100 Years of Stamp Collecting with the Omaha Philatelic Society

Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the original intent of the conversation. It is provided to improve accessibility and may not be a strictly verbatim record of the audio.

Transcript: 100 Years of Stamp Collecting with the Omaha Philatelic Society

Amy: I'm a crow. Oh, Crow. Ben, what did you collect? I know you collected stuff.

Ben: Well, I collected action figures. But I also collected postage stamps.

Maggie: Funny you say that…

[Music and Introduction]

Maggie: Hello, and welcome to the book drop on my public library's podcast about books, our community, and the joy of reading. I'm Maggie Peterson, I'm the outreach manager for Omaha Public Library, and I'm joined as always, by …

Amy: Amy Mather, the partnerships manager for Omaha Public Library.

Maggie: I said, I'm joined, as always, by Amy, but there is another person's room we're not normally joined by, and at least in this space.

Amy: And we talk about them all the time on this podcast.

Maggie: We do. You know, like in Sex and the City, the idea that the city is the fifth girl. I feel like that with Ben. Wait a minute. Wait. Sorry. Who are you? How did you get in here?

Ben: I am Ben Brick. I am the collection processing manager of the Omaha Public Library.

Maggie: Yay! We love when we convince Ben to come on here. We do talk about you frequently.

Ben: That's what I hear.

Maggie: Mostly, I feel like it happened organically, because you would just submit a lot of answers to our queries. But then occasionally, I don't know, we would just have stuff like ‘I bet Ben would know, Ben would be able to tell us.’

Amy: Because Ben does know everything. And it's also interesting bits and pieces of curiosities that he always brings forth to us. And we're like, ‘oh, Thanks, Ben.’

Maggie: Ben, you missed my moment before we got in here. I was talking to, fan favorite former podcast host Elly. We were standing over by a giant box of microfiche that was being packed away, and I had said, made a comment of, ‘oh, it's bin day’ because we're putting stuff in bins and Elly said ‘it’s Ben day?’ And I said, ‘no, it's bin day,’ I said, ‘wait, no, it's bin day and it's Ben Day because Ben's on the podcast

Ben: Ben in a bin.

Maggie: Don't tempt me with a good time. We will find a way to do that here. That’s a big bin.

Amy: And listeners, if you didn't know, we are actually day two of moving out of our temporary location and into Central. And it is wild to see how it all happens. And it's very organized, efficient and kind of surreal.

Maggie: So what do you think would happen? Are we going to get eight inches of snow?

Amy: Oh yeah. Also winter storm warning. It is February 19th. And there's a winter storm warning and everything is closed, but us.

Maggie: There's not a drop of snow on the ground yet, so it's one of those very ominous days. The energy is weird here.

Amy: Thus we have Ben.

An American Girl Book for Adults

Maggie: Something I was really excited about. And I cannot remember if I talked about this last week on the podcast. I’ll tell you, and maybe, Ben, you already know about this. Have you heard of the new American Girl book that's coming out? It's for adults. It's a grown up Samantha book.

Amy: Will there be dolls?

Maggie: No. Do you… wait. Rewind. Have you ever read An American Girl doll book? We did a whole episode on that. But I realized, I think I gave you just a bunch of stuff about American Girl and not an actual doll book. So in American Girl dolls. It's like we, we had Rosemary on and we talked about the entire concept of the dolls and the books and, like, how they tied together. And each one had, like, they had a birthday story.

There was, like a holiday story. Like an adventure.

Amy: I want a tarot American Girl Doll

Maggie: Oh, I would love that. So every, so the doll had multiple little stories. That kind of went along with that. But they were always about this doll based seemingly perpetually 8 to 10 years old, is what I would guess. But now Pleasant Companies announced they are making a they're making a Samantha, which was my doll growing up. Yes, as an adult woman, I think, in Chicago, comes out in October. I'm already on the preorder. I am so excited.

Samantha's, from the plot description, because she grew up very, very wealthy, somehow loses her family fortune through nefarious characters. But she's going to try to get it back, and now she's got to live like the life of the poors, you know, which she never had to do.

She never had to, like, live that life. And now she's got to do that.

Amy: You may need to have, like, another podcast about American Girls, the adult version.

Maggie: Yeah, yeah, I feel that. So also another great idea that Ben was here because we used to have the toy library at OPL. And Ben created something that we called behind the scenes of the Doll Army. Care to comment?

Ben: It was a lovely way to enjoy the dolls. During the time when we were not open to the public in 2020. So, it helped boost the morale.

Amy: He would stage them in interesting places and then post pictures. Where they were. And sometimes you would be just working, and you look around and there was a doll, haunting us.

Maggie: You get an email and be like, what are the dolls doing? Why are they doing that? Nothing wrong. It's just why would a doll do that.

