Delcampe, a selling site alternative to eBay and HipStamp and particularly strong with European buyers and sellers, is closing the accounts of its customers in 23 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Account-holders received the following notice on April 28:

“Following the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Delcampe has taken the decision to no longer offer its services in the following States as per today, for an indefinite period of time, in order to avoid any risks of non-compliance with the legislation of these States:

“AK Alaska, AR Arkansas, DC District of Columbia, GA Georgia, HI Hawaii, IL Illinois, IN Indiana, KY Kentucky, LA Louisiana, MD Maryland, MI Michigan, MN Minnesota, NC North Carolina, NE Nebraska, NJ New Jersey, NV Nevada, OH Ohio, PR Puerto Rico, RI Rhode Island, SD South Dakota, UT Utah, VA Virginia, VT Vermont, WV West Virginia, WY Wyoming.

“We are sorry that we can no longer offer our services for the moment, and we hope to be able to see you on our website in the future, once it will be adapted. Your account will remain closed until further notice.”

The notice was confirmed by separately contacting Delcampe customer service and by an email exchange with Sebastien Delcampe.

As you can see, it leaves the door open to reinstatement, if the company implements the collection of sales taxes.

[press release] [click on the pictures for a larger version]
Allen Jones Wins Brett Cup

Allen D. (Don) Jones of Portsmouth, Virginia, is this year’s recipient of the George Brett Cup for the most outstanding 20th century exhibit. The award was presented May 28 by American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors (AAPE) president Michael Ley at the Rocky Mountain Stamp Show in Denver.

The exhibit, Establishing the United States Transcontinental Air Mail Service, May 15, 1918-June 30, 1924, was among 22 exhibits of 20th century or later material that achieved a score of 93 points or higher at a World Series of Philately show during the last three full competitive seasons.

Jones entered his first national show in 1978 and has continued his specialty of air mail exhibits since then. He said, “My goal has been to tell the story of air mail from the pioneer period through the transcontinental period. I enjoy exhibiting so people can see what happened in this important time.” The exhibit previously won grand awards at Balpex and the 2017 air mail show in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

The AAPE award, first presented in 2017, is named for George Brett, past president and chairman of the United States Stamp Society and authority on U.S. stamp production, who died in 2005.

Warachal E. Faison, president of the Ebony Society for Philatelic Experiences and Reflections (ESPER), died March 19th at her home in Jersey City, NJ. She was 54. We do not know the cause of death at this time.

“Certainly her passing was a shock to all of ESPER,” group vice president Howard Ingram told The Virtual Stamp Club. “She will be missed.”

Faison was scheduled to graduate in May 2022 with her MBA from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ and will be awarded her degree posthumously. She was working as a geriatric psychiatrist and Medical Director, Women’s and Men’s Health at Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company. Dr. Faison has been recognized for her work as a health care provider, researcher, and community advocate in health disparities, minority recruitment into Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials, women’s health issues, and mental health.

In philately, she was recently named one of philately’s Most Influential people by Linn’s Stamp News. According to an interview in the Most Influential Philatelists report, Faison collected stamps “relating to health care and medicine along with materials of the African diaspora, particularly anything showing African-American women.”

She spoke to The Virtual Stamp Club about Dorothy Height, civil rights and women in civil rights for a 2017 radio feature, which you can hear here.

“Warachal Faison was ESPER’s first female president, and she was very passionate about continuing the female founder’s ambition of ESPER being a beacon in the philatelic community,” Don Neal, editor of ESPER newsletter Reflections told VSC. “During her tenure, Warachal was instrumental in establishing several collaborations between ESPER and others. Hopefully, these will continue in her honor.”

Faison joined ESPER in 2014 and soon revolutionized the use of social media, not only for ESPER, but for stamp collecting organizations in general.

“Mentor those who are interested and you might even gift them a membership into a society,” she told Linn’s. “Just watch what happens.”

Her funeral will be held Friday, April 1st, at St. Joseph AME Church in Durham, NC.

The family’s obituary, on the funeral home’s website, can be found here.

Stamp collectors are calling on the U.S. to reissue its 2008 Sunflower stamp (Sc. 4347, shown on the right) as a 60¢ semipostal stamp and Canada to issue an emergency semipostal, both for refugee relief. Brian Grant Duff has started the Change.org petition for Canada. The U.S. petition is attributed to Allyson Becker.

