Mystic Taking Over Apfelbaum

It is my opinion that Apfelbaum's never truly recover from the loss of Martin and the cancer of pro-palestinian and anti-American terrorism. That day the cancerous tumor known as the bombing of Pan American Flight 103 was yet another example of the cancerous spread of terrorist violence.

Nothing to do with the US destruction of an Iranian passenger airliner on 3 July 1988, killing 290 innocent people, of course.

I would disagree a bit ParcelpostGuy. The settlement they received from that tragedy revitalized their assets and they became serious buyers again. In the early 2000s the families were paid a total of $2.7 billion US in three installments starting in 2003. They upped their buying after that. My partners and I sold a good amount to them, both quality and lots, and they were competitive.
Money does not make up for emotional loss, but it sure helps in business...
Libya bombed that plane in retaliation for the American bombings in 1986 and later. I do not think Gaddafi was ever that interested in the Palestinian cause. In fact in 2007 he called on other Arab states to stay out of Palestinian politics and let the Palestinians work out their own problems and factional issues.

GeoffHa - Pan Am 103 bombing was a pure terrorist attack by Libyans - nothing to do with the Iranian aircraft mistakenly shot down (albeit partially due to careless and incompetent actions by the USS Vincennes personnel). According to Wiki, "A total of 11 attempts were made to warn the airliner, seven on the Military Air Distress (MAD) frequency, and four on the IAD frequency. There were no responses." I don't recall - how many warnings were issued by the Libyans before they bombed the aircraft?

On a sidenote, I'll tell my high school girlfriend, whose youngest sister (whom we babysat together while she was a toddler) was blown out of the sky along with 34 other Syracuse students, that she should take comfort in knowing that you think the US was ultimately responsible. Please forward your contact info so she can thank you.

I think you forgot the 1986 Operation El Dorado Canyon and the F-111s that bombed Tripoli and other targets in Libya flying from bases in the UK around Western Europe to avoid multiple countries airspace.
In the summer of 1969 I had a class at Georgetown University, between my junior and senior years in high school, taught by a professor who had returned from a State Department assignment to Libya. He often mentioned a Libyan military officer he had worked with as an example of what he hoped would be a new generation of Arab leadership. He also warned of a reawakening of Arab dominance in the region using oil as a weapon against Europe and the US. He hoped officers like the one he worked with would moderate Arab's history of pan Nationalism and conquest and problem solving by the sword. He was correct in his first assesment, wrong in the second.

In September of 1969 that Libyan officer launched a successive coup and became Libya's leader. Later he gave Georgetown $600,000 to fund a chair in graditude for that professor's advice for Arab Studies at Georgetown. That officer was Muammar Gaddafi. Georgetown's President personaly returned the $600,000 plus $40,000 in interest to the Libyan Embassy in 1981. The professor that taught that class was CIA. So like Castro and Ho Chi Minh before Gaddafi, the US has often helped open Pandora's box.

I am sorry for every victim on every side. I myself have a lifetime disability from physical trauma suffered at the hands of a foreign covert action within the US. My ex wife and child were also threatened with an acid bath leaving the Pentagon Metro Station one afternoon in 1983. That is why I got the time to be a full time stamp dealer for 30 years.

Unfortunately American politics no longer, if it ever did, end at the water's edge. And history is now so easy to rewrite and reinterpret.

rog - I believe that lot you mentioned was an unusual situation and that Mystic doesn't often buy at auction.