World Stamp Exhibition in China a Phenomenal Philatelic Success

ASG representatives answered questions at the ASG booth at the World Stamp Exhibition in Wuhan. Click images to enlarge.

For decades, the tradition amongst large stamp-issuing countries has been to hold a large international stamp exhibition about every 10 years welcoming the world’s collectors. China last hosted their World Stamp Exhibition in 2009 in Luoyang. For the 2019 World Stamp Exhibition in Wuhan, five different elements of this spectacular event drew the most crowds:

1. China Post took a lead role in supporting the exhibition. For stamp collectors, the most important part of that support was the release of several special edition stamps and selvage overprinted sheets just for the exhibition. Throughout the seven days, you could see collectors buying for their collections as well as affixing to postcards/letters for sending. In addition to the main central China Post super-booth, numerous regional postal administrations from across China had booth presences at the event. Thousands of collectors streamed through to get their stamps and special show “passports” hand-stamped at each booth.

2. One of the most special elements of an international exhibition is the participation from other countries’ postal administrations. Dozens of countries, large and small, were represented in a special section of booths near the front entrance. There was barely a moment when this section of the event was not packed with excited collectors looking to see what philatelic offerings different countries of the world had to sell.

3. Located throughout the exhibition floor were several of the world’s well-known auction firms and an excellent representation of rare stamp dealers. Special attention from attendees was paid to auction firms and dealers offering rare and classic People’s Republic of China stamp issues.

4. Taking up approximately a third of the total exhibition space was the philatelic exhibits area, including competitive exhibits entered by collectors from around the world and a series of invited non-competitive exhibits, plus a rarities court of honor. Altogether, over 4,000 exhibit frames consisting of over 60,000 individual pages of mounted worldwide philatelic material were on display for the public. This area was dominated by a massive China National Post and Postage Stamp Museum Treasurable Stamps exhibit and a special exhibit area dedicated to the stamps of the People’s Republic of China from 1949-2019. The two exhibit areas faced each other and together accounted for the largest dedicated display areas seen in years at any philatelic exhibition worldwide.

5. In addition, the ASG booth attracted many collectors and dealers who wanted to learn more about the company’s services and benefits, show their stamps to an ASG Grading Finalizer and see the protective ASG holder. Although ASG has only had a presence in China for about two years, many ASG-certified stamps could be seen in the cases of dealers around the show.

Taking all of these elements together and the huge attendance by collectors, the China 2019 World Stamp Show was, by any measure, a tremendous success.

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in the piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.