Never insure with a non-specialist stamp insurer…

My intention is that you will benefit from my 56 years as a philatelist and 47 years full-time as a professional Stamp Dealer. During this time I have already experienced two previous down-turns of the economy and aim to pass on to you the benefit of what I have learnt.

Periodically, I will send you another ‘stamp trade tip’. Some may appear insignificant to an experienced collector, but incredibly useful to somebody just starting out on their journey through our wonderful hobby.

However, taken together, I believe that they will be of benefit to all collectors; so please forgive me if some ‘stamp trade tips’ benefit beginners, whilst others may benefit advanced collectors. Each ‘tip’ will benefit and be of greater or lesser relevance to some collectors, more than others.

This is how I lost £12,000 over forty years ago due to my inexperience. It was 1976, I was 22, the stamp business was strong and I had already been offered 3 jobs by other stamp companies. My first and only stamp employers sold ‘bulk’ wholesale ‘cto’ type material – or rather they bought too much of the same and sold too little of it, so there were massive residues of stock ‘overhangs’ in the cellar – which apparently they could not sell.

They recognised that to keep me interested I would probably respond to a ‘challenge’. So they set up a new limited company with no money in it! Here’s the ‘deal’ that I was offered and accepted; you sell our unsold stock and you can buy and sell whatever you want with the proceeds. They would own the company – but I would get a percentage of it dependent upon how well I got on.

I can remember thinking “Wow – what an opportunity”. So, I set to, enthusiastically selling the unsold stock at profitable prices, swopping with other dealers against their surpluses to broaden (my!) stock. Within a year I had managed to ‘convert’ low calibre duplicated bulk stock into high calibre ‘one-off’ type material – similar to that we sell today in our auctions. The value had reached £14,000. In those days £14,000 was a lot of money.

I asked ‘my investors’ about insurance. The office was in Kilburn – and according to them the location – being somewhat ‘rough’ was uninsurable against theft. They had ‘accidental’ insurance cover only; “besides who would want to steal our bulk stocks – they’d need a removal van”.

Two months later the premises were robbed. Unsurprisingly the only material taken was the high calibre stock that I had worked so hard during the previous year in building up. I was left with just £2,000 worth (a major factor which influenced the next phase of my stamp career).

Only then did I discover that you can insure virtually anything if you go the right way about it.

So, for those of you whose collections are uninsured – you would be surprised how little ‘dedicated’ stamp insurance costs – as little as £40 a year is the cost of insuring the average collection. Take a tip from me – this is money well spent – BUT here’s a supplementary tip -don’t (whatever you do) add your collection onto your household contents insurance – we have a client whose collection was stolen recently, who is currently embroiled in a claim with a household contents insurer who is being offered literally nothing – based upon a technicality. He is about to lose £6,000 unless the Ombudsman rules in his favour. Update: He lost £6,000.

Who do we recommend?

Our previous insurers closed when the owner retired. After considerable research, we now insure with Naomi and Chris at Wardrop & Co Ltd., PO BOX 13097, Halstead, CO9 9BR, UK. For our overseas subscribers, there are sure to be specialist insurers more local to you. We have no financial affiliation with Naomi and Christ, but we recommend them and hope that they recommend us in kind. You can find them at www.wardrop.co.uk/ or phone Naomi at 01376 563 764 and Christ at 07815 137 485. For email requests, email naomi@wardrop.co.uk and chris@wardrop.co.uk.

To give you an idea of how little this may cost:

Cover up to £6,000 costs c.£22.50 pa + Insurance Premium Tax (IPT). Cover up to £10,000 costs c.£37.50 pa +IPT.

With so many themes and countries to collect, it can be difficult to decide where to start…

When I last wrote to you I talked about the importance of specialist stamp insurance. Today I offer some suggestions that may help to shape a decision as to what to collect. Collectors often ask us about starting to collect new areas or subjects – saying ” I am thinking of collecting xxxxx – what do you think?”

When I started collecting in my pre-teens I collected GB commemoratives. I loved them – but soon I had run out of stamps to collect that I could afford – apart from buying new issues from the Post Office! My collection stagnated but by then I had been ‘hooked’ by the idea of buying and trading stamps. Most collectors don’t become stamp dealers – but collecting can easily ‘dead-end’ if insufficient thought is given in the first place as to what to collect and how much it all costs.

It is possible to collect without spending any significant money – but your first thought should be – “how much do I want to spend and how much can I afford to spend?”

Now you’ve worked out a budget – do you want to collect inexpensive ‘fun stamps’? If so, you’re unlikely to see much of a financial return – but you’ll have a great time along the way. I can remember visiting a collector in the East Midlands – he had filled a complete wall of his spare bedroom from floor to ceiling with 250 albums. His was an interesting goal – to see how many different stamps he could collect and mount into his albums without spending much more than 10p (15 US cents) per stamp. In this way he had collected 100,000 different stamps, many had cost nothing, but he and his wife were ‘downsizing’ and the collection had to go.

After accepting £2,200 he told us that the best offer he had received was £1,800.

He’d bought cheap albums but they had cost almost as much as the stamps. What do you do with 100,000 different relatively inexpensive stamps? Just posting each album would have cost between £5 and £8 each. In the end we paid an ‘outworker’ to strip the stamps back out into individual country bags for our clients to pick from, and so the process started all over again!

He had a wonderful time collecting – but there was no way that he could have recouped his outlay.

The moral is you’ll only recover a good percentage of your outlay, or perchance more than your outlay over a long period – by mainly collecting more expensive stamps that dealers and auctioneers can afford to describe, price and handle individually.

Start with the cost of collecting. How much is your budget? If it is relatively small – ‘fun’ stamps may be all that you can afford. What do you expect from your collection? – are you looking for a ‘return’ from your outlay? Do you view your collection as an investment – or are you simply not concerned about how much it will be worth when you come to sell it? Match your budget to the country or theme you are thinking of collecting. Consider that demand for higher quality earlier stamps pre-1950 can exceed supply, whereas – if you buy a modern set from a Post Office – next time they will print one more. Supply of modern stamps often exceeds demand, apart from well publicised exceptions. Finally do a little research of price lists on-line and check availability of the country/theme – before making a final decision as to what to collect.

Are you using the right tools and do you really need those expensive accessories? We explain all…

We’ve discussed the often-overlooked link between budget and collecting interest, and the importance of adequate focussed insurance – this week we are looking at stamp accessories.

Time after time that we are offered collections for sale, I am amazed at the number of collections which are not very valuable in themselves – but are ‘contained’ in expensive albums and come complete with the most expensive watermark detectors – electronic perforation machines, high powered ‘computer’ magnifying glass ‘loupes’.

You don’t need any of these – even if your eyesight is challenged, electronic watermark detectors almost invariably yield poorer results than the product I mention below.

Here’s what you need to start with and what we use:

1. A Loose-Leaf Stock-Book System such as a 4 ring binder with ‘hagner/prinz’ style leaves (single side leaves may cost a little more – but are best. Plastic type leaves should be avoided – they can look and feel cheap, stamps can be more easily damaged in them). Loose-leaf systems are flexible permitting re-arranging with minimal re-organisation.

2. ‘Fixed Leaf’ stockbooks look lovely but are more useful for duplicates. Don’t buy expensive albums until you have a collection that justifies them – many collectors’ interests change within a short period of starting to collect.

3. Tweezers ‘Spade-end’ are better than ‘pointed’ ones to start with. Check how finely ‘honed’ the spades are when they ‘meet’ – too thick may be too difficult for you to pick stamps up off a flat surface. ‘Showgard 903’ is a good spade-end tweezer which we have used for 35 years. They only cost a couple of £’s. Our upa-global shop on eBay is usually the cheapest supplier of ‘Showgard 903’ tweezers and stamp hinges on the internet.

4. Magnifying Glasses Good magnifiers are not expensive and are a vital piece of equipment which will repay their purchase price many times over. The one you need will depend on what you want it for and some collectors will find it useful to have three or four. A handy pocket-magnifier is useful for taking to stamp fairs, to check that you are buying the right stamp and that it is in the condition you are looking for. For everyday use, 10 x magnification suits most people and is good for checking for plate flaws and varieties. Higher magnification, such as the x35 ‘mini microscopes’ are useful for checking papers (chalk-surfaced or ordinary, for instance) and for confirming the method of printing (litho or gravure), features which can have a profound effect on a stamp’s value. You should be aware that prolonged use of any magnifier will cause eye-strain and it is here that the electronic and computer-based magnifiers come into their own, because you are looking at a computer screen, rather than squinting at the stamp itself. Something like this should prove invaluable to ‘platers’ of GB line-engraved.

5. Colour Keys Once again Gibbons is the only one worth buying – but beware – colours are only a ‘guide’ – an ‘ultramarine’ in SG for Gambia is 3 Which Accessories do I need ? Are you using the right tools and do you really need those expensive accessories? We explain all … UPA INTRODUCTORY OFFER 7 different from an ‘ultramarine’ in GB KGV issues. Colours quoted in catalogues have not been re-calibrated over 100 years – experience is the best measure and the ‘colour key’ is useful in determining ‘deep’ shades from ‘dull’ shades etc.

6. Perforation Gauge There is only one worth purchasing – Gibbons ‘Instanta’ – this is superbly accurate – just takes a bit of getting used to/perseverance. Don’t use the ‘dot’ type perforation – it’s not accurate enough. Electronic perforation gauges are useful if you have a lot of stamps you want to go through, as using the Instanta could be time-consuming. You should be aware though that they may give a ‘reading’ which does not conform with catalogue listings – in which case you will probably need to double-check with the Instanta anyway.

7. Ultra-violet Lamps If you are a specialist collector of modern stamps of almost any country, you are going to need one of these to check for phosphors, fluorescent papers, etc, but this is one area where you should avoid the cheap option. ‘Chinese’ types of UV lamp, where the bulb is not shielded from your eyes are potentially harmful to your eyes and are not very good anyway. One of the problems with UV lamps is that they are most effective in a darkened room – something not normally available at your local stamp fair! – but the new Stanley Gibbons Dual Wave UV Lamp overcomes this problem very effectively, is safe to use and the bulb has a much longer ‘life’ than the Chinese ‘wand’ types – well worth the extra cost. Of course any stamp collector will prefer to spend his money on stamps rather than accessories – but if you have the right equipment it will last you for decades and will pay for itself many, many times over.

