This document summarizes Greg Manning's career in the stamp dealing trade over several decades. It details how he got his start in stamps at a young age and opened his first store at 15. It describes the various roles and companies he held, such as working for auction houses, serving as an editor for Linn's, and founding International Philatelic Merchandisers. The summary highlights some of his major accomplishments, like organizing large stamp auctions and collaborating on the 2008 Beijing Olympics stamp collection. It concludes by noting Manning's encyclopedic memory of philatelic history and his lifelong passion for growing the hobby.

1. 8 • The American Stamp Dealer & Collector • March 2016
The American
Stamp Dealer
Hall of Fame
John W. Scott • Jacques Minkus
Eugene Klein • George B. Sloane
Elliott Perry • Herman Herst, Jr.
Elizabeth C. Pope • Harry L. Lindquist
Leo and Samuel August
Raymond & Roger Weill
Robert A. Siegel • Peter G. Keller
Louis K. Robbins • Prescott Holden Thorp
Ezra D. Cole • Earl P.L. Apfelbaum
J. Murray Bartels • Robson Lowe
Max Ohlman • P.M. Wolsieffer
Clarence W. Brazer • Irwin Weinberg
Maynard Sundman • Edwin Mueller
Henry E. Harris • Hans Stoltz
John Nicholas Luff • Edson J. Fifield
Adolph Gunesch
Julius Caesar Morgenthau
Hugh M. Clark • Bob Driscoll
Carl Pelander • Joseph B. Savarese
Lester G. Brookman • Charles J. Phillips
Burton Doling • Herbert J. Bloch
William P. Brown • John G. Ross
Dr. Ray Ameen • Kurt Weishaupt
Robert Dumaine • Ernest A. Kehr
Warren H. Colson • Charles H. Mekeel
Charles E. Severn • Harry Weiss
Bertram W.H. Poole
S. Kellogg Stryker • Philip H. Ward, Jr.
Herman “Toasty” Toaspern
Willard Otis Wylie • Michael Rogers
Robert Dalton Harris and
Diane DeBlois • Bernard D. Harmer
George W. Linn
Richard A. Champagne
Hugh M. Goldberg • Stanley J. Richmond
Jacques C. Schiff, Jr. • William Weiss
Walter Mader • Greg Manning
Hall
OF
Fame
Honoring the contributions
to the hobby of philately
by the great individuals
of the American
stamp dealing trade
since its inception
W
hen The American Stamp
Dealer & Collector asked
me to write my father’s
biography for his induction into the
American Stamp Dealer Hall of Fame,
first I thought how will I be able to
squeeze all of his accomplishments into
words and express how personal the
experience of working in the world of
philately has been for him. There are
many great stories of his mentors from
his youth and the friendships he has
made along the way.
I do believe that many readers may
have an idea of how important these
relationships have been to him over
the decades through the pieces he has
written about his friends such as Bob
Driscoll and most recently his story of
the late Walter “Wally” Mader (in the
January issue of this magazine).
As with many of his generation,
Greg’s interest in philately was sparked
by his grandfather at the early age of
seven. By the age of 12 he was already
dealing in stamps at clubs and at 15 he
placed his first ad in Linn’s Stamp News
for his mail order business. The follow-
ing year, with a partner, he opened his
first store front in South Orange, New
Jersey. The partners had an employee
who ran the store during school hours.
Throughout high school Greg was also
on the road attending stamp exhibitions
in every major city along the east coast
and in the Midwest….along the way
making many lifelong friends.
From 1964-1966, Greg learned the
auction business working for William
A. Fox as a describer and all the while
still running his own mail order busi-
ness. Greg then teamed up with Bruce
Gimelson to form Gimelson-Manning
Auctions and in 1967 they sold the
Walter P. Chrysler collection.
The 1970s only got busier for Greg.
He served as Linn’s market valua-
tion editor and also contributed as the
“Trends” author and began writing a
column on the stamp market that he
would do for 25 years. 1971 was a year
of particular importance. Most impor-
tantly, I was born, but philatelically
speaking, Greg began conducting auc-
tions in London under Greg Manning
Collections and the company became
the official agency for the Common-
wealth of Australia in North America,
establishing the Australian Stamp
Bureau. In 1973, through Greg Manning
Auctions, he introduced to the market-
place full color stamp auction catalogs
on behalf of the Philatelic Foundation
sale.
