Urbana Mayor Bill Bean shared the story of a lifelong passion that turned into a business during a presentation to the Urbana Lions Club Wednesday.
Bean and his business partner, Tom Gates, both started collecting stamps when they were less than ten years old. In 1974, their shared interest led them to create Triple S Postal History.
More than five decades later, Triple S Postal History is still going strong.
Bean talks about how he and Tom Gates got started collecting stamps and turning their hobby into a business.
Bean and Gates have traveled across the country attending stamp shows and exhibitions, buying, selling, and trading stamps, covers and other postal history items.
The business specializes in interesting and unusual postal history from around the world. Its inventory includes tens of thousands of items from the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and other regions.
Triple S also offers collections focused on topics such as airmail, military history, sports, the Olympics, postcards, political material, prisoner-of-war mail and rare stamp errors.
The business continues to exhibit at six to eight major national and international shows each year while expanding its online collection.
What began as a childhood hobby for Bean and Gates has grown into a business that has connected them with postal history from around the world for more than 50 years.