8. Watermark Detectors Once again, your requirement will depend on what you collect and how many stamps you are checking at a time. If you collect early GB or colonial issues, it’s fair to say that you may not need a watermark detector at all, as holding the stamp up to the light or placing it face down on a dark card will probably tell you everything you want to know.

Sometimes a little ‘help’ is required and then we resort to the old-fashioned watermark fluid and a watermark tray. We use Prinz ‘Super-Safe’ and a tray which costs less than £20. Some collectors are unhappy about putting fluid on their stamps which is understandable, and prefer the Instatector, which takes a bit of time to master, but once you’ve got the hang of it you can use it to check a lot of stamps quite quickly and without the fuss of waiting for the liquid to evaporate off your stamps!

For modern issues, with unclear watermarks on chalk-surfaced papers, you are best off with an electric watermark detector, as they are often the only means of being sure what you have. Both the Stanley Gibbons Detectamark and the Safe Signoscope T1 Professional are very good, once you have got the hang of how to use them. They do have a couple of limitations (on top of the price!) which are that the back of the stamp needs to be free of hinge remains, they will only take one stamp at a time and they are slower to use than other methods – but find one inverted watermark and whichever one you choose, it’s probably paid for itself !

Note: Don’t use benzine – some battle-hardened dealers use benzine or lighter fuel – you can often tell a mint stamp that has been dipped in these, by ‘suffused’ colour into the surrounding paper. Some of these fluids will ‘melt’ a plastic watermark tray. You can use ‘Super-Safe’ on MINT as well as used stamps – it does not affect the gum and dries in moments. Always experiment on cheap stamps first. Replace the top tightly – it evaporates quickly.

Find out which catalogues are really necessary in our quick guide…

I’ve wasted £100’s of pounds buying the wrong catalogues over the years. Depending upon your needs some catalogues are a complete waste of time. They can be too general or too specialised. Catalogues sound such a simple thing – but getting it right may save you a lot of time and money.

Remember our ‘matching what you collect to your budget’ – back in Tip #2? Then this will help you focus upon buying the right catalogues. If you are an overseas subscriber – please forgive the emphasis upon Stanley Gibbons catalogues. Overseas readers may find the below useful but will probably wish to purchase the leading catalogues in their own countries. I apologise that Tip #4 is so long – but this is an area of considerable confusion.

As the old ‘general’ catalogues have become larger and larger, with the world’s postal administrations issuing more and more stamps each year, publishers have split them up to meet the needs of collectors who are, increasingly, only collecting a limited period or group of countries. The choice of catalogues is therefore getting larger and few people will be able to afford to have ‘one of each’. So once again you will need to choose the right one for you.

One thing we should say at the outset is that it may be a false economy to rely on out-of-date catalogues, as the prices will be unreliable and you will be missing out on the latest information and research which is incorporated in each new edition. So once you have decided which catalogue you like best, always get the new one as soon as it comes out if you can afford it. You can often recoup part of the cost by selling off the old one to someone who is less concerned about being up-to-date.

SG Great Britain

Great Britain ‘Concise’ Catalogue

Strongly recommended. £34.95

Collect British Stamps Recommended as a general guide.

If you are in any way serious about collecting British stamps you probably need the more detailed ‘Concise’, but if you want to collect British stamps in a more general way, this is a handy guide, which certainly contains much more information than it used to in the old days. However, there is outstandingly better value to be had by spending more on the SG Great Britain ‘Concise’ Catalogue at £34.95. The ‘Concise’ is an outstanding catalogue – if you collect GB this is the catalogue you need to buy.

SG Great Britain Specialised ‘Queen Victoria’ (Volume 1, Line Engraved), Four Kings (Volume 2)

Strongly recommended for specialist collectors and dealers only. Absolutely essential reference works for specialist collectors, but most collectors using preprinted albums – such as ‘Lindner’ ‘Lighthouse’ ‘Davo’ etc – should find the SG GB ‘Concise’ catalogue more than adequate for their needs.

Collecting British First Day Covers?

Forget SG, forget all of the prices that you see in Collect British Stamps – there is only one catalogue to buy: Adrian Bradbury BFDC Collecting British First Day Covers catalogue £37.95 including postage from: www.bfdc.co.uk.

BUT, whilst this is an excellent reference catalogue, please use ‘completed’ eBay searches of real prices realised, not ‘hoped’ for unrealistic prices, in order to research the British FDC market for FDC’s from 1953 onwards.

SG Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps 1840 – 1970

Commonly referred to as ‘The Part One’ – £89.95 Strongly recommended. If you are serious about collecting stamps from the British Empire and Commonwealth, this catalogue is essential. Many of our collector clients buy this catalogue every other year. Some buy it second-hand – and others wait to see if SG have it on ‘offer’ when the new one supercedes. This is the only catalogue to buy if you collect ‘B.E.’ pre 1970. NB: The existence of this catalogue strengthens the case for collecting pre-1970 issues only.

Stamps of the World

Recommended if you are an ‘all world’ collector. Originally called the SG ‘Simplified’ Catalogue, Stamps of the World (SOTW) still holds good to that principle – but instead of a compact little volume, it is now a six-volume monster with a price tag to match! Of course, being simplified, it ignores such features as shades, watermarks and perforation differences, listing only those stamps and miniature sheets which are ‘face different’, sometimes combining into one set, stamps which, in other catalogues belong to two or more sets, taking the cheapest one of each. This makes arriving at a ‘set price’ for a group of stamps rather difficult, which is why SOTW does not attempt to do this.

Nevertheless, SOTW is the catalogue you need if you are collecting worldwide issues on a simplified ‘design only’ basis.

SG Commonwealth / Single Country / Area catalogues – RED banded. Recommended especially if you collect through to recent issues.

Although this may sound like an advertisement for Stanley Gibbons – in the UK they have just about got the catalogue market ‘sewn up’. I used to dislike their ‘softback’ A4 format yellow/red British Commonwealth area catalogues – eg ‘Cyprus, Gibraltar & Malta’ in one volume – but now I like them – simply because they are detailed, comprehensive, cover sensible ‘groups’ of countries in single volumes – that you are likely to collect. Most important of all is that these catalogues run right through to the latest issues available and for what they are – they are relatively reasonably priced.

SG Foreign Catalogues for Europe and the rest of the World – GREEN or BLUE banded Covers. Recommended.

Other catalogues

For specialist collectors of European and the Rest of the World – ‘Michel’ catalogues are far more detailed – e.g. numbers printed and other information not available from ‘SG’ is often included – but if you are in the UK, collectors and dealers basically refer to SG which has the advantage, for us, of being in English! Real specialists will probably possess the appropriate SG catalogue + the appropriate Michel (German), Yvert (French), Scott (USA) catalogue. MICHEL started it’s new English language series with a small but very popular German collection area. Other European collection areas will follow. The information and price quotations of these new books are up-to-date thanks to the MICHEL online database.

MICHEL German Reich

In 2021, some of the most popular German collection areas as well as other often collected areas worldwide will be published in English Collectors with several collection areas can now also use the MICHEL online database in English. This database has the same content as the printed MICHEL volumes and provides additional features for the search of stamps such as by country, year of issue or MICHEL-Number. Search results may be stored in individual lists. The MICHEL online database is regularly updated. It is now possible for all English speaking collectors to rely on the secured information and counterfeit warnings from MICHEL!

Stamp condition is vital, so always buy the best quality you can afford…

There are at least three factors that will affect the saleability of your collection:

1. Country / subject popularity
2. Scarcity
3. Condition

In this tip I am focusing upon condition for the simple reason that, if a stamp is not in good condition in the first place – then it will not be worth a high percentage of catalogue value (unless like the famous British Guiana 1c black/magenta it is unique).

Over the last 40 years of philatelic trading it has become increasingly obvious that the price ‘spread’ between poor quality and finest quality has increased almost beyond recognition.

In our auctions, each item is offered with an unique reducing estimates system – till the stamp, cover or philatelic item is sold – or is given away. This system creates a transparency of prices which is virtually unknown outside of eBay. Time and again you may see a second quality stamp unsold, reduced, unsold, further reduced … until, sooner or later, the stamp reaches a lower price that collectors deem it such a bargain as to bid upon it and the stamp is sold.

However, given that same stamp in top / high quality – if you don’t bid upon it the first time, it is unlikely to be there for a second. Invariably, astute collectors recognise that stamp as rare in that condition, so that, for example, in America ‘exhibition class’ stamps (often accompanied by certificates stating a 95-100% example) command huge multiples of catalogue value.

Such a market can become so ‘rarefied’ as to lose all sense of perspective – but the principle holds true – usually the dealer’s profit margin on a second quality stamp is far greater than that upon the same stamp in high quality – so the return upon your original outlay is higher for high quality stamps.

Moral:

1. Only buy the best quality stamps that you can afford.
2. Consider availability and the cost of the rarest stamps that you will need when determining which area period/subject you are going to collect.

Catalogue values are not always the most accurate measure of a stamp’s value…

Certainly once or twice a week, and sometimes even more often, we receive phone calls and sometimes letters – all based on misunderstandings about the ‘values’ given in stamp catalogues – and, being UK based, most concern Stanley Gibbons catalogue prices.

Before we look at some of the reasons why the price shown in the catalogue is unlikely to be the price you can expect to receive when you come to sell your stamp, let me just ponder one of those peculiarities of human nature.

Why is it that, faced with a range of potential values for their stamps, based on differences they do not understand, such as paper, watermark or perforation, inexperienced collectors will always assume that their stamp is the most valuable/expensive one? Surely logic should tell them that the most valuable/expensive option is more highly priced because it is much less common than the cheaper ones and therefore their stamp is much more likely to be the cheapest variety – not the most expensive.