Amy: And we made a zine, so cute

Maggie: To the meat of our story. Ben, one big reason why I want to talk about the dolls. Because I used to collect the American Girl dolls, and it made me wonder. What did you do? Did you collect anything growing up?

Amy: I collected rocks and gems. I almost brought my I think I brought my pink deer that I dug up in the yard.

Maggie: You showed it to me before. I swear. Maybe I just saw a picture, but I have a memory of.

Amy: So, Ben, if you didn't know, I grew up in West Virginia, and when my parents bought that house, back in the 30s and 40s, they used to just take their trash and and dump it in the backyard, which became like, such fun digs for, the kids of the Mathers, myself included, to go and see what we could find.

All those treasures, like old blue bottles that you used to put, like Vaseline and other medications and I found a pink deer, glass year that was probably, I think, broken off of that old Avon glass, probably, curiosity jewelry holder or something like that. So rocks and gems,

Maggie: Which remains one of my favorite content things to consume right now on, because I'm not on TikTok anymore. But occasionally I see these videos on YouTube of people who go mudlarking in, like England specifically. So they'll do it in the Thames, but they'll sometimes go down these little tributaries. The little creeks in the side rivers. They basically, so first of all, you do need I believe you need to, at least for the Thames. You need a license. You need to have like an actual stamp that the government has said you are allowed to go do this.

Not everybody can go do it. But I think the side rivers and the tributaries you can do without. Okay, the Thames, so that people will just go and they have like equipment, like little, like glass bottom buckets that they can, they can kind of see the bottoms and little tools.

They'll pull up and they find the most fascinating little figurines and like bottles and medicine bottles. Somebody found a sword, a little saber. It was really cool. I'm very, very into it. She’s like you won't believe this find and I don't see anything. And all of a sudden you just, like, she pulls up something. I think you just develop the eye to know what to look for. I would love for you to go to England and get like a mudlarking license. Since I don't know how to pick you there, I will get them.

Stacie, we would like to take the podcast to London and go mudlarking. Thank you.

Ben: Yes, they do that during the low tide of the Thames and they go out there and they'll dig up all kind of stuff that's been tossed into the river. The find jewelry.

Maggie: It's fascinating.

Amy: I do love digging for treasures or hunting for them in stores or wherever, estate sales.

Maggie: You're a hunter at heart? It doesn't have to be for animals.

Amy: It’s true. No, no animals. It's just things, objects.

Maggie: Which I guess kind of makes you a magpie or a crow.

Amy: I'm a crow. Oh, Crow. Ben, what did you collect? I know you collected stuff.

Ben: Well, I collected action figures. But I also collected postage stamps.

Centennial Anniversary of the Omaha Philatelic Society

Maggie: Funny you say that… So, the theme of today's episode.. You are going to have to say it for me. This is one of those words that I have been looking at it and I've never had to say it out loud. So wait, I also want to make sure, we are here because it is the centennial anniversary of the Omaha Philatelic Society.

Amy: Let’s all say it again: Philatelic.

Maggie: Did you tell us about this as just an idea for a podcast episode and we said, well the rest of us in the email, just went ‘Ben’s going to be on the podcast. And Ben just was like, ‘no, I was just telling, wait, I was just giving you… And then we went ‘Ben, we record on Thursday. It was a delightful time. So thanks for being on board.

Amy: So I'm curious, did anybody in your family collect stamps or was it…

Ben: My father did. And so when I was about ten, he kind of handed off some of his collection to me. And that was the start of my collection.

And, so I just kind of added to it over time, did it on and off, you know, through high school, college and, you know, adult life. A lot of stamp collectors, or philatelists, will get back into the hobby after, you know, time away. Family, work life. And oftentimes it ends up being in retirement.

And so a lot, a lot of the club members are retired, a lot of hobbies are that way yes.

Amy: So do you actually take stamps off of

Maggie: What's the sourcing look like?

Amy: I know because they used to be glue like you just lick it and put a lot in there, which…

Maggie: It used to be not, it used to be you had to paint glue on the stamps... old, old, old stamps.

Ben: So yes. Well, actually stamps predates the little paper squares, in fact. Because, those who may remember, you know, during the American Revolution, one of the early things that led to that was the Stamp Act, from Great Britain.

And they would emboss the paper. And, from there it's been developed into printed paper that would then be affixed with adhesive, which then led to the water activated adhesive that would just be, prepared on the stamps when you would purchase them.

And then they would perforate them, which is a little terrible way of making them. And that's where, for stamp collectors, they would, soak the, kind of cut the paper off the envelope, soak it in water because it was water activated adhesive. The stamp would come off the paper and then you'd have just the stamp to put into your little albums. Over time, as printing technology has developed, the water activated adhesive became too expensive. And a lot of, postal authorities around the world have transitioned to the more self-adhesive glue that we have today, which is not water soluble. And so now, you generally can't soak the stamps off. It's like a sticker. Yes. For a while, the United States and other countries, would produce the stamp with a water activated layer in between. So that you could still soak it off and leave the little glue block on the paper.

