Heritage Auctions

Brian's interest in Philately sparked as a young child, collecting alongside his father. As he became more adept, he began working for dealers, cataloging worldwide issues, to acquire stamps for his collections and attending conventions. Over time, his interests migrated particularly towards classic U.S. issues and those of Israel.

The recognition and reputation he earned as a hobbyist over the years persuaded him to establish his own philatelic business. Brian's remarkable success in that arena eventually led him to accept an offer to work with a major international auction house as a Describer, handling worldwide collections and singles, with a specialization in U.S. issues. His dossier came to include U.S. Postal history, British North America, Germany and other locations, U.S. classics, banknotes, confederates, locals, airmails, and other back-of-the-book areas. Expanding his prowess in areas such as evaluating, purchasing, lotting, appraising, consignment activities and project management, Brian moved towards becoming keenly intimate with auction house operations. He has yielded outstanding results for numerous noteworthy collections, including the Halpern Collection of British North America.

Prior to devoting himself to a career in the world of philately, Brian's business experience included working in the health insurance industry, financial management arena and in IT where he served as a Sr. Systems Administrator. The current application of this diverse background has proven invaluable.

A member of the American Philatelic Society (APS) in excellent standing, Brian interests also include the martial arts, photography, postal history and science fiction.

Following a training with one of Europe's greatest Philatelic experts - Roger Calves, Mike now has extensive International experience working with rare stamps of the world, with an excellent general philatelic knowledge covering most countries and in particular the rare stamps of Western Europe, Great Britain and the colonies. His earlier studies and career in the world of Art & Design which involved working extensively with printing, paper, photography and color made this transition as an expert to the world of philately a particularly natural and easy one.

Having been professionally involved with rare stamps for some 20 years shortly after his arrival in the US in 1993 Mike was invited to join Sotheby's New York as senior Philatelic consultant to their rare stamp department where he worked for 4 years. He then went on to join the New York office of Phillips London (Now Phillips DePury, Luxembourg) as Head of the Rare stamp department producing a number of important sales. A couple of years later in 2000, Mike returned to the Sotheby's fold becoming their key online associate producing many important online sales not the least of which was the Polakoff collection which set an online sales record at the time grossing over $1,000,000 in 2002 -2003.

Since then Mike has operated his own Philatelic auction and appraisal company: Anglo American Appraisal Service Inc., specializing in the online sales of rare Stamps (and some fine art & general collectibles including coins). Mike has consulted on a regular basis with both Sotheby's and Christies and many of the major philatelic auction houses not to mention countless National Institutions such as Yale, Johns Hopkins & Columbia Universities, many of the High Net worth departments of Major Banking Institutions such as Citibank & Chase and with the Insurers, Lloyds of London, several Law Firms and countless private collectors.

Mike is a member of the American Philatelic Society and American Stamp Dealers Association in good standing. He speaks French, German, Italian and Spanish. He is married with 3 Children and is works from New York City.