The simple fact is that, unless you know otherwise or have a certificate to prove your stamp is ‘the good one’, it is always safest to assume that it is the most common variant. When you come to sell, any reputable dealer or auction house will tell you if you have something which is better than you thought it was – which will come as a nice surprise – but in the meantime always err on the side of caution.

Even assuming that your stamp is correctly identified, however, there are a number of other factors which will have an impact on its real value, as opposed to its catalogue value.

1. Quality The cheapest ‘1d black’ may catalogue £375 – but we sell poorest examples for as little as £20 or less, whilst in our latest auction we offer the best used example that we have ever seen – certainly a 1 in 50,000 exhibition quality example – which as I write is going to realise over £1,000 for a stamp catalogued £350.

2. Quantity If a collector possesses 100 of the same stamp catalogued 50p each, this duplicated range cannot be worth £50 when you can purchase them in our ‘buy one – take one free’ penny mixes, and other collectors possess hundreds of thousands more.

Mis-identified stamps A common problem; all philatelists (including us) can be wrong. We learn something more each day we work with stamps, that is the joy of stamp collecting.

To be fair to the catalogue publishers and editors, reading the ‘small print’ warns collectors of these issues – but a percentage of collectors persist in their perception that their collection (which has cost very little indeed) is worth a great deal of money. Many never read the small print.

All Catalogue Editors need to attribute a value to every stamp. It depends upon whether the ‘Catalogue Publisher’ sells stamps – or merely sells catalogues. In the case of SG it is made plain that you can order any of the stamps in their catalogues – consequently lower catalogue prices reflect handling costs, not value. Indeed “the lowest price charged for individual stamps or sets purchased from Stanley Gibbons Ltd is £1” – potentially it costs 50p to bank a cheque and probably £5 for ‘SG’ to generate an invoice – so thousands of £1 orders would create something of a problem.

Over the course of 50 years full-time philately, I have handled, bought and sold, many millions of stamps. Consider that, with some knowledge and experience the most valuable ‘find’ that I have made and sold is £1,500 – those that find £50,000 worth of Bermuda ‘Perots’ at a car-boot sale have indeed won the ‘philatelic lottery’. With stamps, as in many things in life, money goes to money, unless you are incredibly lucky; if you have spent little in ‘real’ terms, or added little value by the possession of knowledge then it may be unreasonable to expect much return from the sale of your stamps.

Discover how to assess the quality and value of your stamps…

We previously discussed the ‘Importance of Condition’ – but how do you recognise and understand quality?

Of course the easy answer is ‘experience’, but how do you gain experience when you have not physically handled a particular type of stamp?

There is no substitute for seeing or handling a stamp ‘in the flesh’, but stamps possess an unusual quality that makes them so suitable for sale upon the internet and for posting and trading throughout the world – they are basically flat. Over the past 10 years I have bumped into a reasonable number of antique dealers who blame the internet, and eBay in particular, for the demise of the ‘antique shop’.

Apparently the ‘transparency’ of information and values upon the internet has ‘finished off’ the high street ‘antique shop’ as many remember it. Certainly I know this to be true of certain types of antiques in the U.K. – dealers could ‘hide’ in their own mystique of knowledge gained over many years of trading, visiting auctions, even museums, that many collectors would be unable to access during normal working hours. Additionally most collectors had an unreasonable ‘fear’ of attending and purchasing at ‘public auction’ – citing all manner of ‘old-witch’ tales – where they might ‘touch their nose’ and end up winning a lot they could not afford!

Those days of the ‘old boys club’ of dealers are gone, and the transparency of the internet, apparently, is the reason. But, something different happened along the way with stamps – stamp values were always that bit more transparent in the first place due to their being so well catalogued by Stanley Gibbons and other publishers. In 1980 there were an estimated 300 stamp shops in the UK – today there may be just 30. Stamp collecting and stamp dealing went ‘underground’ long before the internet took hold. Antique dealers average price of an item might well be £100’s – whereas most stamp shops average price might be pence or a few £’s.

So most stamp dealers were forced to adjust to their market conditions of selling by low-overhead methods – from home or office, by mail or at fairs/ exhibitions – which is why stamps have uniquely adapted and transferred themselves so well to sale by postal auctions and upon the internet.

The internet is the key starting point to how to learn about stamps and assess quality. Stanley Gibbons makes a start at the front of their ‘physical’ catalogues by giving an illustration by appearance of good, fine, very fine, and superb quality of an imperforate stamp based upon appearance only. But it is so easy now being on-line to compare quality by image against description. Put a little quality time aside and start by visiting the websites of the more ‘expensive’ dealers who retail online. Look for high quality and see the high prices requested. Now, open another ‘browser window’ and go to eBay. Start searching for similar, even the same catalogue number stamps in differing conditions. Read the descriptions compare the starting prices, and put some of these items in your ‘watch’ category. Be prepared for a shock.

You are going to see the most horrendous variances between descriptions, prices and realisations.

Unless you are ‘watching’ items from the most respected ‘main-stream’ dealers on eBay – pay absolutely NO attention to sellers with 100% eBay ratings. Yes, your purchases will be delivered – but on the face of it – what you see on the front of the stamp is what you get. There are thousands of eBay sellers with little or no knowledge of what they are selling and thousands with knowledge who know that what they are selling is not what it is ‘crackedup’ to be.

I see dealers with 1,000+ feedback 100% ratings offering items described as fine used which are merely average. Be aware that the oldest ‘trick in the game’ is to describe ‘good’ as ‘fine’, ‘very fine’ as ‘superb’, and so on. Stamps easily trap the unwary in this respect.

Train your Philatelic Eye

Have you been horrified at what you have seen? Certainly we are – regularly. We don’t profess to be perfect – and with 20,000 lot quarterly auctions we are always going to make our share of errors too – but never deliberately and always guaranteed by prompt full refund or credit if required.

But, over the years, one of the most important and overlooked aspects of ‘understanding quality’ that I have noticed is, amazingly, that many collectors do not carefully examine their purchases but, more than that, they don’t appear to know ‘how’ – and that is perhaps because nobody has ever explained ‘how to train your philatelic eye’.

How have I reached this rather fundamental conclusion? I have lost count of the times that I have handed over a x10 magnifying glass to collectors, inviting them to look at the stamp we are examining together.

Most collectors do not realise that the focussing distance of the most practical magnifying glass is actually having their eye and the ‘glass’ approximately one to two inches from the stamp. That is how close you need to get in to examine the detail of a stamp.

Understanding this opens so many doors to what you are actually looking at and what you may start looking for.

Now that you are perhaps thinking of examining stamps closer up than before, start by conciously selecting a point that you will consistently start from – say the top left north west (NW) corner – then actually work your way ‘clockwise’ around the stamp. What you are now doing is ‘disciplining’ your eye to work to a pattern – you’ll be concious of this to begin with – but soon it will become an unconcious efficient process which will prove invaluable when looking for varieties.

1. Start by examining the perforations all of the way round the stamp, are any too short, ‘pulled’ or missing? Don’t forget to look for ‘closed tears’ – or even scissor cuts. Closed tears are easily missed – but easily detected if you look for fine lines emanating from the perforations and running into the design. TIP – flex the stamp gently, but not with your fingers! – a good time is when filing the stamp into a mount or stockcard. Depending upon scarcity of the stamp, one pulled out/missing perforation upon a commonly available stamp is not acceptable when you can so easily have a perfect example. The scarcer and older the more ‘forgiving’ you can become.

2. Now examine the margins/centring of the design to the perforations or the width of margins of an imperforate stamp. How off-centre a stamp are you prepared to have in your collection? This can have a big impact upon price in classic issues, and in modern issues – do you need it – when you may relatively easily obtain better.

3. Next, look for thins or pinholes – not just upon the reverse – but also for facial abrasions. Thinning has one of the heaviest impacts upon price. Hold the stamp against good quality background light – preferably a ‘daylight’ type bulb. Invest in a good quality desklight – seldom seen when we visited collectors to value their collections.

4. Now, check the colours of the stamp – are they ‘true’ – how do they compare with other stamps in your collection. Beware of faded stamps; consider the period of stamp you are working with – for example Queen Victoria GB often have crayon marks (from registered envelopes) – stamp ‘improvers’ often ‘reduce’ such marks in an attempt to reduce their overall impact upon the stamp’s appearance.

5. Is the stamp ‘toned’ – if mint – is the gum creamier than it should be. In this area – everything is ‘relative’ – toning on a modern stamp within the last 50 years is pretty unacceptable as it is unnecessary to accept it. Earlier stamps – a degree of overall toning becomes more acceptable and in some cases virtually the only quality available. But, beware of tone/rust spots – these can be severe. As with everything the degree of severity affects the price. Remember that some stamps the gum was always brownish, creamy or off-white. In the British Empire KGVI ‘key types’ high values, for example, a brownish streaked gum often indicates an early printing which actually went to the colonies.

6. Toning in used stamps (NB NOT mint stamps) – this can be minimised, even eradicated by careful repeated application of an increasingly difficult toxic product to obtain – but once obtained lasts for years. Until recently it was supplied under the name ‘Fox-it’; the product’s chemical name is ‘Chloramine T’. Powder form is best, which you 15 can test mix with water at very weak strength. It can still be bought online via eBay as I type. Always test on cheap stamps first. Be careful – ‘fox-it’ type products are a bleaching anti-fungal – apply from the reverse in repeat applications (dried in between each application) watch for fugitive facial colour ‘leaching’.

7. Creasing – look for creases – minor bends/ gum bends are common in classic issues and in some cases hard to purchase the stamp without such. In used stamps – particularly the ‘top’ end a pressed out crease can as much as halve the value of the stamp, sometimes more. Look for a crease as you would look for a phosphor band – let the light from your desklamp glance across the surface of the stamp. Remember that all creases are not vertical – diagonal, even horizontal are common. Victorian/classic stamps are likely to have the highest chance of bearing a crease. A crease can convert an ‘exhibition’ appearance stamp to an ‘also-ran’ worth 50% or less. Be aware that heavy creases are often ‘pressed out’ – so the crease could be a ‘finer’ line. ‘Improvers’ use ‘hydraulic presses’ these days to eradicate creases.