But then that was too expensive also. So now, most stamps cannot be soaked off.

Amy: Oh, my gosh, that's a bummer, isn't it?

Ben: It is. Yeah, but you adjust and for a lot of postal authorities around the world, their main revenue source is selling the stamps unused, you know, collectors, either because it's stamps produced by that country or they're stamps with different topics, illustrated on the stamps. And so you get collectors who are interested in those topics.

And so that's where some of the revenue is happening because, you know, by and large, here in the United States letter mail has decreased. You know, and so that's where they look for other, either marketing more to the collectible market. Yeah. And that's where you see such, so many stamps produced with all kinds of colors.

Amy: So my husband and I regularly buy stamps. We're like, oh, let's buy those. Even though I don’t send a whole lot. This is why we ended up with this, you know, block of stamps, which ironically, before you came to us, I, we had buy the sheet called the World Stamp Show New York 2016, which is hilarious, that I didn't remember.

But I do have times we just buy them because, oh, we love those birds or we love the flowers or we want to sell, you know, whatever it is. And holiday stamps for holiday letters. But I have a ton and we keep buying them even though our sending letters out is kind of rare.

Maggie: I did get that postcard. I keep meaning to tell you I love it. It was Hawaii. And did you, by the way, did you look very hard on that. Like the the story that that visual is telling. They're getting off the airplane in Hawaii and he is like making eyes at the girl doing the hula. And his wife behind him is not pleased.

Amy: I will say this set up postcards is very interesting. Some of them are very, I was like, should I send this to this person?

Maggie: But it was like at first I was like, ‘oh cute, it’s Hawaii and these people just got there.’ And then I looked at it more. Looked at it through a Bridgerton lens. Like what is this

Amy: So I think my grandfather also collected stamps and he had framed them. And I think my younger brother actually has a big giant framed thing of stamps, mostly international and old. And it is very cool. And some of them are falling off because, you know, as they try to mount things, whatever it is, they just, whatever adhesive they use back, just dissolved and but anyway, not my problem. It's my younger brother's problem.

However, I'm always curious. And I gave you a bunch of stamps, I think not too long ago because I was like, Ben collects. I'm going to give it to them. But I want to know what is your most coveted stamp in your collection? The one that you're like, this is my, this is the one. Or, did you have a hunt for, like, one that you found and you were, like, so delighted, like, what's special for me?

Ben: For me, I enjoy collecting just the breadth of the hobby. So I really go out actively looking for maybe countries I don't currently have. And so it's always fun to, to finally get one of those, you know, countries that are hard to find, uncommon.

There's so many countries and territories that at one time produced stamps or had stamps produced for them, that no longer do that. You know, countries change over time. And so there's just a lot of variety there. I mean, unfortunately, military conflict generated at a point in time a lot of variety in postage stamps, territory changed hands.

And, some of the collection I inherited from my father was from Germany because he had an aunt who was from Germany. And, his uncle met her there. They came to the United States. But so I inherited some Germany stamps. And Germany was very involved in military conflicts in Europe for, for a time.

And, so I kind of have a subset of my collection is German stamps and stamps connected to their territorial acquisitions and transitions. And they would produce stamps for those areas. And it's just always kind of fun to see that because they would oftentimes be, they would have an existing stamp and then they would like overprint it with a message or you know, like the territory name or whatever.

So you get these, what they call overprints, and just it's kind of fun. A variety that way. And so, that's a big part of my collection. I mean, some of the stamps I have are worth a few hundred dollars. Those probably some of the more fun ones, because those are hard to come by.

But, yeah, I don't know that I have, like, a, a showpiece. I have, recently acquired some stamp albums, former German stamps, that have the little clear pockets built into the page. It's so I've been excited about that to actually have them mounted in an album so you can actually look at them rather than being stored in a box.

Now, for the collectors out there, I store them in glassine envelopes in those boxes. So they are stored properly.

I mean, there's there's some fun thing with that. It’s just, you know, a wide variety of things. I've recently also begun collecting stamps that have some kind of Omaha connection.

Because I have an interest in Omaha history as well. And so I've been developing that as a topic of stamps to collect. It's some fun rabbit holes to go down.

Maggie: Where are you sourcing your stamps, what does that look like? I have ot imagine its probably different for everybody, but how are you finding your stamps?

Ben: For me personally, there is eBay and the online auction community. And there are, you know, stores that have online presences also. Unfortunately, Omaha currently is without a stamp shop. The one that was here, the gentleman, retired about a year or so ago. And so that's a stop shop as close. We currently don't have a local to go to.

Although some hobby shops here in town will have some of the very common collectible type stamp things. In addition to the online acquisitions, the Omaha Philatelic Society gathers monthly, actually twice a month. And, there's some stamp selling and swap happens there as well.

