My local show CUPEX was this past weekend. Sadly, the attendance was the worst I can recall. Other than club members, I doubt that we had 100 people through the doors over both days.

One dealer said that this would be his final year attending due to the attendance, and another announced that he is retiring in the spring. Another said that this is the third consecutive show he has attended where the turnout has been abysmal. Some speculated that it was due to the election and people sitting on the sidelines until the uncertainty is over. I’m not sure how much I buy that… as a general rule, the person sitting in the White House really doesn’t impact most people’s day-to-day lives.

The dealers wound up doing brisk business with one another; the club members were actively buying as well. Personally, Sunday was better than Saturday for me, as dealers combed through their inventory to find material for a hopeful sale in light of the turnout.

On the upside, everyone agreed that the onsite food service was the best we’ve ever had.

Pyrrhic victory.

I’m hoping this year is just an anomaly, as attendance and dealer satisfaction in previous years had been quite good.

Ok, on to the acquisitions. Revenue material was sparse, but I was able to glean a few interesting items.

First an R142 that unfortunately has some pinhole issues, but ginormous margins and a foreign entry (the curved zzlines at the left and right of the top scroll).

R48 with a railroad cancel (New Jersey Railroad & Transportation Co., Tolman N-4) that also happens to have a doubled bottom frameline.

A 50c battleship plate number strip of 4, sold as R171, but is actually R171p (hyphen hole perforation rather than rouletted). The p is double the catalog value of the non: SCV is $240 as 4 singles, plate # strip of 3 catalogs $350 in Durland. Some selvage creasing, but a nice acquisition at 10% of Scott.

A dealer “discovered” a bunch of improper/illegal use covers, and I picked up the following 4 pieces.

First is a nice example of either R197 or R208, addressed to someone at the Hotel Astor, with a nice hotel receiving stamp on the reverse.

Bart Rosenberg replied:

The first illegal usage is “addressed to someone at the Astor”????????

Wikipedia entry on Charles Evans Hughes

He is on a stamp, after all.

My reply:

Sorry, the name didn’t ring any bells and I didn’t even think to look up the name. By the timing, this would have been after he gave up his seat on the U.S. Supreme Court to run for president (narrowly defeated by Woodrow Wilson).

Neat.

A Niagara Falls flag cancel with precanceled postage due affixed.

A Texas advertising cover.

And finally a very attractive all-over photographer advertising cover, sent on July 2, 1898, the second day of the tax. This matches an example I already have in my collection, down to the timestamp. Must have been part of a mass advertising mailing. The example already in my collection is shown below this one.

I also purchased a box of 150-200 miscellaneous Civil War documents with revenue stamps affixed. Mostly checks and some deeds and mortgages. Nothing remarkable at first glance about the stamps, but I like these sorts of lots to hunt for plate varieties. There were also several mining pieces in the mix that might prove interesting.

The best purchase of the weekend came when a dealer thrust the following envelope at me:

A 10-second perusal prompted me to say “Sold!” All of the following were in the envelope. Some condition issues to be sure, but for $15? Heck yeah! The bottom two items are each worth multiples of that by themselves.