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The first day of Melbourne 2013 took place on a sunny day in the beautiful Royal Exhibition Hall. Over 90 dealers, auction houses and philatelic bodies took to their stands to welcome the crowds to the first of three FIP (Fédération internationale de Philatélie) accredited shows. Not only that, but around 54’000 frames of stamp exhibits were on display, including some of the best collections in the world.

I had a little time myself before the show kicked off to have a quick look, and as I walked through the National Exhibits, the Western Australia collection of Arthur Woo caught my eye, which featured no less than 3 of the 13 known of this famous stamp, as well as the vertical strip of three with a partial example and a forgery that had duped many experts and collectors for years until the 1980s! I look forward to seeing more of the fabulous exhibits throughout the week.

Before the show started, speeches by the Lord Mayor, the Chairman of the Organising Committee, the FIP and the FIAP presidents welcomed all the stand holders to the show, before the crowds poured in (obviously undeterred by the A$10 entrance fee)

Even before the doors opened, a queue had began to form at the Australia post stand. And it wasn’t long before it was extending down one of the wings of the hall! The personalised stamps and special postmarks proving to be a big success. An exhibition of horse racing trophies and memorabilia dedicated to the famous racehorse Black Caviar took centre stage of their stand as their new stamp issue celebrated the horse’s retirement

The rest of the day was spent meeting and greeting other dealers, clients and collectors, both new and old faces. And it was good to meet many clients I had known by name but had never met face-to-face before. It was also good to finally meet Tommy, who runs our Hong Kong office and get the low down on the latest in the China and Hong Kong markets, as well as his administrator Doris who had helped us out in a previous auction in Geneva.