Amy: Where do you all meet?

Ben: We meet in a room of a church that, you know, is kind enough to open their space up to us. The Pacific Hills Lutheran Church at 90th and Pacific, not too far from.

Amy: Do you all have a website? We'll add that to our show notes.

Ben: We do, https://omahaphilatelicsociety.org/.

Maggie: What do you guys do at your meetings? Is it a lot of kind of swapping or what? What happens at a philatelic society meeting?

Ben: We do some stamp stories. Talk about stamps. Trade stamps. We do monthly have, like a little auction. And members can put stamps they want to sell, extras that they have into the auction, and then the other members can buy it, at pennies on the dollar.

We have presentations that talk about, you know, particulars of the hobby, different topics. We've had a variety of speakers come in as well. And then the club annually does host a show at the Metro Community College South Campus. And, we bring in stamp dealers from the region who then set up shop for that weekend and can sell stamps. And it's another way we can purchase and acquire stamps.

Amy: When's the show?

Ben: The show is on September 19th and 20th, 2026, Saturday and Sunday. I can also promote that the Lincoln Stamp Show, Lincoln, Nebraska has their own. They have a club down there and they have a show. And that actually is going to be, February 27th and 28 at the end of this month. Yeah. So definitely want to give them some love as well.

And they host there's at the Country Inn and Suites in Lincoln

Maggie: So what advice do you have to somebody who might be interested in kind of starting to get into stamp collecting or learning more about stamps? What would you tell them?

Ben: I would tell them, collect what interest you. That's usually what oftentimes gets, people, kids into stamp collecting or collecting in general is there's a personal connection there. Oftentimes it is through those, those kind of topical stamps, you know, I mean, you you talk about the ones that interest you, you know, artwork or whatever's on the stamp. And it's just something to kind of make that connection for you.

And you just start, you know, accumulating stamps. And at some point you realize, oh, I have a collection here. And so definitely that's kind of where I would recommend, you know, what interests you. There are stamps out there for that interest generally. And then just seek out either online or, you know, in the area or a community that can, you know, support that.

I mean, the Boy Scouts have a badge for stamp collecting. That's something we, we generally try to support through our annual shows, is a time for them to come in and go through a lot of the necessary requirements for that badge.

Amy: Well, I feel like stamps. Yes. Whatever. They, you see that you're like, oh, I want this because this means something to me. But they're also like little tiny stories.

Ben: Oh, 100%,

Amy: Because they all connect to, like, they're like little micro histories, and that's what stamps represent.

Ben: That's what's so fascinating. And in some ways, how things related to geography or history. That's where I that's where I started learning. A lot of this was through the stamps.

Amy: And that's how Ben became Ben.

Maggie: Well, do we want to talk about some book picks. I think we all had a different lens.

Amy: And everybody's approach because I… It was a little tricky for me. So I had I had to kind of go in and then go back out.

Maggie: Ben, what did you find to to talk about for books?

Ben's Book Recommendations

Ben: So for me, there's a few things. There are some, great resources online. So there's a YouTube channel out there called Exploring Stamps. This this guy named Graham Beck. He just puts together some incredibly professional, informative, videos on stamp collecting. So if you go to YouTube and just search exploring stamps, you'll find his channel.

There are other content creators out there as well, but he he does a great job and is a great ambassador for the hobby as well. For those who are interested in getting serious about the collection and learning about maybe the value of the stamps or how to organize the stamps, there is a series of catalogs produced by the Scott Company. I think Amos Press owns them. But it's the Scott Catalogs. So in the United States, they are the primary authority on stamps. I noted the Scott specialized catalog of United States stamps and covers. And that goes deep into United States stamps. All of the postage stamps, the stamps that were sold for revenue purposes to show you paid a tax. The, like, hunting permits. They produce stamps as well to show that you have a license to hunt for that year. So it just all kinds of things. It goes into the, the first state issues of the stamps as well. And then, the third one I want to share is more about the stories of the stamps, because you mentioned that there's little stories there.

Stamps and, there genuinely is. And for especially the older stamps, some of the first ones for countries, there's also stories that surround the stamp and then just, you know, how people collected it and researched it. So, one book, by Helen Morgan, Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps.

And it's a story about, pursuing the postage stamps that are produced by the small tropical island in the Indian Ocean. And, the early copies were produced there on the island. They're super rare now. And, the hunt to find those, and the characters involved in that collecting pursuit is a fascinating read. And there are other books about some of the other stories.

The, you know, South American countries have some really rare stamps as well. The United Kingdom is often noted for being the first country to produce stamps in the modern form, in the 1840s. And, so there's stories about that. The very first stamp is often called the Penny Black because it was a penny and it was printed black. They kept it simple.

