What are the most important stamp exhibitions we can expect in the rest of 2019 and 2020? Today we’ll try to answer that by listing some of the upcoming events you should visit if you’ll have a chance. Have you ever been to a stamp show? If so, great. If not, why not? You can check what it looks like in this video

In order to help you organize yourself and your work-life-philately balance, we’ll list few upcoming stamp events that seem to be interesting in its’ own way – either they are well known, either smaller but having something special.

"Collecting, especially of the classifying sort epitomized by stamp collecting, offered a means to seem to gain control of the world and of the past." - Russell W. Belk, Collecting in a Consumer Society

Modell-Hobby-Spiel 2019

The modell-hobby-spiel shall be held for the 24^th time in Leipzig from October 3 (Thursday) to October 6 (Sunday), 2019 in Leipzig Exhibition Centre. It’s not exclusively related to philately so you could find other interesting stuff there:

• Numismatics,
• Car, aircraft and ship model-building
• model-building accessories
• Model railways of all gauges
• Dolls, teddy bears, stuffed toys, toys
• Board, dice, card and other games
• Robotics, 3D-Printing, Electronic
• Material for graphics, artists and hobbies
• Creative arts and painting accessories.

In 2018, the 625 exhibitors from 13 countries took part at the show and presented their industry overview and new products.

For more details visit their website: https://www.modell-hobby-spiel.de/de/

Lanaphil

The 39^th Lanaphil shall take place on Sunday, October 6, 2019, in Lana,  South Tyrol (northern Italy)  from 9 am to 2 pm. While this is no major philatelic event, it’s still a very interesting one. It all started on October 22, 2000, when Albert Innerhofer organized the first gathering. This year we can expect some 50 exhibitors and collectors from Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. In the past, many other countries were represented at the exhibition - Switzerland, France, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Great Britain, even the USA, and Japan.

You can expect old, historical postcards, stamps, personalized stamps, coins, letters, pre philately, postal stationery, holy pictures, militaria, banknotes, telephone cards, Tirolensien and other books, engravings, historical stocks and securities, and old photos.

If you miss this one, be sure not to miss 40^th (April 19, 2020) and 41^st  (October 4, 2020) edition.

Website: http://www.lanaphil.info/index.htm

"The great collectors of stamps were all men of passion. If they did not have passion when they started collecting, they soon developed it, for there is no mistress so demanding as stamps" - Claude Stanush, "You Just Don't Know What Stamps Can Do To A Man" (LIFE Magazine, May 3, 1954)

Postex

Postex is the Dutch National Event taking place yearly in October/November in Apeldoorn. The Postex foundation, a joint venture of the Royal Dutch Association of Philatelic Associations (KNBF), the Dutch Association of Postage Stamp Merchants (NVPH) and PostNL, is celebrating this year the 20th anniversary of the POSTEX show.

Website: https://www.postex.nl/

Veronafil

Dates from November 22 till November 24, 2019, are reserved for the 133^rd edition of Veronafil taking place at the District Verona Fair - Hall 9. It’s organized by the Scaligera Philately & Numismatics Society of Verona (A.F.N.S). The organization itself was founded in Verona on July 2nd, 1933. According to their webpage, the society has the following goals:

• To facilitate contacts between member collectors.
• To enable exchanges of stamps between members.
• To create a specific library.
• To audit important pieces.
• To place catalogs and magazines at the members' disposal.

At the show, we can expect philately, numismatics, postcards, old prints and books, small antiques.

Website: https://www.veronafil.it

"Rare stamps are like fingerprints: You can trace them as they've traded in auctions back almost a hundred years." - Bill Gross, "Bill Gross On Stamp Collecting" (Forbes, October 11, 2010)

COLLECTA2020

The 14th International Collectors Fair Collecta will be held next on 13th and 14th March 2020 at the Gospodarsko razstavišče, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The event includes a creative workshop for children, called “Play with Stamps” organized by Post of Slovenia. After that Slovenian Museum of Natural History will have another workshop for children, named “My dinosaurs”. The lecture that covers the history of Slovenian philately as well auction of collectibles, old books and prints are also part of the program.

Website: https://collecta.si/en/

"The thrill of the quest, the desire to hunt down that really rare stamp that you read about when you were at school and there's almost the feeling that when you've got it you're not so interested any more and you move on to the next one." - Simon Garfield, The Error World: An Affair with Stamps

NZ2020 Exhibition

NZ2020 (the 37th FIAP Asian Exhibition) is organized after the successful SINGPEX 2019 (the 36th FIAP Asian Exhibition). Both of these are organized by FIAP (Federation of Inter-Asian Philately). The exhibition shall take place in Auckland, New Zealand, from March 19 to March 22, 2020. NZ2020 has chosen the theme “maritime heritage and water” – both significant to New Zealand and its way of life.

You can expect a large number of exhibitors from many different countries in the FIAP region. The main goals of the exhibition are:

• To expand and develop friendly relations and close cooperation among FIAP members; and
• To promote every aspect of philately in the FIAP region.

Check how everything went in Australia 2017 in this video (insert video, not link in the article!):

Website: https://www.nz2020.nz

LONDON2020 Exhibition

The London2020 exhibition shall take place from May 2 until May 9, 2020, obviously in London (to be more precise - at the Business Design Centre in Islington). “This will be an international, granted FIP Patronage, with competitive classes in Championship, Traditional, Postal History, Thematic, Revenue, Postal Stationery, Aerophilately, Open, Picture Postcards, One Frame, Modern, Literature and Youth.”

Website: http://www.london2020.co

"Acquiring the stamp you've been searching for and placing it into your album might be the most thrilling part the stamp collecting hobby, but properly maintaining your collection might be the most important part." - William F. Sharpe, "Keeping & Maintaining a High-Quality Stamp Collection" (Linn's Stamp News, August 25, 2016)

USA Exhibitions

If you’re interested in events taking place in the USA, please check them on the following link. You’ll find some of the previously mentioned exhibitions, but also a number of the USA-based events there.

You can also check atmosphere at the show at this link: StampShow 2015 - U.S. World Stamp Show - NY 2016 Stamp Ceremony

We can't list them all

We hope this article will help you make the decision to visit at least one event. Please share your experiences with stamp exhibitions so far. And of course, write down in the comments which exhibitions we missed and you would add them.