IPM was founded in 1974 and the
following year it was named agency
for the British Royal Mint in North
America which was then followed by
Greg Manning

2. The American Stamp Dealer & Collector • March 2016 • 9
36 • The American Stamp Dealer & Collector • April 2015
agreements with the Australian Mint
and the Dutch Mint. Then 1977 was
the year that the Philatelic First Day
cover program conducted with Reader’s
Digest became the largest FDC conti-
nuity program in history with 400,000
subscribers at its high point. By 1984
IPM had established sales partnerships
for North America with the Crown
Agents of England and represented over
50 countries in North America.
In this same year IPM hosted the first
Postmaster General of Micronesia, Leo
Falcam, who later became president
of Micronesia from 1999-2003. IPM
designed and marketed Micronesia’s
first set of stamps as an independent
country and continued as the country’s
first agent.
The 1990’s brought Greg’s focus
back to the auction business. In 1993
he took Greg Manning Auctions public
and proceeded to purchase other col-
lectible businesses such as Ivy, Shreve,
and Mader, later to be known as Ivy &
Mader. This brought Greg back together
with longtime friend, Walter Mader.
Together under Greg Manning Auc-
tions and Ivy & Mader, they conducted
the immensely successful Pacific ’97
auctions at that international exhibition
in San Francisco selling a total of $10
million dollars in material. The auctions
established a world record for any major
stamp exhibit auction.
With the advent of Internet commerce
in the mid nineties, Greg jumped into
uncharted territories. In 1999 GMAI-
Asia held the first online auctions in
Beijing. Back in the U.S., Greg Man-
ning Auctions established relationships
first with eBay and then with Amazon
as the Internet giants were establishing
themselves in the fine collectibles arena.
Greg’s love of philately has not
wavered. He was very excited in 2003
to auction to the public the United Na-
tions Archives collections through Greg
Manning Auctions. The hard bound full
color catalog alone was a piece of art.
Most recently from 2006-2008, Greg’s
passion project was a true homage to
philately. He conceived and worked
with China Post and the IOC to bring
together over 100 countries to produce
a four volume masterpiece for the 2008
Beijing Olympics. This also gave Greg
a chance to work with his close friend,
Paul Schmid, who was the artistic mind
behind the project. This is thought to
be the single largest stamp project in
history with sales of 30,000 collections
each retailing for $5,000 US.
Before closing this piece, it should be
said that Greg Manning has an unusu-
ally fertile memory of the great history
of this hobby. When he first started out
as a kid in the 1950s, many of the early
greats of philately’s collector and busi-
ness sides were still very much active.
He knew them, learned from them, and
to this day cherishes the memories of,
and stories about, them. People like
Warren Colson, Bob Siegel, Herman
Herst, Jr., Lester Brookman, Lambert
Gerber (now there’s a strange story!),
Ezra Cole, Sylvester Colby, Ernest Kehr,
Mortimer Neinken, Stanley Ashbrook,
so many more. In many ways, he is a
walking-talking history book of philat-
ely.
Needless to say he has loved every
aspect of the philatelic world and has al-
ways worked to grow the hobby and the
business. His grandchildren are looking
forward to getting a taste of his world at
World Stamp Show-NY 2016 and who
knows, maybe one of them will pick up
from him and continue his life’s work.
—Alicia Manning Kalmar
Clockwise from upper left: Greg
Manning seated at right at his
booth at the 1982 ASDA National
Postage Stamp Show; Manning at
his Washington 2006 booth; toast-
ing the China Olympics Stamp
Project with Paul Schmid (left)
and Mr. Liu of the China National
Philatelic Corp.; with business
partner Lee Lowswik (far right)
as teenagers just starting out in
the early ‘60s; and shown at right
with Wally Mader when the two
were working on their stamp busi-
ness in the mid 1960s.