Amy's Book Recommendations

Amy: This was tricky for me, even though I love things and I love collecting things, but maybe not deeply.

Maggie: And how do you how do you quantify that in, like, a book or a material?

Amy: Well, that's the thing I, I think I went hunting around our collection and that was like, okay, how do we approach, like thinking about what kind of resources I can bring to this conversation and what do I collect and how I tie it all together.

So I kind of thought about it in a way of things that I'm super interested in and I do research on, but and it's research that I'm collecting in my brain, that's my collection. And things that I also just collect because I super in love with it. Like, if I see it, but not to a serious degree.

Like I love owls. Like if I see a little figurine of an owl that delights me, you betcha I'm going to buy it. It's coming home with me. So that's an example of something that's not super serious. And then I also have collected things seriously. And then, I was done with it. Like I just let go of the collection because it was just during a time. So I'm going to like, go down my crazy list. Where am I? Oh, okay.

Maggie: Same question, at all times.

Amy: So I was in a copper pot phase where I was wanting to make grits, and in this recipe they said you should use a copper pot was like, well, I don't have one. So then I did. I went down this massive research hole looking for where do you by copper pots, and then I was like, I wanted a, refurbished one, which I did buy from Etsy, from these folks in France. And I love it. It's only one. I'm only buying one because it's a whole thing. But I learned so much about copper pots and it is a thing you all. People collect them, but it's a whole. You can go deep into the copper pots. I just skimmed the top. I make jewelry and I've collected beads for a long, long, long time.

So I do have a couple books like the History of Beads, and I do love them. I did go deep, but now if I do see them, I buy them if they delight me.. Books about books because when I went to library school, I thought for sure I would go deep into knowing all about the history of the book.

So about a lot of books. And then I was done with it and gave all my books to Mark Sorensen. That's that's it. Vintage junk, vintage and junk jewelry collected. So I do have a book for that because we there are a lot of books that do come out about buying vintage jewelry.

And this one is by Beth Bernstein, which I will add in the show notes. But I think there's so much jewelry out there. You have to figure out, like what you collect, and then try to find that book about collections like jewelry collections that actually matches what you collect. So that can be a little tricky. I used to collect thrift store art.

So back east I just go around thrift stores. I'm like, oh, that's cute. You need to be adopted. Blenko glass made in West Virginia, but I just buy the sun catchers. Owls, I told you about. Fiesta ware I don't buy anymore because I have no more room.

Maggie: I just thought you were going to say because of the possible lead exposure.

Amy: Oh, I yes, there were certain colors that had lead, but not anymore. But if you do buy vintage…

Maggie: I have swabs that I bring around with me when I want to buy something vintage now. I have to know that I’m going thrifting and just come with my little swabs. You just crack it, and you swipe it, and then if it turns red orange, it has potential.

Amy: Mid-century modern. I had a mid-century modern house, so it's intensely collected and researched about that. Stephen Polchert pottery local. We have, if we see his works at an estate sale, you bet you we’ll buy it. Local art collect, cookbooks and food history galore.

Gonna add a link to the resource called the Food Timeline.org, which was produced by a library no longer around. The site was incredible with, like, so much research and history around food and when things were invented and all that, the University of Virginia Charlottesville now maintains the site. So it kind of was passed down in the family. And they said, I don't know what to do with the site. And so they are, the stewards of it.

Tin fish. But I eat it. But I will add that. But I'm going to add the Fish Wife cookbook, because it is a delightful book, and I actually, it's such a good book that I borrowed it twice. And I am going to buy.

Birds. It's so many things. And I have the Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan. And the last thing I'll put is tarot because I'm intensely interested in tarot and tarot history. So I created a biblio list, which I'll add to the show notes, when I give a little talk about how I use tarot at Nerd Night.

So that is my big long list. There's not the perfect book around any of these collections, so I think it's almost like a hunt for resources and Reddit threads. And, somewhere somebody has gone deep and that's what I want. I want somebody else to do that work. And I’ll just go and like, check out it eventually. So that was my giant input approach to all those things.

Maggie's Book Recommendations

Maggie: For me, I also, I forgot to mention when we were talking about like things that we collected as kids, I don't know if they've ever talked about this on here. My first thing that I ever collected as a child was cicada shells.

I was obsessed. I was like, you know, you'd find them on like a fence. And I would like very carefully, I was like very little too I was like five. And I would be like very carefully peeling it off and my mom would save baby jars. And I would just have baby jars of cicada shells. That was my parents just leaning into that. What a creepy child, that I was just like a found one, like, we know, put it away and I would look at them and then I can't remember when it stopped for me, but I was like, oh, I wish I still had my cicada shells.

Maybe, I'm kind of creeped out by them now. So. But maybe I think maybe I like I don't know if my oldest would be into it because he's just kind of like a little marshmallow cherub and doesn't like the idea of dead things or anything.

