Starting out I knew that this was going to be an interesting buying trip. My first stop was finally coming good after 3 years of patience, and I had 4 more stops to make beyond that.
Getting to the East Coast from Los Angeles involves two choices: spend all night in the air, with 4 or 5 hours of sleep, to arrive at 6AM and be groggy the rest of the day, or fly all day, get a hotel and start early the next day relatively fresh. I chose the late evening flight to Chicago and the early morning flight to Atlanta.
I rented a National car on a one-way rental out of Atlanta. At the time this seemed preferable to short flights and one day rentals since I had stops to make every 3 to 6 hours all the way up to Cleveland. Of course this changed my average cost of a car per day from $35/$40 to $70/$80 for the one way. After 1 and 1/2 hours southwest out of Atlanta I arrived in Pine Mountain, Georgia. There are lots of hills and water in the area, so during the summer there are probably lots of tourists and bugs. But I wasn't here to play.
Through old sources I had heard of a very interesting sounding collection, and after some tracing finally found the owner. He was a 90 year old collector who had collected Confederate Postmaster Provisionals and classic Switzerland. From my initial contact it took me 1 and 1/2 years before he would see me, or as it turned out, my representative who was traveling through the area at the time. The old fellow was rather secretive but my agent did purchase some boxes of common material. While with the old collector he heard a detailed description of the main collection and it sounded extremely enticing.
Within a short period after that though, the old fellow died. At first his 85 year old wife denied any knowledge of any stamps. Then our conversations progressed to "maybe next year." Then, "When are you coming to Pine Mountain?" That took another year.
Was all of this worth it? You be the judge. What would you have done when the descriptions included many of the Confederate rarities, as well as everything good in Swiss and Cantonals? I was hooked and knew that someday I had to see the collection.
Three weeks before I was to arrive here in Pine Mountain I had called to confirm my appointment for that next day, but no one answered the phone. Back then I thought, "Oh great, after 3 years of work, the wife has gotten afraid again." I waited at O'Hare in Chicago then to hear a voice on the other end. But something went wrong, so I went home to Los Angeles. Today, though, I was finally in Pine Mountain to look at some real treasures! Only now I had my appointment with the sister who had informed me that her sister was in the hospital, and that is why she had missed my appointment. She said that she had come from Florida to help with the house, and that she was glad I would (finally) see the stamps.
The sister met me at the door and looked exactly like an 80-something lady should look. She apologized for my earlier trip, and seemed anxious for me to view the old fellow's treasures. He had described wonderful things to the family for years, and to me more recently. Rather than using an album, the old fellow had used counter books for mounting his collection.
Every rarity was there and in fantastic quality. Page after page. It took me 10 minutes to see it all. There were even some wonderful covers. It was as described except for one small detail which had not been mentioned: every single item had been clipped from the 1953 Life magazine article about the World's Stamp Rarities! Then these pictures were carefully put in mounts and onto the counter book pages with appropriate descriptions and of course their enormous values. So for years the old fellow probably had a ball showing off his multi-million dollar rare stamp collection. And then I guess he forgot that they weren't real.
Well, chin up, next stop Knoxville. Except he canceled at the last minute (as I am within hours of arriving). Flu.
On to Evansville, Indiana. There was a pile of stuff on the table - all the post office announcements and commemorative panels you could want (I didn't!). As for the stamps? "I decided last night to keep them."
So chin up, again. My next day's appointment in upper Ohio would be good. An old, retired dealer had said he had a room full of U.S. for me. Unfortunately, when I checked the message on my answer phone, he had left word that he had to cancel our meeting (and I had driven to within 3 hours of him), because he felt better and would wait for a year.
I had allowed 5 days to see all these people and now found that I had a couple of free days on my hands. Do I go on to Charlotte, for what would probably be a 'free appraisal,' or wait for the Midwest Stamp Show in Columbus? I waited, met some nice people, and then went home.
Total purchases - zero. Total cost: hotel $327, car $446, food $175. Plus airfare. Time away from home - 5 and 1/2 days.
My advice if you want to try this - well, you can probably guess!
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