About

My name is David Torre. I am at the right in the photo above with fellow collector Will Csaplar. I have a wonderful and supportive wife, Kay and a very talented son, Eric. I am a lifelong collector, dealer and exhibitor who specializes in waterfowl stamps. My wife has a degree in Business Management and my son is currently obtaining an MBA in Business Marketing.

My formal education is not business related. I have three science degrees; in BioChemistry, Cell Biology and Exercise Physiology. I completed my pre-med and for some time had a strong desire to become a cardiologist. I also have a minor in Critical Thinking and taught Critical Thinking at the University level for two semesters as a TA.

After spending 7 1/2 years in college, I rediscovered my passion for waterfowl stamps and fish and game stamps in general. Together with my wife and son, we have run the David R. Torre Company for decades and are now embarking on a new adventure with this website and blog, Waterfowl Stamps and More.

It is our goal to use this website as a vehicle to share with everyone the specialized knowledge that I have acquired over the years, providing a comprehensive resource for not just waterfowl stamps but for many other related topics as well. Further, we wish to create an internet community where people with our shared interests can meet and communicate with each other, sharing knowledge, information and ideas about our hobby and help to shape its future. Finally, we wanted to create a website that would be fun and make our hobby more enjoyable for everyone.

To meet these goals we have a rather ambitious plan. The website will initially launch with a Home page with buttons taking you to several generalized sub pages. Over the next several years, we plan to grow the website to include four additional sub Home pages taking you to information and images specific for Federal, State and Local, Tribal and Military and Gun and Powder items.

Overview

We created a Hall of Fame page to honor those individuals who have contributed greatly to the growth and popularity of the hobby. Eventually, you will be able to click on each name and it will act as a link taking you to an article about the person. For now, the only link that is active is for E.L. Vanderford.

On the Articles page you will find updated versions of my previous work, as well as that of others. The goal of these articles is to provide information about some of the earliest and most important waterfowl stamp series. Information that until now has not been readily available and which is essential to understanding the true waterfowl stamp story in complete context.

For your convenience, all of the major articles have been completely reformatted and presented as a PDF option. By clicking on the PDF icon, you will open the PDF version in a separate tab or window, depending on your browser settings. For those of you that find the size of type on the website a little smaller than you would like, you may enjoy reading the articles in the PDF version where the type is larger. To save as a PDF, right click or control + click the PDF icon and click "Save Link As". Please keep in mind the files are large and when printed out, many will consume 50-60 sheets of paper.

The Catalogs page takes you to specialized catalogs for Federal Waterfowl Stamps, Federal Waterfowl Stamps – Graded, Federal Waterfowl Stamp Prints and Non-Pictorial Waterfowl Stamps. It is our goal to update the listings and values in this online catalog frequently, thereby providing the most useful references possible. In the future, it is our goal to provide additional catalogs on this site for most, if not all, of the entire fish and game field.

The Exhibits page talks about exhibiting at stamp shows and discusses the reasons why you may wish to consider doing so. Several sample exhibits are included. As part of exhibiting process includes researching your material and sharing the learned information on your exhibit pages, reading through the exhibits themselves can be a highly educational experience. For the purpose of presenting accurate information on the internet, all of the rarities found on pages of the older exhibits (as in ten examples recorded) have been updated to reflect 2021 census figures.

The Galleries pages take you to thumbnails of a series of items of interest to fish and game collectors. At this point you have many options. By clicking on the thumbs they will enlarge to high resolution scans. You can then choose to either navigate through the galleries with arrow buttons located at the sides of the screen, go full screen by clicking the symbol at the upper left of the image or watch a slide show of the entire gallery by clicking the play symbol at the lower right of the image. Once you have started the slide shows, the play symbol changes to a pause symbol. The slide shows are pretty fun and we suggest you give it a try.

A word about the images contained in the galleries and elsewhere on this site. These images are provided for your personal education and enjoyment through the generosity of many of the hobby's leading collectors. None of the images have been locked or defaced with a watermark and anyone is allowed to pull the images onto their computer for personal use. However, no one is allowed to pull images from this site and include them in any sort of endeavour that could lead to financial gain without the express written permission of David R. Torre. In the cases where permission is granted, a credit byline will usually be requested.

The Killer pages are intended to be both fun and educational and feature high resolution scans of some of the rarest and most spectacular items in the hobby. This is a visual experience with a minimum of descriptive text (captions only). Detailed information about many of the items can be found elsewhere on the site and others will be the subject of future blog posts.

Depending on the speed of your internet connection, the Killer pages may take some time to load. Please be patient and you will be rewarded. All of the same options are available to navigate the Killer pages as are the Galleries pages. The images with a blue background are featured items form the current exhibit A License and Stamp System for Waterfowl Conservation in the 20th Century U.S.

The Wanted page has a listing of items that we are currently looking to purchase, both for ourselves and our clients. Should anyone wish to sell any of these items we request that you contact us via email or phone (contact info is located at the upper right of the screen).

The Links page provides useful links to a wide variety of businesses and organizations that may be able to enhance your collecting experience.

In the future, we are considering a page where collectors can list items they wish to buy or sell. We are also considering holding internet auctions on the site, which will feature better waterfowl items and fish and game items in general.

Finally, the focus of this website will ultimately be the Blog which runs down the center of the Home page. In the beginning, we are going to have our hands full and new blog posts may not appear as frequently as we would all like. Eventually, we intend to use the blog to regularly disseminate knowledge and keep everyone up on current events related to our hobby. For the immediate future, all blog posts will be created by David Torre. At some point, it is intended to invite others to participate in the blog. Please let us know if you have an interest in participating. We are open to your involvement being anything from a one time post about a special interest to posting on a regular or semi-regular basis.

We look forward to your feedback, including specific ideas and suggestions that will enable us to create a better experience. From all of us at Waterfowl Stamps and More, we hope you enjoy the site!