"How eagerly his regular dealers listened in the late afternoon
for the stump, stump of that leg in the hall outside
the door! When he entered, he sat down with his side to
the dealer's long table, hoisted that and then the other leg
to the table, and sat thus, examining the offerings. It was
a common thing for him to write a check for from ten to
twenty-five thousand dollars for an afternoon's purchases.
The biggest single day's check was for $77,000. Another of
$72,000 was given in payment for a British American collection,
and the deal was put through in fifteen minutes.
There was one dealer who, if he spent only three thousand
or five thousand dollars, would stamp about the office afterward,
cursing him for a damned piker and a tightwad."
Paper Chase - The Amenities of Stamp Collecting, Alvin F. Harlow, 1940
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