Dear Philatelists:

The dominos began to tumble with the collapse of the USA sub-prime mortgage market resulting in foreclosures, plummeting home prices, crumbling consumer confidence, a stock market meltdown led by declining oil prices, and finally a recession announcement from both the USA and Canada governments. The situation would normally discourage any business person, yet amazingly, stamp sales remain vibrant with better material still realizing record prices. It seems that retired "Baby Boomers" who are not overly invested in the stock market consider this a buying opportunity. In addition, the oil price sensitive Canadian dollar has retreated from the staggering December 2007 high of $1.10 US back down to a more reasonable 80¢ US today. It will be interesting to see how USA bidders will respond to the return of Canadian bargain prices.

Ron Leith Auctions will once again share the stamp weekend with Steveston Auctions who will conduct their sale on Friday night March 20, 2009 followed by our auction on Saturday evening March 21, 2009. We will both be at the Executive Airport Plaza Hotel at 7311 Westminster Highway in Richmond, situated two blocks west of the Richmond Inn where we previously held our auctions. The 2008 event was a huge success and the fun stamp weekend will once again including a Friday and Saturday Bourse. We look forward to seeing you.

Postal History auction highlights: includes a rare 1830 stampless cover addressed to Scotland with an unlisted FORT-WILLIAM straight line cancel, an 1894 Canada registered cover to Hawaii, major collections of BC & Alberta postcards and cancels noting an unreported MANISTEE-BC cancel on a 1912 cover, 12,000 BC Water Height postal cards, a fabulous accumulation of Saskatchewan cancels plus early documents with Saskatchewan revenue frankings, outstanding USA Stampless covers noting a 1770 letter from Haiti to NEWPORT-RI, and a wide range of colorful USA pre-1900 illustrated advertising covers. The Military section is powerful with good Boer War covers, many WW1 & WW2 Prisoner of War covers, and a huge volume of USA WW2 soldiers letters. Also noteworthy is the finest collection of Canadian RPO covers we have ever offered, a major collection of ship covers & cards noting 3 Titanic postcards and excellent BC Coastal Steamers. The section concludes with a wonderful group of 1491-1900 French documents and a number of massive dealer stocks comprising over 75,000 worldwide covers & postcards in 432 wholesale collection lots.

Stamp auction highlights: includes many superb mint Canadian 1897-1940 issues, singles and pairs of Canada #1 on laid paper, the finest group of Canada Victoria Jubilee stamps we have ever offered, strength in Canada QE2 issues noting two collections of "Little Sisters" experimental booklet stamps used to help design the 1967 Centennial Issue booklets, three full sheets of the 1994 unissued 52¢ Christmas stamps, and sheets of the Hologram errors. The Canada Revenue stamp section is outstanding while the Canada Provinces section includes many superb BC Pence issues, as well as unreported HALLADAY-ALTA and VALENCE-SASK cancels. There are also many better Newfoundland Pence Issue stamps and part two of the United States fancy cancels with more New York Foreign Mail rarities. The sale concludes with 102 wholesale stamp lots noting extensive collections of Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, Great Britain, and Switzerland.

Auction Dates & Lot Viewing:

Lot viewing is at the Executive Airport Plaza Hotel on Friday March 20^th from 10:00 am to 9:00 PM and on Saturday March 21^st from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Please plan accordingly as there are only 18 hours of viewing time available for this huge amount of material. Hors d'oeuvres will be served before the sale and the auction will be conducted in one session starting at 6:00 PM sharp on Saturday March 21^st, 2009. We will provide FREE parking passes to all our customers.

Auction Agent:

Carol Christopher phone . . . 604-597-8148

(Vancouver, BC) email . . . urgent-all@telus.net