SESCAL  1945-2022

SESCAL existed as a place where collectors could improve their collections, sell their stamps, learn about stamps, and enjoy social gatherings with fellow collectors. But there were a couple of special features that made it different from the typical dealer bourse which also could have all the afore mentioned characteristics:

  1. SESCAL provided a venue for exhibitors to show their collections, have these collections judged and critiqued.
  2. SESCAL was a World Series of Philately (WSP) show which allowed exhibitors to compete in the WSP competition run by the American Philatelic Society. The Grand Award Winner in the SESCAL show competed against other WSP winners at the American Philatelic. The APS is held once a year with only one winner.

These last two reasons made it worthwhile for totally unpaid volunteers to help other collectors by running SESCAL as not-for-profit endeavor

It was decided to close SESCAL for the following reasons:

  • Many or the volunteers that were doing the jobs involved in running the show are getting older and couldn’t carry the load of their jobs anymore,
  • There are too few new volunteers willing to devote the hours and hours of unpaid work to run this type of exhibition.
  • SESCAL is no longer a break-even venture. The new higher costs of venues large enough to hold the exhibits, meetings, dealers, and an auction made SESCAL no longer financially viable.
  • In 2022, SESCAL found a venue that it could afford, that would hold the dealers, an auction and meetings, but did not have the floor space for the exhibits.
  • The APS allowed SESCAL to run SESCAL 2022 as a WSP show with virtual exhibits. SESCAL was very successful in this virtual endeavor with over 140 frames of virtual philatelic exhibits, 42 virtual exhibits of literature articles and all APS accredited judges. However, in 2023, the APS made the decision that WSP shows could no longer have virtual philatelic exhibits. The APS still accepts virtual exhibits of literature articles. (BTW, I personally agree with this APS decision Virtual philatelic exhibits have several inherent problems that make is almost impossible to be certain all exhibits are presented in a fair and equitable manner. (LME))

For 78 Years SESCAL was held as the Annual Stamp Exhibition in Southern California. This show was the World Series of Philately stamp exhibition held in the Los Angeles area.  Until 2019 it was the major event of the Federated Philatelic Clubs of Southern California. After that it became the major event of The Philatelic Society of Los Angeles.

There was not a SESCAL show in 2023 nor will there be in the foreseeable future.

 

 

 

We are pleased to introduce the show program with the collectors and non-collectors (all unpaid volunteers) who are responsible for putting 2022 SESCAL together.  Also listed are the the stamp dealers who provided the funds that made the show financially possible. Some of these people have been working with this exhibition for over 40 years, others are new.  It is their knowledge and labor that helped put the show together each year.