Stamp Show a priority for regional collectors

Published 3:30 am Wednesday, August 5, 2026

No matter your niche, there’s a stamp collection awaiting you to explore, say collectors with the Strait Stamp Society.

They and regional philatelists congregate from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, for the 32nd Strait Stamp Show, the Peninsula’s only stamp show, at the Guy Cole Event Center in Carrie Blake Community Park, 202 N. Blake Ave., in Sequim.

Cathie Osborn, a longtime club member, said stamp dealers and collectors come from as far away as Portland, Oregon for the show.

Fellow club member Phil Castell said dealers have told him they have a lot of success buying collections from people in Sequim.

“There’s a good number of people who are closet collectors or related to someone that is, or who passes away,” he said.

This year’s six dealers are open to evaluating local collections, Osborn said, because it’s one way they help build up stock for shows and their stores.

“Our dealers, every year, they want more table space, which is a good sign,” Osborn said.

Castell said about a dozen Canadian collectors are riding the ferry to Port Angeles to visit the show too.

“They all enjoy coming over, spending the day,” he said.

The annual show is free to attend with free stamps for children and a penny stamp table.

Door prizes include philatelic and non-philatelic items. The U.S. Postal Service will be on site, too.

This year’s cancellation celebrates Sequim’s irrigation with a stamp featuring a map of the original ditch.

Club member Vera Felts said cancellations are traditional for stamp shows, and help support the club and celebrate what is happening in the community, such as anniversaries, milestones, etc.

The stamp show will also feature several handmade exhibits related to stamps, including Castell’s three pages about America’s 1976 bicentennial.

For the celebration, the U.S. issued 113 different stamps over a nearly seven year period, he said.

His exhibit focuses on the four pages of stamps with five stamps each.

“But to get (to the stamps) you’d have to rip the sheets apart., so they weren’t really made for people to use,” Castell said. “They were made for collectors.”

“It was very rare if you ever find one of these stamps on an envelope that wasn’t a philatelic envelope,” he said.

Collecting again

Like many collectors, Felts started young, nearly 80 years ago.

“I lived on a farm in rural Illinois, and there was no TV,” she said. “Other than playing on the farm, that’s what we did.”

One day, she spotted a cereal box that asked her to send a nickel or a dime to receive stamps in the mail.

“So my little envelope of stamps that came had kimonos from Japan, which I’d never seen before,” Felts said.

“I was about six or seven years old, so kimonos were different. (Another) had pheasants from China, and (another) had plated hair from one of the African countries … It just intrigued me, and I, of course, sent in more nickels and dimes to the company to get more little envelopes.

“It was a way to get to know the wider world, outside the farm.”

She went on to retire as the executive director of the American Topical Association.

As a member of the Strait Stamp Society, she’s one of the many notable experts/collectors, including a premier Swiss stamp collector, a few editors of publications, and more.

The Strait Stamp Society continues to meet each month at 6 p.m. the first Thursday of every month at Sequim Bible Church, 847 N. Sequim Ave.

Strait Stamp Show

9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8

Guy Cole Event Center in Carrie Blake Community Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.

Free admission, free stamps for children

Door prizes, exhibits, penny stamp table, U.S. Postal Service on site, dealers buy/sell, snacks

Sponsored by the Strait Stamp Society

More information, call 360-683-6373