8. Look at the postmark – is it a beauty? The Americans have a philatelic phrase which has ‘travelled’ – SON – otherwise ‘socked on the nose’ – probably the finest quality of a used stamp is a full crisp clear cancel beautifully positioned and with perfect balance/harmony between adhesive and postmark. However there are many who term a contemporary part CDS (circular date stamp) cancel as the finest quality sought – particularly clear of profile is highly desirable in typically heavily cancelled stamps. Queen Victoria line-engraved issues such as the 2d blue – no matter how ‘sound’ the stamp, the heavier the cancellation, the lower the resale price.

Finally consider that a combination of defects – whilst acceptable in the unique British Guiana (which recently realised £6 million in public stamp auction) – are less and less acceptable in lesser high-flying stamps. When you are considering the value of a stamp, it helps not to think of ‘how many £’s or $’s to deduct for this or that’ – as this is a sure-fire way to confuse oneself. Instead think in terms of … is this a super-fine stamp – in which case you may think to yourself it’s an X % of catalogue value example, incrementing down to it’s a ‘space-filler’ with multiple faults worth say 5% to 10% of catalogue value to you – or no value at all to you if it lowers the tone of your collection too much.

By adopting a systematic approach to examining stamps you will soon ‘train your philatelic eye’ so that all of what I have written automatically, effortlessly and enjoyably becomes second nature to you. If you start to think how faults relate to value this will stand you in good stead when understanding quality.

Auctions can be mysterious for the newcomer, but they don’t have to be…

In previous ‘Stamp Tips of the Trade’ I have focused considerably upon the issues of ‘quality’. Quality is so important that we will doubtless be returning to it – but, for a change, in this next series of tips I am going to deal with auctions – which in many ways can be mysterious.

Where stamps are concerned really there are only 3 different types of auctions that matter: Public – Postal – Internet. These days Public and Postal auctions also have ‘internet presence’ which can blur the edges, but we’ll deal with Public auctions first:

Public Auctions A ‘public’ auction is as it sounds – an auction – transparent by virtue of it being held in public, often thought of as a ‘room’ auction at which collectors and dealers attend. Public auctions also accept bidding by post, fax, telephone and often internet.

I don’t expect to be ‘popular’ for some of my comments – but in many ways public auctions benefit the person who is able to attend – to the detriment of persons who cannot. This may not be true so much of well described and photographed sets and singles – but where miscellaneous lots such as ‘box’ lots and large collections are concerned there is no substitute for not being present – unless money is no object.

Part of the problem is due to the nature of the public auction – most auctioneers main focus is upon lots selling (unsold lots are not profitable) – so there is a temptation to do less work and under-estimate the value of lots. This temptation is heightened by the desire to advertise afterwards that a lot estimated at £1,000 realised £5,000. In fact those with knowledge who had viewed the lots and were present in the auction room already knew which lots were, in their opinion, underestimated.

It is not hard to see why – with mixed lots and collections – the ‘remote’ bidder who has not viewed has little chance of winning – it takes a lot of ‘chutzpah’ to place bids for 5 x estimate when one has not seen the stamps. Public auctions also prefer to sell lots to room bidders – they are paid immediately and there is less packing or posting as buyers usually takes the lots with them.

So, all of this explains why public auctions are so popular with dealers and collectors who are able to attend. Generally speaking good public auctions can fill the room with bidders – all eager to bid on apparently underestimated lots and sometimes over-estimated lots too. The opportunity to snap up a bargain is motivating. However this is one of the most important places for ‘caveat emptor’ – buyer beware – to be borne in mind. Possibly there may be guarantees offered of the descriptions of sets and singles – but collections and mixed lots are a different matter. Study the small print, most often what you buy is not returnable. Buyer really must beware and even if you are in the room and have viewed what is an important lot to you – being the last viewer before the auction is always reassuring.

Beware the ‘buyer’s premium’ too, never forget that in most public auctions the price at which the lot is ‘hammered’ down to you is not the price that you pay. Buyer’s premiums are the auctioneer’s commission charged to the buyer – in many cases with VAT added these premiums can be close to 25% over the ‘hammer’ price. You need to bear this in mind – that ‘cheap’ lot may not be such a bargain when almost 25% is added to the cost. Historically, payment by credit card may be charged an extra few % too.

Being ‘wrong-footed’ can also be expensive. Let’s say you have decided that the maximum you will bid is £120 on a lot. You put your hand up to bid. Somebody else is bidding or the auctioneer indicates that he has a bid ‘on the book’ from a ‘remote’ bidder. The bidding rises, alternating between you and another bidder – all of a sudden the auctioneer calls £120 – and it is not your bid. Stop bidding and somebody else has bought your lot for the price you are prepared to pay – make another bid and the next bid ‘step’ could in some auctions be as much as £20 – you have been ‘wrong-footed’ and now have to bid £20 more if you wish to try one more bid.

To ‘combat’ this or just to try and gain the ‘upper hand’, some ‘old-hand’ experienced bidders may try to intimidate by calling out a much higher bid – well ahead of where the bidding has reached, pushing the auctioneer to the new level – and intimidating other bidders to drop out.

Many experienced bidders and dealers simply will not waste their time by staying for the auction, wishing to keep tight control of their bids – so that even the auctioneer is unaware of how much they are prepared to bid – they employ the services of an experienced ‘auction agent’ who represents them in the room.

An auction agent can save them time, travelling costs – and money if they buy below top bid – all for just a couple of percent or less of the total spent, or a ‘fixed’ fee. An agent may be a good idea if your bids are very high against estimate. Most countries have highly respected auction agents – ask and we will point you in the right direction.

Generally speaking auction agents only cover public auctions – postal auctions usually offer other positives with the disadvantage of restricted viewing.

In summary – public auctions provide a valuable service, and the opportunity for distinct bargains, usually for those attending. Best advice is to bid cautiously until gaining confidence.

In this internet age postal auctions may seem old fashioned, but they offer many advantages…

A ‘postal’ auction is as it sounds – bidders are not present for the auction. In our auctions a significant percentage of bidders still bid by post, however a substantial number submit bids by e-mail, by telephone, on-line via our website, and even a few by fax.

Unlike eBay, postal auctions are not ‘live’. In fact there is a strong argument that making a postal auction ‘live’ /transparent by use of ‘live’ internet accessibility creates a ‘public’ presence that disadvantages all others who submit bids by traditional means and wait for their results after the closing date.

Postal auctions are popular for a variety of reasons. One of the main differences between ‘Public’ and ‘Postal’ (often called ‘Mail-bid sales’) auctions is that the postal auction is not as transparent as public auctions theoretically are. To mitigate this, the best postal auctions offer guarantees that public auctions are unable to offer or even match. These guarantees can make bidding at postal auctions safer than bidding at public auction.

Good postal auctions will offer you the next best thing to being ‘in the room’. They will offer photocopies of lots or a scan service, and a free phone call-back ‘expanded description / condition report’ by a qualified stamp describer/expert, so that you will feel that you have actually seen the lot, even though you have not. Obviously there are limitations to the number of lots that they can describe on this basis – which is why the best of them will offer you an unqualified satisfaction or full refund guarantee – even on ‘mixed lots’ which is unheard of at public auction.

Few postal auctions have vendors. Most postal auctions offer their own stamps for sale which is why the best can afford to eliminate the huge ‘buyer’s premiums’ that most public auctions charge and include VAT so that there are no extra charges whatsoever – other than the cost of delivery perhaps. This compares favourably to public auction where VAT taxable lots + buyer’s premiums and other costs can increase the hammer price by as much as 35% to 40%!

One of the major advantages of bidding at good postal auctions is that they often ‘bridge the divide’ between the larger collections that dealers and room bidders purchase at public auction and ‘retailers’ – presenting opportunities for collectors to purchase individual stamps / sets / items at less than prevailing retail prices. This makes sense when you consider that in order for retailers to sell stamps from their lists they have to maintain stock levels: this costs money. Postal auctions will sell whatever they can purchase without such constraints – and as their overhead is spread over a wider range of hopefully faster moving stock – they can afford to offer collectors the opportunity to bid – and hopefully purchase at below retail prices.

Bear in mind that many postal auctions can have lots starting from as low as £1 – and some present lots to many thousands of pounds so that postal auctions are one of the best places to find unusual material that can lift an ordinary collection to the ‘extraordinary’.

Often overlooked is the unusual flexibility that postal auctions offer collectors. Standard services offered by the best allow the collector with a budget – say £100 – to bid on as many lots as he/she wishes in any order of priority so that you can bid on lot 10,000 first and lot 1 second. Computers can handle such flexibility – as well as requests such as either lot x or lot y – but one lot only. Given your £100 budget the computer will stop your purchases as close to below that limit as possible. Finally they can offer the flexibility of spreading payments over instalments and many can absorb credit card charges.

So what are the downsides of the postal auction system? There are relatively few provided as always that you are dealing with a reputable company. Such companies know that their reputation lies in the hands of collectors and will strive to deliver well described material at market prices which You, the Collector determines and can be below retail.

The internet has revolutionised many parts of our lives … including the sale of stamps…

Our last two Tips discussed the advantages and pitfalls of buying stamps at Public Auctions and Postal Auctions; in this tip we are focussing upon Internet Auction Buying.

Obviously there are different types of on-line bidding and buying – so let’s separate them into ‘LIVE’ and ‘STATIC’.

Live Internet Auctions Let’s define ‘live’ as you can bid till the very last second that bidding closes upon a lot. Ebay dominates this space and Delcampe, a European ‘ebay’ competitor, is developing. I could write a book about selling on-line, buying is theoretically simpler but also fraught with potential problem. No matter all the reassurances you are given, internet bidding at live internet auctions is very much a case and place of Caveat Emptor – buyer beware.

