Like the mail they stick to, stamps continue to take local collectors anywhere they want to go.
That’s the mindset for organizers of Sequim’s 30th Strait Stamp Show, seeking to bring in collectors of all kinds.
Cathie Osborn, who helped put together the show in 1994 and again for 2024, said “it’s satisfying to see people come and have a good time.”
“There’s a certain hum that comes over the room when you got people shopping and talking,” she said. “That’s my favorite part.”
Photo courtesy Strait Stamp Society/ The Strait Stamp Society hosted its first stamp show in 1994, and returns for its 30th show on Aug. 10 in the Guy Cole Event Center. Pictured is Richard Tarbuck with his exhibit.
The show, sponsored by the Strait Stamp Society, whose members celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, returns to the Guy Cole Event Center from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10.
It’s free to enter, with complimentary stamps for children, several door prizes, a penny stamp table, the postal service on site, dealers, exhibits and more.
The show started with encouragement from stamp collectors in Victoria, B.C., Osborn said, leading locals to host the show at the Sequim Masonic Lodge.
Photos courtesy Strait Stamp Society Bruce Halstead stands with his award-winning “Best Club Member” exhibit on Antarctica at the 2023 Strait Stamp Show. He plans to bring another exhibit on cats and dogs for the Aug. 10 show.
Over the years, Osborn said, dealers have shifted to emphasize postal history with covers (envelopes) more than just new issue stamps.
“To a lot of (collectors), they like to know the routes the letters went and the towns they came from, and some people collect old mail from where they live,” she said.
Phil Castell said he started collecting Washington postal history and has discovered towns he’s never heard of, and personal pieces of history for the peninsula, such as where post offices once were.
According to the “Washington Post Offices” book, Sequim’s post office was once called “Sequin” through 1907 before switching to “Sequim.”
“It’s very enjoyable just looking (through the book) because as a traveling salesman for many years selling insurance in Washington, I’ve seen lots of places and I know where they are but had no idea they had a post office,” he said.
In the spring, he and his wife drove north along eastern Washington and into Canada and took photos by many small post offices that are only open a few hours a day, a few days a week.
“It adds spice to a road trip,” he said.
Photo courtesy Strait Stamp Society/ The first cancellation for the Strait Stamp Show featured the City of Sequim’s logo in 1994.
One fun find he purchased in a collection was a 1901 letter from Henry Fletcher, who was the school board chairman in the Forks area, offering a Jefferson County woman a teaching position for $40 a month, and potential places to stay, including in the school.
“You never you know the stuff you find when you start looking,” Castell said.
Show
The Sequim show took a break in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and they weren’t able to host Canadians because of a border closure in 2021, but the show returned in full in 2022.
Osborn said collectors come from across the Olympic Peninsula and I-5 corridor, with attendance and dealer numbers remaining mostly consistent through the years. Some highlights include a penny stamp table with tens-of-thousands of stamps, multiple exhibits and frames on display, and a handful of dealers.
Photo courtesy Strait Stamp Society/ In 2001, the Strait Stamp Show featured Sequim’s popular lavender featured for its annual cancellation and cover envelope.
Club member Bruce Halstead, a retired biologist, said collectors go down a number of rabbit holes, with him seeking out anything to do with the environment. This year he’s also doing an exhibit on cats and dogs.
Halstead started collecting stamps as a boy in the Boy Scouts of America and revisited the hobby years later in 2008 after he moved to the area and saw and ad for the show.
“I got hooked again,” Halstead said.
On collecting, he said, “if it exists you can find it. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to find it though.”
Organizers say dealers and fellow collectors are willing to evaluate collections family members may have inherited, too. Castell said it’s rare for people to have something of great value though.
Halstead said condition matters too, as one year someone brought in a collection where all the stamps’ condition were lowered because they were taped in place.
Another year, Castell said he was offered a stamp collection at the Sequim show and found a World Series program from the 1950s that was found to be worth $400. He donated the sale proceeds to a foundation that the stamp collection came from.
Strait Stamp Show
Sponsored by the Strait Stamp Society
When: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10
Where: Guy Cole Event Center in Carrie Blake Community Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.
Admission: Free
Features: Free stamps for children, door prizes, exhibits, penny stamp table, postal service on site, dealers, snacks
More information: Call 360-683-6373