About the latter, the Vancouver, B.C., storefront and internet dealer says, “Ukraine and Canada have strong historic connections … Canada Post has the ability to produce tangible symbols of people making a difference in refugees lives.” He is hoping to get at least 500 signatures, and has addressed it to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as to Canada Post.

Becker may be unaware that the U.S. already plans to issue Sunflower Bouquet two-ounce stamp on March 24, although it is not a semipostal. The two-ounce rate is currently 78¢,

In another article here, we tell how the Delcampe selling site has restricted sales and purchases by Russian and Belarussian users. PayPal earlier restricted transactions involving Russians. eBay is making allowances for sales to both Ukraine and Russia.

How about you? Has the crisis had any effect on how you collect, buy, sell or trade?

If you choose to comment, please only talk about how this affects philately, not your opinion of world affairs. This is not the place for that.

U.S. Classics dealer Stanley Piller has passed away, according to posts online. He was elected earlier this year as president of the American Stamp Dealers Association. According to his Facebook page, he was born October 21, 1942.

A native of New York City, Piller was living in Contra Costa County, Calif., east of Oakland. According to his firm’s website, he had been a member of the APS since 1963 and of the ASDA since 1971. He began selling covers as a child, and purchased an existing stamp store in 1976. He had a masters degree in Chemical Engineering.

Piller was author of the book New York Postmaster’s Provisional and had written for philatelic periodicals such as Stamp Collector and Scott Stamp Monthly. He was also an expertizer for all three of the services.

Current American Stamp Dealer & Collector editor emeritus and former American Philatelic Society president Randy Neil is one of five people invited this year to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists. The other four are Europeans; Neil lives in suburban Kansas City. Neil is shown on the right speaking at the opening day of World Stamp Expo-2016 New York.

Neil has edited many other American philatelic journals and is the winner of many awards for both his writing and his service to philately. Among the most recent is the Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Life Achievement Award in 2017. He was also the 2000 winner of the American Philatelic Society’s’ John N. Luff Award for Outstanding Service to the society, among the highest awards in U.S. philately.

Here is the March 15th announcement by the Federation of European Philatelic Associations, which is separate from the RDP:
Five new RDPs elected, including four from Europe

The Board of Election of the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists has invited five eminent philatelists to sign the Roll. They are:

• Dénes Czirók, RDP, FRPSL (Hungary)
• Dr. Seija-Riitta Laakso, RDP. FRPSL (Finland)
• José Ramón Moreno, RDP, FRPSL (Spain)
• Henrik Mouritsen, RDP, FRPSL (Denmark)
• Randolph Neil, RDP, FRPSL (USA)

We are delighted that they have been awarded this recognition for their great achievements and send our warmest congratulations to them all. As 2021 is the centenary of the first signing of the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists [shown at right] in Harrogate, Yorkshire, this year’s signing will also take place in Harrogate in September.

Two other names will also be added to the list of ‘Fathers of Philately’ on the Roll. They are Alfred Moschkau (1848-1912) from Germany and Victor Suppantschitsch (1838-1919) from Austria. This aims to correct a historic injustice that occurred when, in the aftermath of the First World War, no German or Austrian names were included although there were many deserving candidates.

According to a press release from FEPA, “This year’s signing ceremony, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first signatories to the Roll, will take place on Friday 24th September 2021 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Harrogate, U.K. during the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain.”

In naming Randy the 2018 Summer Seminar Distinguished Philatelist, the APS said, “Randy L. Neil’s background in the stamp collecting hobby began when he was 14 years old and became a columnist for the old Weekly Philatelic Gossip magazine. A proponent for progress in the hobby, Randy founded the MIDAPHIL national stamp show and the Collectors Club of Kansas City in 1971 and, with John Hotchner, the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors in 1986. Randy served as the organization’s first president.

“An exhibitor since 1955, Neil has earned more than 65 gold medals and five national grand awards. While president of the American Philatelic Society (1993-97), Randy originated its John K. Tiffany Endowment Fund and brought a youthful group of new leaders and committee chairmen to the then 107-year old organization.”

I am proud to have been on of that “youthful group” elected to the APS Board in 1997. Five directors-at-large and a secretary, all elected for our first terms.

I have often referred to Randy as the “cheerleader for philately,” and it’s more true than you may realized: He started the Kansas City Chiefs’ cheerleading squad, served as CEO of the International Cheerleading Foundation for 30 years, wrote New York Times best-seller The Official Cheerleaders Handbook (1979) (and still available on Amazon) and was executive producer of the National Collegiate Cheerleading Championships on CBS-TV.