The main ‘protection’ for buyers is theoretically the feedback system. Yet I have seen internet vendors with 1,000 + positive feedbacks from buyers – not a negative in sight – and the stamps/items they are selling are obviously not what they state them to be. Sometimes it is a case of ‘naive’ vendor and ‘naive’ buyer – but others it is deliberately setting out to deceive.

Beware when all you see is a picture – and next to no description – live internet bidding is like the ‘Wild West’ – theoretically regulated, practically unregulated. Punishment for bona-fide vendors breaking the rules can be draconian – but crooks don’t care – they just open up new accounts. We know because we block some from bidding – and months later they bid again using a new account.

A few years ago – we sold a wonderful reprint of a Great Britain Queen Victoria 10 shilling correctly described for what it was – a reprint. Within 2 weeks we found our stamp offered on-line – our photo and the on-line photo were identical, being offered as the original printing which is far rarer. We notified potential bidders who were bidding on that stamp. You can’t do that today – bidders identities and e-mail addresses are hidden to all except the vendor. You can notify the vendor and service providers – but don’t always expect a fast response. The item can be sold and paid for before / if anything positive actually happens, and often nothing positive happens. Internet crooks are fleeter of foot than service providers and authorities.

Bidding with reputable long established philatelic companies that sell in other ways apart from the internet may provide additional reassurance.

Despite all safeguards it is not always possible to be sure that you are bidding with a reliable vendor … but most transactions go through ok – it may be more a question of getting your money back when things go wrong.

Bidding On-line When you are actually bidding on-line and the last few seconds to closing time are counting down – many vendors, understandably, are rather keen to see how much their item sells for, so like bidders – they may be constantly clicking their ‘refresh’ button to see the action. This gives us an insight into what happens. ‘Refresh’ speeds can be fast or slow – so often it is possible to lose that lot that you have been bidding on by just a few seconds and a few pence or pounds more than you were prepared to pay.

Don’t take it for granted that if you bid £50 and it sold to somebody else for the next bid step of say £52 – that that is all the winner was prepared to pay. If you are kicking yourself … take our advice – live on-line bidding at eBay is secure so that you can place a £100 bid on that £50 item and you can be the £52 bidder/winner. Of course you really need to be prepared to pay that amount as somebody else may think similarly.

Evolve a ‘live’ internet bidding strategy. ‘Register’ your interest in one of two ways – either elect to ‘watch’ the lot – or bid the minimum upon it if you know you want it anyway. You will receive outbid notices … and can, if you wish, increase your bids further as closing time approaches.

Many lots that have lots of ‘watchers’ (and only the vendor can see how many potential bidders are watching) – have minibidding battles taking place in the dying few moments of the auction closing. Bidding at this stage in small increments is the best way to lose the lot. You have two choices – either place your maximum bid earlier and watch what happens … or use one of the on-line ‘sniping’ services that have sprung up to improve your chances of winning.

We think the best ‘snipe’ services work … but even then there is no guarantee of success and if you read the ‘small print’ of such services there are various reasons why. Our recommendation if you are really keen to win is to register a low on-line bid personally – if the system accepts your bid then you know that there are no reasons why the vendor will not accept your business. For example the vendor’s settings may forbid sale and delivery to your country, or if you do not have a PayPal account – or you may be ‘blocked’ for some other reason.

Then during the days before the auction closes monitor what happens and finally register higher/highest bids shortly before the auction closes…

This has the disadvantage of revealing your hand earlier – but your highest bid is all you can ever pay. Using a ‘snipe’ system keeps your cards closer to your chest … and does not let another bidder gradually increase his bids against yours. Your ‘snipe’ comes in the dying few seconds or even second – the full force of your bid is employed only then – so that there is a chance that you save against the maximum you are prepared to pay.

The plain truth is that no auction system is perfect. Your best answer is to experiment on lots that are less important to you – so you know what to do when it really matters.

A quick guide to bidding online with an auction house…

In our last ‘Stamp Tips of the Trade’ we discussed the advantages and pitfalls of buying stamps at ‘LIVE’ Internet Auctions. In this tip we conclude our ‘Buying at Auction Series’, discussing static internet auctions.

Theoretically bidding on-line with an auction house, whose auction closes at a specific time, is relatively straightforward, but there are still a few things to look out for…

It may sound somewhat ‘simple’ but the most important thing is to ensure that you get a ‘receipt’ e-mail for your bids from the auction. E-mail is theoretically secure but not always reliable and placing bids on-line into a secure server/website is still no guarantee that your bids are registered correctly. You need an electronic receipt.

Naturally you still need to check out the auction’s policy upon the following checklist:

1. Is there a buyer’s premium – if so how much?
2. Does the buyer’s premium include VAT/Sales Tax or is this an extra cost?
3. What is their postage and delivery charge/policy?
4. Critically – what is their returns policy on lots that are described which you have not viewed? Is this acceptable to you? Additionally – do they have a different policy for lots which have been photographed in their catalogue? Be careful – some auctions do – they will not accept returns for faults visible on the photograph, so it pays to check and to look very carefully at the photo.

Never take it for granted that because a stamp/lot has been illustrated that it is without visible fault. Some auctions deliberately fail to mention ‘visible’ defects – assuming that the photo/illustration deals with the problem of ‘short perfs’ for example – or centring.

However, there are some auctions where static and live internet bidding collide.

Increasingly, we are pressured by ‘internet savvy’ bidders who wish to see the transparency of ‘live’ bidding, but fail to appreciate or understand that over 95% of Collectors bidding do so conventionally, placing confidential bids by mail, fax, telephone or internet submission.

For conventional bidders it is a level playing field. In our postal auctions we refuse to offer internet ‘snipers’ the opportunity to outbid conventional ‘mail’ bidders.

Be aware though that there are some mail auctions that discreetly offer this service to internet bidders – so that internet bidders are at a positive advantage over conventional bidders. In effect this is a similar advantage to those that the Collector or Dealer has when they are attending a public auction – they can see for themselves how under-estimated (or over-estimated) a lot really is. Descriptions only tell part of the story.

Perhaps the best way to separate such ‘collisions’ in our way of thinking is to realise that when one is bidding at Public Auction this is effectively an instantaneous process – so bidding by phone, or live internet submission ‘dovetails’ perfectly into this auction process.

Similarly when bidding at a ‘live’ internet auction – the ‘playing field’ is level as all players can only participate in the same media.

Collisions of bidding ‘culture’ only start to manifest themselves when the postal-auction arena is ‘clouded’ by the offer/lure of new technology – to the advantage of computer-savvy bidders and to the detriment of the conventional bidder who submits his bid ‘waiting to learn of the outcome’.

When you are next bidding at a postal auction/mail-bid sale – check out their bidding policy – does anyone have an unfair advantage over you?

How you store your stamps once they are yours is a vital part of the hobby…

We all look at our stamps – or do we? In fact, often we don’t actually look at our stamps properly at all.

Each year my company is offered to buy many hundreds of stamp collections and as the years go by I have lost count of how many of them have been incorrectly stored.

Judging by what we see – damp, environment, improper storage (even cigarette smoke) must cost collectors literally millions of pounds annually on a national/ global basis. It is extraordinary how many collectors advise that their stamps are in perfect order and how many are not.

This is not a statement to alarm collectors – but to inform. Take a good look at your collection. How is it stored? Is it in a cupboard near to the floor? Often this is not a good place to store your collection – especially if your house is damp or areas are unheated.

It never ceases to amaze how even valuable collections may be badly stored. I remember visiting the owner of a very valuable collection which we purchased. Some of the stamps were worth literally thousands of pounds each. They had all been stored in albums inside black hawidtype strips – surely this was the perfect method to store valuable stamps?

Perhaps it would have been, except for two important ingredients which had been added to the cocktail of storing those rare stamps: each album leaf was inserted inside a ‘plastic’ exhibition protector – now what could be wrong with that? Perhaps nothing if the collection had been kept in a stable environment and the leaves had been regularly ‘aired’ – but it hadn’t – and worse still each hawid mount in which each stamp was inserted had been ‘glued’ to the album leaf – with a ‘rubber-based’ glue, not light ‘lick-moistened’ as they are designed for ….

Think old sellotape – sometimes it breaks down into a gooey gluey substance that never dries and indeed it never had – doubtless the plastic exhibition-protector sheets had ‘incubated’ the glue – so it never had stabilised (are you old enough to remember those batteries we left in torches that ‘leaked’ all over the place?) and the gooey glue had literally leached around the ends of the hawid mounts and insidiously ‘reached’ the perf tips of some of the valuable stamps. That small decision probably cost thousands.

Take another collection which arrived a few weeks ago. The stamps had been stored with great care. Doubtless when they entered the stock-book they were perfect – but it was a very old stock-book – and the stamps had never once been checked or moved probably in over twenty years – yet, amazingly the collection had been added to each month until only a few months ago.

Those early stamps had toned around the perfs – in fact it was not immediately obvious – until we moved a stamp and a yellowbrown outline of where the perforations had been was indelibly imprinted onto the stock-leaf (which also smelt slightly musty).

Take our advice – take a close look at your stamps, how they are stored, where they are stored …. and if they are housed in one of those incredibly cheap ‘chinese type’ stockbooks which were so prevalent 20+ years ago … consider moving your stamps now, especially if they are mint.

Do you remember the average percentage of ‘catalogue value’ that you have paid for your stamps over the years?

Do you remember the average percentage of ‘catalogue value’ that you have paid for your stamps over the years? It may be unrealistic to expect that return when you come to sell…

When it comes to selling their collections, collectors often inform us that they are looking for as much as 40% of the ‘SG catalogue’ value. It is possible for a dealer to pay such levels – but only when the market justifies for scarce/very desirable material in high quality – and not for general collections in poorer condition and incomplete or inconsistent quality sets. Collectors can usually buy such stamps at these levels – so to expect to sell at such levels to the trade would be an impossibility.

