Armand Rousso in the St. Petersburg Times

Today in Miami Beach, Rousso will open the International Stamp Exchange, a sort of Dow Jones for the philatelic world. At the stamp exchange, sellers list their stamps and asking price. Buyers bid on those stamps, either through the exchange’s computerized telephone network or through certified stamp exchange brokers. The exchange will also list the up-to-the-minute going rate-or catalog price-for each stamp on the market.

The stamp exchange is tied to a telex database serving 2.5 million customers worldwide, and Rousso expects the exchange to have 100,000 members by the end of 1986.

The stamp exchange takes a commission that is half that of an auction house, Rousso added. The minimum vale of stamps at the exchange is $100, “but we already have one block of stamps worth $160,000. This is not an exchange for small-value stamps.”