the five first-time Directors elected then. The others were Wayne Youngblood, Ann Triggle and Jeanette Adams. We were amazed by some of what we saw and exchanged emails frequently, calling ourselves “The Gang of Five.”

Many of the accolades now pouring in, in my opinion, miss two of her important accomplishments.

Before her election to the APS board, she had campaigned for greater openness and less secrecy in the leadership of the largest U.S. stamp collecting organization. That you can now attend meetings in person or online is largely due to her efforts. It also set a precedent for other philatelic societies.

At the same time, she worked hard to broaden the scope of “serious” stamp collecting. Her earliest gold-level exhibits involved Tonga’s Tin Can Mail. The South Pacific country was too small and unimportant to merit regular visits from ships and, later, airplanes. Mail to Tonga therefore was placed in tin cans and dropped into the water, to float ashore with

American Philatelic Center dedication, June 2004

the currents. If I recall correctly, some of her exhibits even included actual cans that had been used.

Janet wrote columns in several publications aimed at beginners and helping them get to the next level. She embraced the online world, too, allowing her APS president’s columns to be repeated here on The Virtual Stamp Club, using email, and participating in pre-video “chats.” (Two of those chats on VSC can be found here and here.)

Two of the books she wrote are available on Amazon: Smithsonian Guide to Stamp Collecting and 100 Greatest American Stamps with Donald Sundman.

She also made stamp collecting and our annual conventions fun. As her 2014 Luff citation noted, “Janet would often lead APS members in song at APS events around the country.”

A running joke when she spoke at philatelic events was that she would threaten to break into song at any moment. She was always stylish and attractive. As you look at the photographs here, she looks pretty much the same in all of them. In all the years I knew her, I never saw her appear frumpy or “thrown together” — not always easy when you are on the road for a week or more, with one public event after another.

The APS announcement of Janet’s passing includes this quote from her:

“Collecting stamps and letters from bygone days is a way for me to connect on a very personal level with people and events from those times. History is not just about famous people and events. It also encompasses ordinary people doing ordinary things, overcoming the challenges that happen in their lives, surviving, and thriving.”

Janet was far from ordinary, but she is an important part of stamp collecting history.

I interviewed Janet in 2010 shortly after she was appointed to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee and I asked her about joining CSAC. The complete interview runs just under three minutes and you can hear it (unedited) here.

Virtual Stamp Club behind-the-scenes webmaster Stephen Ross has passed away at the age of 73. He had begun hospice care due to the rapid spread of merkel cell carcinoma.

Steve was not a stamp collector; he put together and did the HTML work for The Virtual Stamp Club website, starting in December 1996 when Delphi told its moderators we had to create websites or be dismissed. I balked. I didn’t think the World Wide Web was necessary. His wife Leigh, then the moderator of Delphi’s Arts ‘n Crafts Forum, put us together.

He was still doing the bulk of the HTML work until May 2023 — the last remaining VSC “staffer” from our glory days on Delphi.

Strangely, although we both lived in New Jersey, I have never met Steve. He lived “down the Shore” as we say, and I invited him to StampShow 2002 in Atlantic City, but he declined. This photo, from the funeral home’s website, is the first time I’ve seen him.

However, we “talked” frequently by e-mail, and and not just about the VSC website. His outside-philately observations helped me greatly during some of the unpleasantness 10 years ago. (“What is it with you stamp collectors?” he asked, and then admitted his wife’s artists could be just as…vehement.) He also came up with the WordPress blog as a way I could post news stories quickly, after VSC had lost its message boards. He named the WP section, “The LloydBlog.”

Leigh, who passed away a few years ago, partly as a result of the pandemic, also designed the look of the website and the border. She liked the then-new 1998 Remember the Maine stamp (Sc. 3992). It was my decision, though, to make the website simple, never the latest HTML tech: I wanted it to be accessible by as many stamp collectors as possible, not all of whom were technically proficient. That’s still true.

In recent years, I’ve been doing all the updates to the U.S. stamp program myself and simple updates to the home page. He did the more complex updates, and earlier this year when the “RSS feed” (the list of the most recent pages in the LloydBlog) broke, Steve figured out a low-cost way to replace it. (The Virtual Stamp Club hasn’t broken even in years.)

I’ll miss him, and not just for the technical support. When he entered hospice, I asked his daughter to let him know how much I appreciated his help and friendship over the past 26+ years.

Philately’s Ear in Washington Dies
Washington Post and Linn’s Reporter Bill McAllister Was 81
by Lloyd A. de Vries

Bill McAllister, a Washington Post national reporter and correspondent for Linn’s Stamp News, died May 1, in Fairfax County, Va., from pneumonia and complications from COVID-19.

He joined the Post in 1975 covering Virginia before moving to the paper’s national staff. He soon carved out a niche covering the U.S. Postal Service, Veteran’s Affairs and labor issues, and had a column about stamps and coins in the “Weekend” section. He became the Washington correspondent for Linn’s  in 1996, often breaking stories of interest and importance to stamp collectors. He retired from the Post in 1999. He never retired from Linn’s, submitting his last story in late January, the “Washington Postal Scene” column which ran in the February 13 issue.

William H. “Buddy” McAllister’s death was first announced in a posting on his Facebook page by his four sons. He was born November 6, 1941, in Durham, N.C., and raised in Pittsboro, N.C. According to the post by his sons, “It was in Pittsboro where he discovered his lifelong fascination with the Postal Service, often visiting the local Post Office to observe the sorting of the daily mail.” He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina.

He also served in the US Naval Reserves as a Public Affairs Officer for 26 years, rising to the rank of captain.

“He was a mentor to young writers in the craft of reporting and writing,” his sons wrote, to which I can attest. Bill would often email me to pay special attention to a story of his in Linn’s or the Post, so that I could cite it on The Virtual Stamp Club. Examples are here and here; you can find others by searching on the VSC website or Facebook group for “McAllister.”

He was introduced to both stamp collecting and journalism by his aunt Margaret, who gave him a Mekeel’s beginner album and (separately) a toy printing press, on which he published a neighborhood newspaper at a penny a copy.

According to Linn’s, he began specializing in first-day ceremony programs after covering the 1987 event for the Girl Scouts stamp. He was a member of the American Philatelic Society and a former member of the American First Day Cover Society.

He is survived by Polly, his wife of 57 years, four sons — William H. IV, Christopher, Jonathan and Benjamin — and 7 grandchildren.