Dealers are often viewed with suspicion when it comes to selling – sometimes this may be justified – many times it may not. I recall a recent home visit some considerable distance away. Generally speaking, after spending a couple of hours assessing a collection – dependent upon its size and value – we may have a reasonable idea of the potential so that we feel we are ready to enter into a preliminary discussion of our view of the collection and solicit the views of the owner and the price levels that they are hoping to achieve.

By that time I had seen enough to know that we could not possibly pay even as much as £10,000 for the entire collection I was able to ask the owner, with some confidence – were they looking for £10,000 or more for the collection for an immediate payment … because if the owner was looking for £10,000 upwards I would not need to spend any further time viewing the collection.

I had already invested more than 2 hours concentrated viewing time, giving the collector feedback as the valuation progressed, and knew that it was still 2 hours journey time to get back to the office.

The owner assured me that they were not looking for £10,000 for the collection – so I carried on viewing and an hour and half later was in a position to discuss what our company could offer – in the region of £7,000. Presenting this opinion I was now able to ask how much the owner wanted for his stamps. The answer – £10,000. Gently reminding the client of our earlier conversation I made a final offer of £7,500 and suggested that he obtained another offer from a well established company. He told me that he had already been offered £7,000 but the dealer wanted to pay over a period of time. I suggested he try another company prepared to pay immediately.

To cut a long story short – six months later we received a call from the client saying he was prepared to accept £7,500 – when could we call to collect? Hopefully a happy ending for client and dealer alike – but expecting to sell at the price paid proved an impossibility – the stamps were simply not in good enough quality – catalogue prices may have risen – but not far enough when it came to lower quality/less desirable stamps.

When the time comes to sell some or all of your stamps, there are a number of different ways…

This article is prompted by developments we have observed over the past few years when purchasing private stamp collections.

Traditionally there are five different ways to sell your stamps:

1. The Stamp Dealer or Stamp Auction buying on their own account.
2. Dealers ‘runners’.
3. Private Treaty – the idea of Private Treaty is that collectors ‘place’ their collection with a dealer or auction that charges a small commission (or the buyer a commission) to purchase the collection outright. Historically ‘Private Treaty’ has acquired notoriety as an excuse for the company handling the transaction to ‘buy-in’ the collection for themselves. Fortunately things are more transparent now.
4. Selling through auction on your own account – the auction house charges you a commission and handling costs.
5. Finally – the internet now permits you to sell your stamps on-line upon your own account via internet giants such as ‘eBay’.

In selling your stamps there are two principles to understand. Collectors want to buy stamps that are missing in their collections: this is why Dealers exist. Dealers buy collections to ‘break-down’ into usually smaller units that collectors need for their collections: generally speaking breaking down for sale into small/smaller units adds ‘value’ and profit for the dealer.

Some collectors are ‘hoarders’ and will buy general lots – other collectors will buy intermediate sized collections in order to ‘extract’ the stamps they want and then ‘turn’ the balance back for resale to dealer or auction. The idea that collectors will buy large complete intact collections at retail prices is quaint and outmoded. In almost 40 years of dealing I have seen few intact collections purchased by collectors and continued by new collectors. Collectors enjoy creating their own collections. Few collectors have the budget to purchase a substantial intact collection and develop it still further.

Know the strength of your collection

Choosing who is best to approach to sell your stamps or handle them depends upon your knowing the ‘strength’ and merits of your collection. For example, on a basic level – if your collection consists of all different modern British sets that you have bought from the Post Office at ‘face value’, the last thing you want to do is send this collection to auction.

All you will be doing is paying an auction’s commissions – up to 35% for them to sell your stamps, most probably, to a dealer below ‘face value’ – who will use a fair percentage of them upon commercial correspondence.

A few phone calls to dealers will elicit the percentage of ‘face value’ that the trade is paying for stamps that there are too many of – because the Post Office has recently printed and sold them.

Just don’t forget to ask if there is anything ‘better’ in the period that you are selling – that may command a higher price.

Discover the pros and cons in selling your stamps directly to a dealer or a stamp auctioneer…

The merits of ‘direct sale’ are often under-estimated by collectors. Direct sale, intelligently handled, may yield considerable benefits. For example we recently purchased a modest collection at a major London auction which was estimated at £4,000 to £5,000. Remember in our last tip, when we talked about ‘know the strength of your collection’ … this collection was the kind that no public auction house could afford to ‘break’ on behalf of the owner – so it was offered intact as one lot. Inevitably no collector would purchase such a diverse collection – so the ‘trade’ was bidding against each other in order to purchase. Finally we purchased the collection for £8,158 including 20% buyer’s premium. The collection actually sold for £6,800. The auction’s commission charged to the buyer was £1,358.

But that’s not the end of the story. Did the seller receive £6,800? NO, the seller received £6,800 less the seller’s commission which unless specially negotiated was a further 17.62% inclusive of VAT. That’s a further £1,198 to be deducted from the £6,800 sale price. The owner will have received £5,602 upon a collection sold to us for which we paid £8,158 ! 45% MORE was paid for the public auction to sell the collection to a stamp dealer. £2,556 more was paid that the collector did not receive.

I can hear you saying that Auctions exist so that buyers compete to pay more for your stamps – it’s true – but some collections simply are not suited to being sold via public auction. All you are doing is paying an auction to ensure that dealers compete to purchase your collection but there are imaginative ways that you can obtain more from dealers without going to auction – and have the benefit of certainty too, whilst not waiting up to 6 months for your money, for example… A valuable collection was offered to us earlier this year. We’re allowed to write what happened without revealing any confidences. Unfortunately the Father had died leaving one of his two Daughters £25,000 and the other Daughter his Stamp Collection – a very difficult situation as you might imagine. Believing the collection may be valuable, unusually, 3 different dealers visited to value it. All 3 dealers incurred costs (in our case, 6 travelling hours and 260 miles) so none was happy to leave an offer on the ‘table’ for the next dealer to pay £50 more and purchase the collection – what was the client to do allowing fair play to all? We suggested an ‘auction’ monitored by the owner of the collection – not hard to conduct in the age of landline and mobile phones… and opened the bidding with a £20,000 bid.

The 3rd Dealer dropped out – the 2nd dealer had just finished viewing the collection so was actually on the client’s premises. He bid £21,000, we bid £22,000 and so it went on until bidding ‘narrowed’ to £500 increments and finally we purchased the collection for £27,500 and travelled 260 miles again to collect it and pay for it. The client thanked the 2nd dealer for his time and participation with a small ex-gratia payment. Fortunately a happy ending for the client – amazingly, more than her Sister, it could so easily have been a different outcome.

But what if that collection had been publicly auctioned as one lot or 7 volumes + residue? For the client to have been better off the trade would have had to pay more than £40,000 … an unlikely scenario. The moral – know the strength of your collection and ‘pick’ the right people to participate in its purchase.

Dealers’ runners and private treaties are lesser known but nevertheless important aspects of selling your stamps…

In Part 2 of ‘Selling your Stamps’ we discussed the advantages of direct sale to dealers and how with careful handling and awareness of the ‘strength of your collection’ it is often possible to obtain more for your collection selling directly to dealers than by selling through auction.

In Part 4 of ‘Selling your Stamps’ we’ll discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of selling through auction on your own account …. but in this article we’ll deal with two lesser known but nevertheless important aspects of selling your stamps …. the first being Dealers ‘runners’.

Before you even start to try selling your stamps; preparation is all. Do some research. Draw up a list of whom you consider as a possible target to sell / handle your collection then consider:

Why have I chosen those dealers/organisations?

Here’s something to think about … for the best part of 20 years I watched the same advertisements extolling the merits of selling to this or that particular dealer … but try as I might – I never once saw an advertisement by those companies to sell stamps. This was in ‘pre-internet’ days – nowadays people trade on the internet with all manner of weird and unusual trading names, sometimes to disguise who they actually are – but in those days traditional selling ‘avenues’ were shops, stamp fairs, auctions, approvals, and retail/mail-order lists.

So why was it impossible to find out how those dealers actually conducted their business? The answer was simple – they sold to other dealers and rarely, if ever, sold to collectors – they were Dealers ‘runners’. Now for you to part with your beloved collection to the first dealer that you contact does not necessarily mean that you have made a mistake, but if that dealer writes you out a cheque … and almost before the ink has even dried on it (probably before you have presented the cheque at your bank) he or she is at the nearest big dealer 50 miles away being paid a profit upon the price you sold your collection for – this is NOT in your best interest.

So what should you be looking for? You should be looking for an organisation / dealer that you can see and understand how they conduct their business. Dealers that sell to other dealers are unlikely to be paying the best price.

Private Treaty: What is it?

The idea of Private Treaty is that collectors ‘place’ their collection with a dealer or auction that charges a small commission to sell their collection outright. Sometimes it is claimed that the Buyer will pay the commission so that the collector pays no charges whatsoever. Historically ‘Private Treaty’ has acquired notoriety as an excuse for the company handling the transaction to ‘buyin’ the collection for themselves. Maybe collectors and dealers should forget the concept of private treaty in favour of an open approach whereby the dealer/auction explains that they are purchasing on their own account … or will charge a small percentage for handling/passing the collector/collection to a more appropriate buyer.

Find out about the benefits and risks of selling your stamps via auction … important aspects of selling your stamps … to a dealer or a stamp auctioneer…

In Part 3 of ‘Selling your Stamps’ we discussed the importance of selecting the right dealers/organisations to approach and ensuring the choice of those with transparent modus operandi.

Here in Part 4 of ‘Selling your Stamps’ we’ll discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of selling through auction on your own account.

Remember we previously discussed the importance of knowing the strength of your collection. This is never more important than when making the decision to consign your stamps to auction. We have touched upon this in previous ‘Stamp Tips of the Trade’. The most important thing to remember – is ‘who buys complete stamp collections at auction?’