Amy: Do your kids collect anything?

Maggie: Well, I mean, they have special interests. Basically, they both want to pick up rocks, Nora, especially, my younger one. So Teddy is like my marshmallow, sweetie. And Nora is two, but she is also that combined with, like a stray dog that we've let her live in our house in a lot of ways, but she wants to find rocks, and a lot of times she'll come back.

I'll pick her up from daycare and just like found rocks and I look and I'm like, these are chunks of concrete, but okay. Sure. Like she said, we have to save them. She wants to bring a very crunchy leaf into the house and that's fine. And I'm like, I have a special book for her now. Let's put the leaf in the book and it's going to be in here. And sometimes I don't get to her in, like, enough time and then I'm like, oh, where did that crunchy leaf go? And she's like, I don’t know? And I'm like, oh my God, the world's crunchy leaf is somewhere in my house now and I have to figure it out before it gets smashed and I never remove it.

So my approach to the books feels similar that. I feel like my mindset, I only pulled two. One I think I talk about this all the time. Anytime we're getting into a topic that I'm maybe not super familiar with, I feel like when I approach the book list, I am looking for like, what's the thing you're going to tell me about that's going to give like everything?

So one of them was one of the books that Ben had talked about. The Scott specialized catalog, because there’s other ones.

Ben: They do produce, in addition to the US specialized catalog, they do a classic specialized catalog, which is worldwide stamps from like 1840-1940.

And then they produce a six volume set, although each volume now is like two parts. So it's technically 12 volumes of stamps for the entire world as Scotts records. Amos Press also does, coin, but it's under a different, imprint name.

Maggie: When I looked in our collection for that. That was one thing that popped up. I was like, oh, gosh, they make, like, kind of everything. So for the stamp side, that was like what I gleaned. Or so since you already had that on there. I went the other way I went and I found A Noble Madness: The Dark Side of Collecting From Antiquity to Now by James Delbourgo.

It is just kind of like an overview of the psychology and philosophy of collecting from your own personal collecting in our, our great human past, but also a little bit of, you know, stealing from museums That's what and when we had our good friend, Adrian my ain, Adrian, I, we talked about our art thief episode. Like it felt very line with that to the idea of where, where is the line between collecting and, stealing through colonization.

Amy: And I'm so glad you're talking about this. Because I almost went that route, of, like, where it turns into an obsession. Like, the other thing I think is a great book.

Also, there's this book that came out years ago called Stuff. That like why people collect it and sort of the, the madness around it. I'll add that to I never read it because I like stuff and I didn't want to look in that mirror.

Maggie: On that dark note too, the other things I, I collected, I mostly was like, I wasn't, like, crazy into collecting these, but, I mean, I was a middle schooler in the 90s, and I think it was illegal to not get into, collecting these, that’s, Beanie Babies. Beanie babies were big.

I did find The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette.

This is one of my special interests that I would love to do. Not to necessarily talk about Beanie Babies in like the sense of, I'm going to talk to you about Beanie Babies.

I want to talk to them through the lens of, like, do you guys want to know about the Beanie Babies in the 90s? Because wow, wild times. Beanie babies were 10% of all eBay, sales in their early days. Like the very early days of eBay, 10% of all of their sales were actually Beanie Babies, and I was part of that.

I was going into my freshman year of high school. I was, I had made the cheerleading team, and so part of, like, my parents, J.V. cheerleading at an all girls Catholic high school, so very selective. So but part of my parents, like, whole thing of, like, teaching financial responsibility is like, okay, well, we're going to pay for half of the all, you know, you're the cheerleading uniform and all of this, and you're going to pay the other half and, you know, finding my money.

And I decided I would sell three of my Beanie Babies on eBay. And one of my Beanie Babies I had $30 for in like 1999. I think myself now then, like, why did I unload all of that?

Amy: Do you still have them?

Maggie: That's a great question. I have dug through my parents attic that this is the problem with my parents. And we talked about this. They they live in a house. It's been in our family for over 100 years. So it's not just our stuff in the attic. It's 100 years worth of family members just casually. It's like we're just temporarily putting this up here. That was 1957. Yes. Uncle Gregory is gone for a long time, and this box is now there.

And so that's just I have to dig through all these boxes for any of my Beanie Babies. They are worthless, because this is part of the thing in the 90s, there is a big old bubble. One of my favorite photos, like when we just look at like photos from, you know, yesteryear is a photo from the 90s of a couple in a in divorce court with clear bins of Beanie Babies, and they're literally separating them. That was part of their retirement plan was these Beanie Babies. These were investment pieces. There was like a Beanie Baby handbook that I remember getting one year for my birthday. And it was like, it tells you all about, like the origin of each of these Beanie Babies and like their value in 1996, their estimated value in 2000 and like their estimated value in like 2030 or something like that.

