GlenStephens

I have been a member of Stampboards.com for many years and find it absolutely great. The information that is available from collectors worldwide is amazing. People are happy to share their experiences and knowledge with others quite freely I have both purchased and sold to Glen Stephens and have found his prices fair. You must remember he is a dealer and will not give you catalogue price for your stamps as he has to resell them himself. And, believe me -he does know his trade - backwards! He is a specialist.
Yes he will come down hard if you stuff up, or, if you are arrogant he will be respond in kind.
In particular he has no time for people who send him grandpa's old album and tell him it is worth thousands when it is full old stamps worth 10 cents each and then call him a thief and a crook when he tells them something they do not wish to accept.

Further the board is not just for him alone to sell his stuff (which he does). It is open to anyone with an interest in stamp collecting, young or old, amateur and professional.
If you wish to learn this is the place to go. Or even just to have fun. (check out joke of the day or funny photos. Plus it is a worldwide forum, not just American, or English, or European. This you can see from the wide variety of responses globally.

But you MUST be willing to accept other peoples views, even if they do differ from yours. Other wise why ask the question in the first place?

By the way, I am a very small Australian amateur collector not affiliated with Stampboards.com. I am a member of this site and have received a lot of help and learnt heaps from fellow members.

Stampboards is an efficiently run free resource without ads. The guy that runs it and owns it, Glen Stephens, contributes significant time, energy and money to ensure it stays that way. It is run with a very firm hand to ensure that is stays efficient and useful.

There is a great amount of good information available for collectors of all levels.

However, if you do not subscribe to the mantra that Glen knows all, you are not made welcome (Richard Debney and Rod Perry are tolerated by Glen, even though they challenge him). Anyone else trying it on are shown the door or shouted down and humiliated in public.

What his site does not do, is be welcoming and accommodating to new and budding collectors, or those who have inquiries that come from a low base of knowledge.

I understand that it is the firm hand that keeps the site free of material that clogs up many sites, but when people sign up and treat it like many other forums where such rules are not exercised, they are publicly shamed and made to feel foolish.

In a dying hobby, senior members of the philatelic community have a responsibility to welcome and nurture new collectors but Glen Stephens and stampboards does nothing of the sort. A great opportunity to expand the collecting community is lost because Glen Stephens cannot see the forest for his giant ego and all his little minions go along for the ride so thay can continue to play on his playground.

I have seldom met anyone in such denial of their failings. I know as we get older, becoming more right-wing is normal (Glen is 65 now from his own account) but Glen Stephens makes Ted Nugent look like a communist. He is unpleasant, abusive and intolerant of anyone who he believes does not meet his (constantly varying) standards.

Try www.stampcommunity.org of www.stamporama.com for a much friendlier, if less 'philatelic' approach to online forums.

John G (not Fossick).