I once said “When I grow up, I want to be Randy Neil.” I still do.

— Lloyd A. de Vries

[An earlier version of this article stated the the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists was part of or sponsored by FEPA. They are independent of each other.]

Most stamp collectors would count themselves lucky to have half the philatelic resume that Doug Kelsey had. Quiet and not one to boast, even those of us who thought we knew him well were surprised at what we didn’t know until his death.

Douglas Aden Kelsey: 1949–2020
By Alan Warren

American First Day Cover Society Executive Secretary Doug Kelsey, 70, of Tucson, Arizona, died on July 28 after suffering a stroke in mid-June and developing COVID-19 complications during rehab.

“For nearly 30 years, as volunteers and leaders came and went, Doug was the backbone of the society, guiding us and providing the support that kept this organization running,” said AFDCS President Lloyd A. de Vries. “But more than that, Doug was a friend, and I will miss him personally.”

Kelsey was born September 3, 1949. He served as executive director of the AFDCS from 1991 until 2011, at which time the position was altered and named executive secretary. He also served many years on the society’s board of directors.

He began collecting in 1960 and exhibiting in 1962. His wide collecting interests included first day covers, meter stamps, airmails, postal stationery, revenues, and Brazil and Australia. In 2002 he won the Americover grand award for his 1962 Project Mercury first day covers. He received the society’s Glenn Michel special recognition award in 2001, its Distinguished Service Award in 2007, and was named AFDCS Honorary Life Member 21 in 2008.

In 2012 Kelsey was honored by the American Philatelic Society with its Nicholas Carter Volunteer Award for national promotion and service. He was an accredited APS judge.

He held offices in several other organizations, including executive director of the American Topical Association, vice president and director of the United States Philatelic Classics Society, treasurer of the St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Philatelic Society, president of the Machine Cancel Society, executive director of the Postal History Foundation, and secretary-treasurer of the Meter Stamp Society.

Kelsey authored several hundred articles, columns, catalogs, and monographs that included the United States Meter Stamps First Days and Earliest Known Uses. For fourteen years he wrote a column for Linn’s Stamp News and was former editor of the Postal History Foundation’s Heliograph.

Following seven years’ service in the United States Air Force, Kelsey was an executive for Coca Cola Bottling where he was responsible for sales, distribution, advertising, and special projects. He then served as executive director of American Outback—a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation of American wildlife and wilderness. He was also executive director of the Tucson Association of Executives from 1999 until the time of his death.

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In the February 2002 issue of American Philatelist, Kelsey wrote about the 1962 Project Mercury first-day and his collection, and recounted how that collection’s display at the Ohio State Fair won him a chance to meet astronaut John Glenn, an Ohio native.

Kelsey, already more than six feet tall, revealed how Glenn is standing on a box in this photo, because a NASA public relations worker decided “We can’t have a 12-year-old looking down on a national hero!”

—Lloyd de Vries

According to his official obituary, Doug is survived by his wife Oralia and his stepdaughters Ana and Briseida, his sister Linda Simonds, daughters Julie Stack and Jennifer Murray, and grandchildren Jaime Kelsey, Justina Outler, Christopher Murray, and Ashley Murray.

“Born in Columbus, Ohio he attended his first year of college at Ohio State University located there. Throughout his life he was a fierce Buckeye fan.

“He graduated with a BA from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas in !971. He served a six year tour of duty with the US Air Force from 1971 to 1977.”

[David Feldman press release]
New Agent for the US & Canadian Market

We are delighted to announce that a new agent has just joined the David Feldman’s team covering the United States and the Canada.

Bill Schultz, born in Washington D.C., now residing in West Chester PA USA. He has been a philatelist and postal historian for over 60 years.

Bill is an energetic accredited APS Chief Judge and an enthusiastic exhibitor, having produced over 50 different exhibits so far in his lifetime. He is an active participant in numerous philatelic organisations, such as Assistant Treasurer of the United States Philatelic Classics Society, board member and life member of the American Assoc. of Philatelic Exhibitors, lecturer for the APS summer seminar series, guest speaker of the New York Collectors Club, past president of the Pennsylvania Postal History Society, as well as writing a monthly column for the American Stamp Dealer and Collector publication entitled “The Facets of Exhibiting”. Bill actively assists many exhibitors to achieve their expectations in the world of exhibiting and in the area of postal cover/document restoration.