My goal is to publish new posts twice a week — Mondays and Thursdays. However, if you don’t see a new post on Thursday, it’s because I was too busy, so please look for a new one the following Monday.

Have a spare $10,000,000 – $20,000,000? On June 17, 2014, Sotheby’s New York will give you the opportunity to buy the rarest and most famous of all stamps — the British Guiana 1856 One-Cent, Black on Magenta. I won’t bore you here with the details of its history, but you can click here if you’d like to read more. What I will tell you about is what you won’t read elsewhere — the exhibition itself.

The stamp is small, as most stamps are, approximately 1¼” x 1″, and will be sold all by itself, in a single-lot sale. So how do you sell one tiny piece of paper, that doesn’t look like anything to a novice, all by itself? You have to surround it with a big and impressive display. So the first thing you encounter at the exhibit is a huge sign, as tall as a person — THE BRITISH GUIANA, THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS STAMP . Behind that, in a darkened room, sits the tiny stamp, illuminated in a giant display. It’s all very amusing, trying to make the stamp look important.  But how else could it have been done? I give them an A for effort, but a B- for execution. I’m not sure what I would have done differently, but it wouldn’t have been the same. Unfortunately, they didn’t consult me. What’s wrong with them?

I’ll post the results in a blog after the sale. It will surely set a world record, as it has the very few times it’s been sold previously at auction.  Each time was a world record.

It’s spring, so there are no shows, but we’re still very much in business. Click here to view my new website and look around. We always strive to offer the finest objects for sale on our website and at every show. There are many items for sale, sold items with prices and free lessons about glass and lamps.