South Fayette site of Philatelic Society's annual stamp show

After Tom Sivak retired as a Pennsylvania state policeman, he decided to make his childhood hobby his new full-time job.

His love of collecting stamps when he was 10 years old was the impetus to opening Tom's Stamps in Butler in 1988.

Twenty-eight years later, Sivak, 74, still participates in 30 stamp shows each year in five states.

“I started buying auction lots and when I thought I had enough accumulated, we started a business. It's just climbed from there. … It's a hobby gone wild,” he said.

Sivak was one of 12 stamp dealers at the Philatelic Society of Pittsburgh's annual stamp show — “Pittpex ‘15” — at the South Fayette Volunteer Fire Hall on Nov. 7 and 8.

It featured exhibits and dealers from New York, Maryland and Michigan. This year's show saluted the 200th anniversary of the American victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans.

Ron Carr, first vice president of the Pittsburgh chapter, said the lure for collectors is simple.

“They think they're going to get that elusive one item,” said Carr, 83, of Scott, who got interested in stamp collecting from his father and was active in the hobby at Crafton High School.

The Philatelic Society of Pittsburgh, which has about 80 members, was founded in 1888 and is the oldest of more than 1,500 chapters in the nation. Its show has been held in South Fayette for the past 13 years.

Kevin Kellman, 59, of Middletown, Md., owns K2 Collectible Stamps LLC, where he sells mint and used stamps from the classic to the modern age.

His dealer table was stacked with boxes filled with 250,000 stamps from Abu Dhabi to Zimbabwe.

“Everyone's got stamps. If you want to get a letter moved somewhere, if you want to get a package from A to B, you got to put a stamp on it,” Kellman said.

“Just about every country in the world issues stamps. There's some countries that that's their primary source of income because they make stamps out of popular things like Princess Di, the Beatles, Lady Gaga. And people from around the world buy the stamps, but they never use the stamps for postage.”

Kellman, who has been in business for 10 years after working as a respiratory therapist, attended the South Fayette show for the third time.

“I collected as a kid and then I kind of put it away when I went to college. Then I picked up my collection again as a young adult. I've been playing with it pretty much ever since.

“About 10 years ago, I lost my job and I decided to make stamp-dealing my new career.”

Kellman said he enjoys the historical aspect of collecting stamps.

“Each stamp kind of represented something in history. Nowadays, there's Bugs Bunny and cartoons and everything else, but when I first started collecting stamps, they were all commemorative stamps that honored something that happened 50 or 100 years ago. You learn a lot about history.”

David Mayernik Jr. is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.