Collectors want to buy stamps that are missing from their collections: Dealers want to buy complete collections to break out individual stamps/sets to supply to collectors. By breaking collections into individual parts dealers add value/ profit. When you consign your collection as one lot to auction – 9 times out of 10, it is a dealer that will be buying it. Unless you are a collector that purchases collections, extract the stamps you need, and sell on the rest – you will be looking to buy specific stamps, sets or small ‘runs’.

So what is wrong with consigning stamps to auction? Nothing, if it is the right kind of stamps. For example – you need to ‘quiz’ the auctioneer selected as to what he/she is actually going to do with your stamps. Let’s give you an example. A few weeks ago we purchased a ‘Birds’ thematic collection from public auction. We paid the auctioneer exactly £1011.50 but the actual price the stamps were ‘knocked down’ to us was exactly £800. The buyer’s premium was 26.4375% – and that was before the increase in VAT. If we purchased the same collection today – the buyer’s premium would be 27%!

And did the collector realise £800? NO. Even if the collector was charged just 12% + VAT selling commission – at today’s rate the collector would receive £685. Imagine, this collection has been sold to a dealer for £1011- by an auction who has put no money on the table and yet made a gross profit of £326 on the transaction. The dealer that paid £1,011.50 expects to make a profit. It follows that if you can approach the right dealers in the right way – then you can expect to eliminate much of the money that you pay for that auction to offer your stamps to dealers. Please refer to ‘Selling your Stamps?’ Part 2 for suggestions as to how this may be achieved for more valuable collections.

The ‘funniest’ thing of all was that the auction does not even pack your purchases …. we had to pay another £35 for a company to collect the stamps, package them and deliver them to us by parcel delivery!

The point is that unless your collection includes valuable stamps/sets that the auctioneer agrees to extract and offer individually, you are paying an enormous percentage of the value of your stamps for that auction to sell to dealers.

But, if your collection is one basically comprised of rarities – then an argument can be made for offering your collection individually lotted. In this way you are going to reach collectors and if yours is a ‘named’ collection often there is a ‘kudos’ value/ premium that stamps with provenance achieve.

However – so large are the major auctions selling and buyer’s premiums today that even with collections of rarities, leading dealers can often offer to pay in excess of a fair auction estimate immediately – without risk, uncertainty of unsold lots, and immediately. The simple answer is get the auction to underwrite the minimum NET amount that they will guarantee you receive … and then see by how much the ‘trade’ will improve upon this. Then you make a fully informed decision.

One of the reasons that have prompted me to offer you these ‘stamp trade tips’ is the tip below…

In Parts 1 to 4 of ‘Selling your Stamps’ we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of four different ways to sell your stamps.

In all of these there were the common threads of best methodology of selling to dealers and what to avoid if you are thinking of consigning your stamps for sale by public stamp auction.

Here in Part 5 we discuss the merits and demerits of ‘DIY’ – do-it-yourself – i.e. you selling your stamps direct to collectors. Ultimately, apart from selling to colleagues or members of your stamp club/circuit, there are really only 2 ways – the 1st of which is placing advertisements in stamp magazines to sell direct to collectors – (please take our word for it) does not bear thinking about for collectors.

Let me explain: advertising in stamp magazines is expensive. In some monthly magazines it can cost the best part of £1,000 (US$1,500) pro-rata per page to advertise. It can take years to ‘build’ trust and 20+ years to build databases of over 20,000 collectors. In the same way that one ‘swallow does not make a summer’ – one advertisement costing many hundreds of pounds/dollars will not usually ‘yield’ more than 20 responses from collectors (often less),. and that may be for a ‘free offer’ in the first place. Philatelic advertising ‘pays’ as part of an overall marketing campaign – not ‘stand-alone’.

No. The answer to your quest to sell direct to collectors lies on the internet. This is where you employ the might of ‘eBay/ Amazon/Delcampe’ to locate your clients for you. Naturally you pay a commission to do so when you ‘list’ an item for sale and a commission when you sell it … but these represent a fraction of your selling price and your items for sale are found directly by buyers who are likely to be collectors.

Of course this sounds like ‘manna from heaven’ and in many ways it is; but nothing is that simple in life otherwise we would all be millionaires. Take eBay – it is hard to imagine a more demanding taskmaster/ environment. If you are not serious about selling on-line – take our advice – don’t bother, the ‘learning curve’ is steep. You won’t be successful without opening a ‘Paypal’ account and if you are dilatory about photographing / describing stamps, answering queries, posting the goods and accepting returns you will be severely punished by your clients who ‘expect’ to buy one evening, pay on-line and have their stamps delivered all within a few days at most. Remember your eBay clients have the power to ‘rate’ you and all others can see. Internet auctions are transparent – and certainly on eBay you cannot ‘rate’ your clients or retaliate. You must be a committed seller offering superb service. Depending upon what you are selling it can take months to build up sufficient high rated ‘feedback’ to build client ‘trust’.

We often purchase collections from ‘eBayers’ who have literally given up, but if this has not deterred you, you will be hard pressed to find a better avenue to ‘reach’ collectors directly – but be prepared as some items will sell for more than you expect, whilst others will sell for far less.

‘On-line’ price comparisons are easy and unscrupulous/ naive sellers (often still with high feedback ratings) are commonly seen selling mutton dressed as lamb which easily undermines the price of similar high quality items you may be selling.

So this brings us to the end of our ‘Selling Your Stamps’ series of tips. The purpose has been to cogently ‘inform’ collectors of the variety of options open to them when disposing of their collections.

Discover more about collecting unmounted mint stamps in our quick guide…

When a collector tells you that they only collect unmounted mint and they are looking for an unmounted mint 1d black you know that things are getting out of control…

How many unmounted mint 1d blacks exist after 180 years!

Or, what about the collector who collects unmounted mint ‘fine used’? An impossible condition contradiction.

So what is UM/NH and how should it affect our collecting?

Europeans have another term for Unmounted Mint – Post Office Fresh – often symbolised by **. Perhaps, in a way, combined with the American Never Hinged this sums up the expected condition of the stamp. UM/NH has become the philatelic industry ‘gold standard’ that many collectors collect by and unfortunately this can lead to all manner of problems, as we shall see, but first…

Time – past, present, future is the arbiter of condition and acceptability.

For those ‘Stamp Tips of the Trade’ readers who are overseas – forgive the illustration of periods set by British Monarchs! Other countries will have their own ‘defining break-points’ – but much of what follows will ‘translate’ into other countries/areas.

QEII 1952-2022

Although some may not think it – if you collect stamps from the last 60 years – these are modern. If you are collecting mint stamps – you should purchase UM/NH stamps. By choosing to hinge (mount) your mint stamps – you are making a statement that you are less concerned about ‘re-sale value’ – and if you purchase mounted mint sets of the last 60 years or so – you should be paying considerably less than UM/ NH. SG catalogue prices are for UM/NH.

KGVI 1936-1952

It should not be forgotten that Stanley Gibbons (SG) catalogue prices are still for UM/NH. For GB issues SG catalogue prices are often considerably above current Dealer prices – but British Empire sets often command / realise a far higher percentage against SG catalogue. Supplies of these are far more limited than for British stamps of this period.

Collecting UM/NH KGVI becomes increasingly expensive. As a rule, GB should be collected UM – whereas British Empire is equally popular (and widely collected) in mint hinged condition as well as UM/NH. You may well be thinking – what do we base this statement on? It is based upon our desire to buy – and that is based upon demand from collectors. Interest is fast increasing in KGVI – many collectors confine themselves to this period.

KGV 1910-1936

1936 is regarded as the end of the 1840>1936 ‘classic period’. It is a good ‘break-point’ at which to define a collection.

Let’s examine British issues – this is where, working backwards, SG starts to price mint stamps in hinged condition – as well as UM/NH. There is good reason for this – UM/NH is considerably scarcer. This is reflected in SG prices – up to 150% higher for UM/NH. Larger quantities of British stamps were printed – so that, even with this premium, it is possible – with care – to collect UM/NH.

But, beware – with premiums being significant – there is an increased likelihood of your purchasing the lightest of hinged stamps, from a less than scrupulous source, as an UM/NH. This is also the period where ‘regummed’ issues are more likely to start surfacing. A re-gummed stamp – is as it sounds – gum has been added to make it appear better than it was – or original gum has been redistributed. In both cases – study of the gum upon the cheapest stamps of the period should assist detection.

Such price differentials is one reason why I personally like handling mint hinged stamps – you know what they are! However, these differentials are as nothing to some other countries – consider a German Deutsches Reich at £3 hinged against £26 UM/NH! Consider the temptation for some to ‘dress mutton’ and sell as ‘lamb’.

British Empire 1910-1936

SG rightly does not price this material in UM/NH condition. UM/NH will sell for high percentages of SG catalogue price, but so will the finest lightly hinged material. Re-gumming is not so often seen as in mainstream country issues, the main danger is to purchase a stamp so lightly hinged that it appears UM/NH.

QV – KEVII 1840-1910 British Issues – SG again gets it right by pricing UM/NH from the 1887-92 ‘Jubilee’ issues onwards. Yes, earlier genuine UM/ NH exists often from/in larger multiples – and dealers price and sell it at significant premiums – but pre 1887 it is not practical, or affordable for most, to collect UM/NH – this is where those that collect unmounted mint 1d blacks – may have lost touch with reality. It is possible to purchase very high quality mint Queen Victoria – but it comes at a significant price. ‘Spacefillers’ (second/third quality) are often available from as little as 10%, or less, to 20% of catalogue upwards.

British Empire 1840-1910

SG prices for fine mint hinged quality only. UM/NH exists but is basically the highest quality and is rarely available. Finest mint lightly hinged is the best standard to aspire to own. Once again – be careful; UM/NH may simply be the lightest hinge imaginable. And finally – what of that rare condition – unmounted mint fine used? Never forget that a postally used stamp will have no gum. Thus, a stamp hinge on the reverse will not affect the reverse, and in many cases (although not recommended for earlier material – ‘fugitive colours’ for example may ‘run’), a stamp hinge can be lightly removed or soaked off. A CTO (cancelled to order) stamp – may have full gum upon the reverse – but this is not a requirement of being a used stamp. Whatever you do, always buy from a reliable source, one that you know is committed to stamps and to their collectors. Cheapest is not always best.

