Garmisch-Partenkirchner collectors' exchange is the highlight for all collectors

Created: 05/13/2022, 09:00

Many coin and stamp lovers found their way to Garmisch.

© Barbara Falkenberg

GAP – First, second and… third!

was the message in the Richard Strauss Hall in the Congress Center in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, when numerous collectors of coins, postcards and stamps outbid each other at an auction.

It was the high point of the “48.

Collectors' fair for coins and stamps" organized by the Garmisch-Partenkirchen stamp and coin collectors club "Philatelia".

For many years, the stock exchange has been a popular marketplace for bargain hunters who have not been able to go hunting for a long time because of Corona.

“Finally it was that time again and we auctioned around 100 exhibits – mostly by the crate,” explains “auctioneer” Martin Leitenbauer.

The commercial clerk is the cashier in the club, which has around 100 members, and organized the event together with Birgit Lesch, the president and chairwoman.

“A coin from 1862 changed hands for 220 euros, making it the most expensive exhibit,” reports the 61-year-old.

He himself sometimes spends 400 euros on a postcard, "because there is nothing nicer for a collector than when he finally finds an object he has been looking for for a long time."

He has shared his passion with two of his three brothers since childhood.

At home in Farchant, he chose the 16 square meter former guest room as a storage place for his several thousand cards and letters.

What is a hobby for Leitenbauer is what Burkhard Magin (43) from Worms does full-time.

The trader regularly comes to the stock exchange in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and this year he sold some of his 800-kilogram goods made up of letters and postcards.

In fact, there were almost exclusively male prospects on site.

One of the few exceptions was Gertrud Vahlbruch, who at the age of 86 suspects: "Collecting keeps you young and fit".

The sprightly pensioner had once again traveled from Kempten to sell her stamps, all neatly filed in albums.

"In my bedroom there is a whole wall of shelves full of albums with brands from all over the world, cat motifs are my favorite," reveals the senior citizen, who is already looking forward to September, because "of course I'll be back here in Garmisch for the next collector's fair -Partenkirchen on board.”