If you're interested, here's the complete (more or less) story of me. If you go down to the bottom, you will find an excellent recent picture of me. Note I will not be responsible for any damage to your internet connection or monitor from viewing the picture :-)
I was born in what was then Scarborough, Ontario in 1959 (now it's part of the Toronto megacity). My father Jack (1927-2001) was a contractor/carpenter, my mother Ruth a secretary/homemaker. I lived in the same house with them and my younger sister, Lisa, for 37 years in a part of Scarborough called West Hill. If you're familiar with Toronto, its roughly in the area of Kingston Road and Lawrence Avenue East.
I went to Eastview Public School on Waldock Road (which was recently saved from having to close), where I did rather well really. At 12, I went to Joseph Brant Senior Public School (named after a great Native Canadian hero of the American Revolutionary War), where I did somewhat less well in a less structured environment. It was at this time I got a little more interested in stamps (my sister having been a collector when she was younger, but she had given it up by this time). By the time I was 13 I started my worldwide collection in a bound album, and I was already collecting souvenir sheets (which I still do). The bound album has grown to eight large volumes of worldwide stamps, plus the souvenir sheets.
At 14, I started at West Hill Collegiate Institute and started working in the library (they actually paid me for working there!). There I discovered my first Scott Catalogue (a 1970 single volume for the entire world!) and started miscataloging my East Germany. I later became better at this (luckily for my customers who like East Germany). I continued to collect on and off during this period.
In 1978, I graduated from high school and during that summer, I got the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to spend two days at Capex '78, the first international show in Canada in 27 years. I was blown away by the variety of material both in the exhibits and on the dealer's tables (I can still tell you what I bought there!). I've since attended Capex '87, London 1990, and Capex '96.
Around about this time, I also joined the East Toronto Stamp Club. I have served as the president and sales circuit manager of that organization, as well as having been the bulletin editor for over 10 years. However, since it currently meets during the daytime, I don't get out there often. However, I still serve as their representative to the Greater Toronto Area Philatelic Alliance.
Later in 1978, I started my political science course at York University (Named after both the losing side of the War of the Roses and the former name given to Toronto). After three years, I was accepted at Osgoode Hall Law School (Named after Ontario's first attorney-general). Stamps suffered a lot during that time (too many night classes!).
After graduating from Osgoode in 1984, I found to my dismay that I wasn't too enthusiastic about pursuing a career as a lawyer (took too much time away from stamps!). After a short period of unemployment (where plans to start a stamp business didn't take off), I started working as a paralegal clerk doing court filings for a number of small law firms. During this time, my interest in stamps continued to grow and I became quite the trader with contacts all over the planet.
In 1988 I started working with a large downtown law firm. Unfortunately, that ended in 2001 and I got more time to spend with my stamps, if you know what I mean, nudge nudge, wink wink.
Luckily, I found a job working for the Professional Engineers of Ontario where it is my job to seek out and destroy people who practice engineering without a license. I currently spend my days working as their enforcement representative. At night to work on my stock, and to do the mailings on the weekends. In my spare time (what spare time!) I collect videos, work on my computer, root for the Toronto Argonauts and every once in a while, work on my own collection.
I started the business in 1991. I had run similar businesses before, but they were somewhat shorter lived. This one has been going for over twelve years now, and I estimate I've traded over $100,000 worth of stamps.
I have been a member of the APS and the RPSC since 1991. I also joined the International Society of Worldwide Stamp Collectors in 1993. I was also a charter member of the short lived International Stamp Dealer's Network.
I currently live in Downtown Toronto in a co-operative apartment. I am the current maintenance chairman of the co-op (which housed in buildings over 100 years old that need a lot of work!), but that doesn't count as free time as we all put in a few hours a month to keep the co-op working.
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