And they were ridiculously insane. Yeah, that is one thing I am looking forward to get my hands back on again, because that handbook was wild. People were banking on these things.

Amy: Are they still made?

Maggie: No, they still make them, but it's not like and I'm sure some people collect them in like the fun and kind of this I think a similar way of just like, oh, I want that bat, like I love bats. and that's my interest is like, I want to get I want a little flat.

I think it's maybe more in line with that back in the 90s, or at least during like a certain time period, there were people who were collecting for financial reasons. This was going to be a thing. I was the first Bitcoin in a way.

Amy: Oh my God, it was the bitcoins.

Maggie: I have no idea. That's where I leaned in with it because I was…

Amy: I love your titles. I love your titles,

Maggie: They're very, very unique to each of us. Ben, thanks so much for parting with us during some of the wildest times for the libraries as we move for the second time in three years.

Amy: I know this was so much fun. Will you come back?

Ben: I will be happy to. Yeah. Thank you for letting me, come on and talk about Stamp Collection. Especially about the centennial of the Omaha Philatelic Society. Generally 100 years for anything is…

Amy: It’s amazing. And I can't wait to watch some stamp videos.

Maggie: Oh, so that reminds me, if somebody is interested in possibly joining the, can you say it again for me? The Omaha Philatelic Society. If someone's interested in joining or learning more, how can they do that?

Ben: They can go to our website. The information is there. It's as affordable as $15 a year. If you get the electronic version of our newsletter, it's more if you want us to mail a copy. With a stamp, we mail out with postage stamps And usually they're old or older ones.

Maggie: Should we dive into the query of them?

Query of the Month: Tell Us Your Favorite Influencers and Creators 

Amy: Yes, this was a wild one and we had so many responses.

Maggie: So listeners, if you need a reminder instead of doing a query a week like we have in previous years, we are doing actually query of the month, which gives people a little bit more time to get us answers, depending on when you listen to a podcast episode.

So the query this month was we asked you to tell us your favorite local content creators, influencers. Amy, do you have any?

Amy: Yes! I guess, top of mind, I would say 1st Sky Omaha, who took over a podcast. And Flatwater Free Press. And I also subscribe to Grow Omaha because I'd like to see restaurant openings and closures and what's happening around.

And I also get an email every Tuesday, the Omaha Star and just to see what's happening in the community. So those are just a few. How about you, Maggie?

Maggie: So I opened TikTok for the first time in months because it was the easiest way for me to remember who the influencers are that I follow. There's two big ones I feel like I follow for I like a follow for like recommendations and like you're going on in town and what's this new place like? And that's at Omaha Places and Omaha Guidebook. They both approach it is just like more of, you know, announcements and like, this cool thing is happening.

The other thing I like, though, is that, in Omaha guidebook, I believe she actually goes and says, oh, you really want to go to this? You really want to go to this new hot pot place? We've never been to hot pot. And you've never done this. I'm going to show you what you need to do. Tells you exactly what to expect when you walk in the door.

Like, at the speakeasy or like, just these places, like, I have a really interesting going there, but I'm a little nervous, and I don't want to be embarrassed. It's such a great concept. So I, I love both of those. I feel like I've learned of cool little things going on in town.

Another thing I love is that when they, both accounts, when they are talking about what's going on this weekend, they always feature library programs. And it makes me so happy. So, I love those. I also follow Omaha Eats. You know, all things food related.

Last one is an account called MegReadsnWrites. I've really been enjoying her videos when they come through. So she's a recent transplant to Omaha. I believe she's from Connecticut. And it's been really fun to watch her videos as she gets acclimated to Omaha and the area and what we're all about and what's going on here. I just and so she is a writer.

She’ll post sometimes book content. I've just really enjoyed a lot of the things that she posts We had a lot of listener. I will kick us off. First one comes from Teresa C. on Facebook, and she gave us a link to a website called theseunitedcookies.com.

Amy: Also, we have the book in her collection. Next we have My best friend Bri by Daniela F. on Facebook.

Maggie: I love to see the support and the loyalty. My favorite is Jordan the Ninja. Uniquely cracking wise about the state of road construction in Omaha. Hi-larious from Richard L on LinkedIn LA. Yes. We were actually talking about that last night. We were meeting together and talking about that. Thank you,Jordan, for your service.

Amy: Yes. Ang Bennett and their art 🖼️” - by Noni W. on Facebook

Maggie: Laura F.S. on LinkedIn said Sarah Carter and gave some little hearts.

Amy: My Nebraska fans are @booksandbubbli @seealliread @rebel.readers.library and @emersuelibrary  ️❤️” by Sydsbooked on Instagram. Lots of followers there.

Maggie: And I did love this. Under underneath it was, this was a reply on Instagram because it's sydsbooked on Instagram posted that. ‘honey right back at you because you kissy face, kissy face. And that was @seealliread talking back to.

‘@kassiemaelove” and that came from by madi_schref on Instagram.

Amy: And then“@leah.swaney!”by isabellemfleming on Instagram.

Maggie: Shameless self plug become becoming Obsessed podcast where curiosity leads you to the life you love by Teresa S. on Facebook. Oh, it's perfect for here because we're talking about obsession ind collection.

Amy: Exactly. Jenny Remes, author of dancing with the Line and Shannon Bingham by Kim Am on Facebook,

Maggie: SGB on Facebook, said author Riley Perry.

Amy: One of my favorites is Omaha Exploration. A great service for the city by North Omaha History on Facebook.

Maggie: That’s another one I was going to list. “Muse of Yoga - A book and a toolbox to move stored energy in the mind body. I help people move stored energy who feel stuck and unhappy so they can smile, laugh and connect more.” and that came from by Muse of Yoga on Facebook.

Amy: “Art by Jasmine Lillian” by Miranda S. on Facebook.

Maggie: There are so many different ways people create and tell stories! You have amazing local authors like Matt Hebert The Books of Bergonia Vince Mancuso - Author S. J. Bostwick & Riley Pierre! (sorry couldn't tag 🙁 ) That doesn't even scrape the SURFACE of local Artists, Crafters, Podcasters and So on! We have a huge list to share!”and that came from the OCon Expo.

Amy: Love that. Yes, My Omaha Obsession 🕵🏻‍♀️” by Sea Di Maria S. on Facebook. One hundred percent.

Maggie: Can I nominate myself? I’m a local “de”-influencer, content creator, and professional organizer. I talk about the library in my content often!!” via Melissa W. on Facebook.Thanks, Melissa!

Amy: Love it. Oh My Omaha exclamation point by Brittany Z. on Facebook0

Maggie: and last from listener responses. One of my favorites is North Omaha History, the podcast, the blog, one of the original creators for the city. And that came from Omaha Women's history on Facebook.

And we did have some staff responses. I think I'm just gonna share, steal them all. So first up from Kass, we have Jonny Redd and Strongly Worded Letters.

From Emily U., we had, I'm may be a little biased, but my sister, Sarah Arnold, runs a local business - Highway Child Vintage - and posts awesome vintage content of her decked-out 70s home in Benson. She has a large following on Instagram and TikTok, and her four adorable cats are the stars of the show.

From Lisa S. who said, Elise Myers. Another one of mine that I was going to list..

From Doug K, I don't know his name, but I really enjoy the posts from the guy who reports on the construction in OMaha. He reminds me of a 1920s reporter. He's hilarious. And that was, Jordan the Ninja.

From Elizabeth, Emily Welch Style on Instagram. And "OmahaPlaces" also on Instagram.

From Sarah L., Angi Coleman, owner of Daisy Jones Locker and local fashion influencer. Her website is daisy-jones-locker.com

Wide variety of responses. Love to see all of them in there. I'm going to have to figure out how I can follow these people now that I'm not on TikTok.That’s been a weird thing, I'm having to figure out, like how to find my favorite people again on other platforms where I can still see them, but I'm not on as frequently, which I think is a key.

So that was our query of the month for February, which means, next week we are kicking off a brand new query. Amy, you and I sit here desperately quivering about the thought of a blizzard happening. Spring is technically supposed to be coming. I didn't tell you this. We had a beautiful week of, like, very warm temperatures. And I wanted to start clearing out. We've met this little slow part of our backyard. And I was, you know, we've got beautiful plants that grow there. We let the leaves sit there all winter because sure, them if they took job early, I was dumb. I cleared those things out way too early. I, I just had we had the nice weather outside. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna start attacking this. And I got all that stuff pulled up and those little cute spring green things are trying to come through because it has been warm enough. And so this morning, what did I have to do?

In my pajamas, get the yard waste bag and run around dropping big piles on anything I can find. It wasn't fun. Spring is coming. Even if it doesn't feel like it right now. And so on that note, we're asking, what are you planting in your garden? We'd love to know more. This will be fun to hear.

This is the year we're really going to try again. We've tried in the past. It hasn't always stuck, but this is the year that kids are more interested in it. So I think it's going to happen. Whether we'll be successful plant, whether we grow anything.

Maggie: Amy, it's been real. It's been great. Let's, go shovel our cars out.

Amy: Yeah, let's go see if it's snowing. Let's go find out.

Maggie: Bye, guys. Bye.

[Music Outro]

Every book, resource or thing that we mentioned that we can link to on the internet can be found in list form in our episode description. So if you missed something we talked about, check out that list.

The book drop is produced by Omaha Public Library. Our theme music is trapped in the chamber, courtesy of the band Lucid Fugue. Don't forget to subscribe to the book, tap on your favorite podcast app and like and follow Omaha Public Library on social media.

The Book Drop | OPL’s Podcast

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