Discover the truth about re-gumming…

We’ve previously spoken about understanding quality and how to train your ‘Philatelic Eye’. Now we can apply this to something that you occasionally hear about but there does not seem to be that much information written about it – the subject is ‘re-gumming’.

I can remember being present before a stamp auction – when I received the most amazing ‘demonstration’ of redistribution of gum. The gentleman concerned was showing his skill of making a mint previously-hinged stamp look like it had never been hinged. You could see that the stamp had been hinged, but there was no remnant – the gum was moistened, and the stamp literally ‘whizzed’ around a flat smooth resistant surface under finger pressure.

Before the gum had dried it was turned face up – the gum looked ‘flatter’ and duller – but the area where it had been hinged was now ‘consistent’ with the overall appearance of the rest of the stamp. In short, to the uninitiated the stamp appeared to be unmounted mint.

Needless to say – we never ever purchased a stamp from this individual, but it was an excellent demonstration of what to look for, and of understanding how stamps can be altered.

Our first ‘tip’ when it comes to re-gumming is something so simple that it is often overlooked. Buy a few examples of the cheapest mint stamps of the period that you are collecting. In essence this really applies to the period pre-1950 … as by far the majority of all that you collect from the last 60+ years is going to have untampered gum, be it hinged or unhinged. But, even the cheapest stamps can be tampered with; true, it is unlikely, but we have seen examples within the last few years of relatively inexpensive mint stamps which have been re-gummed.

Why bother, you might think? Well, if something can be easily improved, it must, for some, be money for old rope.

You can buy 100+ year old stamps with original gum of Great Britain for as little as £1 or less. Take a look at the 1887 Jubilee 1/2d vermilion (SG#197) – send us a stamped addressed envelope and we’ll send you one free of charge (offer open to both UK and overseas subscribers). It may not be a perfect example, but it will be original gum. Collectors of other countries will soon identify suitable candidates.

Take a look at the backs of your mint stamps from one period from one country. Chances are there may be some considerable variation. You have to make allowances for stamps which may have been purchased at different times and from different sources. Philately is a truly international business. Imagine stamps that have come to you from all over the world. Some British Empire stamps may have been printed in the UK, and been distributed here, without ever seeing foreign climes – others may have literally travelled around the globe.

Compare the backs of these stamps to establish in your mind what is obviously ‘right’. It can help, for example, if a stamp is lightly hinged. My preference is often for a lightly hinged stamp such as the British 1929 PUC £1 – this is a stamp that ‘pays’ to be tampered with. Look for duller patches in typical areas where you would expect hinging (but not overlooking other areas) – blocks of 4 were often hinged in a central position, and later on ‘broken’ into singles, so previous hinging positions can vary.

Duller areas often indicate where the gum may have been redistributed. Now compare the gum on your stamps. Most should be consistent within the type/period – a re-gummed or tampered example will stand out against its companions.

Take a closer look at this stamp. Crude re-gummers leave gum in the perforation holes – stamp perforation is one of the last actions, so gum in the perf holes is a tell-tale giveaway.

Now here there may really be benefit in employing a Ultra Violet lamp – they can show traces of previous hinging, or where the postmark may have been ‘cleaned’ off a stamp and the stamp subsequently re-gummed. But, don’t buy one unless you are a ‘serious’ collector, and always buy from a source that can be trusted (why take the risk of dealing with people who may not guarantee or refund you, when there are plenty of good dealers and auctions that will).

Some dealers swear by the old adage that a re-gummed stamp lying face down on the palm of your dry but warm hand will ‘curl’ in the opposite direction to an original untampered with example. I have never been a full advocate of this – but it is well worth experimenting.

Let’s examine the actual gum. Is it ‘gloopy’, is it too thick, is it too shiny or flat? You will soon have a very good idea indeed whether your stamp is as it should be – but remember stamps react to their environment in a myriad of different ways. So, what may first be thought of as re-gummed may actually be toned gum or original gum that has ‘sweated’ over the years, leaching into the paper to give that stamp a greasier transparent look and certainly less desirable.

Don’t forget to turn your stamp over – and look at the face carefully, sometimes there are traces of gum on the face of the stamp, consider why they may be there.

Finally, turn to your Stanley Gibbons / Scott / Michel / Yvert catalogue – look the stamp up – does it catalogue significantly more as unmounted mint than hinged? Some German 3rd Reich period stamps catalogue an incredible 15X more unmounted mint than hinged. Don’t forget to check the differential between the used catalogue value and the mint. Some stamps are so common used that they can catalogue 10p or 10cents – but £100’s or $100’s mint. When you realise the difference can be so high – you realise why it pays to study your stamps.

Certificates are essential for certain types of stamps…

I’ll gladly be proven wrong – but when was the last time you read an article about certification of stamps? In over 40 years of philately this is the first such article I’ve read – and I’m writing it! Seems hard to believe – but it’s true.

Many collectors will go through their entire lives never seeing, owning or acquiring a stamp that has a certificate… so what is this all about?

A philatelic ‘certificate’ is issued by an independent recognised expert or expert committee/authority stating that they have examined the stamp/cover/philatelic item (a photograph of which is attached) and in their opinion the stamp is either genuine, a reprint, has been ‘cleaned’ (postmark removed to make it appear mint rather than used), repaired, re-perforated, a fake, cancelled by favour, cancelled by a forged postmark, or a significant number of variant opinions therein. Indeed, some certificates may be issued stating that the ‘expert committee’ has been unable to reach an opinion (further research/evidence may be required – or may never be obtained).

So why are certificates important?

Certificates only become more significant the more valuable the stamp that is supplied. Certificates of authenticity are expensive. In the UK at the lowest level they can cost minimums of £40+/- per item. Bear in mind that it costs this whether the stamp is right or wrong. Rare stamps authenticated are often charged on a percentage of catalogue value – so some certificates can cost several hundreds of pounds – but they can potentially add £1,000’s of value to rare stamps.

Buyers of rare stamps appreciate a good certificate and provenance. Such stamps sell for more.

Stanley Gibbons catalogues (not the ‘Simplified’ Stamps of the World) sometimes warn collectors in footnotes about certain ‘fake-prone’ stamps which require provenance and/or certification. Not all stamps require certificates – for example I have never seen a British 1929 PUC £1 with a certificate, or an Australian 5/- Sidney Harbour Bridge, and I’ve only ever seen one £5 orange with a certificate in 47 years of handling them. The important thing for a collector to understand is the areas where certificates become significant, and if unsure ask a trusted supplier. Some companies issue their own certificates (as a marketing tool) for stamps that they are selling – they are only as ‘good’ as the company and will not have been authenticated by an independent ‘expert’ committee.

Some expert’s opinions are recognised by virtually all. Some ‘experts’ are not recognised as experts by all. Generally speaking – in the UK there are three recognised organisations that issue certificates – the Royal Philatelic Society, the British Philatelic Association (both do not sell or value stamps – but issue certificates for stamps from all areas of the world) and David Brandon – a respected ‘International dealer’ who authenticates British and British Empire stamps using a team of experts. There are other experts recognised for their excellence within tighter defined specialist fields.

For the collector of British stamps, the prime area of ‘concern’ is the ‘back of the book’ – as in the GB ‘Officials’ overprints. One such unique authenticated example with provenance previously sold for £400,000=. Without the overprint you could buy this stamp for less than £15. It is not hard to imagine the temptation for the unscrupulous to create their own ‘overprints’ and proffer them as the ‘genuine’ article.

What does catalogue value realistically mean?

In a previous Top Tip (#6) we touched upon “Catalogue Prices: Common Misconceptions” – today I am revisiting this area as it is such an important part of our weekly work.

We once had a phone call from a new client, saying that he found catalogue values “confusing” and asked if we could explain the relationship between catalogue value and “real” value? What followed was a long telephone conversation on the subject – let me establish some ‘basics’ upon which we can expand and discuss. The more I think about it the less I can ever recall reading an expose of this nebulous subject.

Some collectors will be aware that different catalogue publishers dominate in different countries, so that for example everybody in the UK and globally most stamp collectors will have heard of Stanley Gibbons (SG). Stanley Gibbons are large enough to publish catalogues of all stamp issuing countries and of all ‘dead’ countries that historically issued stamps but no longer do so.

Theoretically ‘Michel’ of Germany would be Stanley Gibbons biggest stamp catalogue publisher competitor, were it not for the ‘English’ speaking world – the fact that everything is published in German. To be fair, Michel does produce a good translation document but Michel is not that user friendly for English speaking collectors unless those collectors are sufficiently committed to work through the language and Euro price barrier where they are often rewarded by useful additional information such as quantities of stamps issued/printed, which can be very interesting indeed.

In the USA ‘Scott’ catalogue publishers dominate. Naturally they are in American English with values in US$ and cents. Like Michel, they produce good catalogues.

There are other publishers too; Yvert is big in France, Sassone in Italy, and there are others for Scandinavia, Benelux, Spain and many more specialist catalogues besides.

The important thing to realise is that ‘home’ markets generally use ‘home’ catalogues – few specialist collectors of German stamps in Germany are going to use Stanley Gibbons specialist Germany Catalogue; they all use their Michel Germany Specialised Catalogue which is far more detailed than the Stanley Gibbons Germany specialised (although this is more than adequate for us). When collectors quote Michel prices and numbers to us – we know what they are and mean, but most of our collector buyers of the stamps of Germany use SG. This is further complicated by sometimes wildly differing catalogue values caused by specialism and even the current rate of exchange.

If you live in the UK you are likely to use SG catalogues for virtually all countries of the world (please remember our previous conversation that Stanley Gibbons Stamps Of The world (STOW) catalogue is too simplified for ‘classic’ issues collecting and we do not recommend be purchased for such – generally you need their specialist catalogues for pre 1952 material).

Some catalogues transcend markets, for example if you are a dedicated collector of British Empire and you live in the USA, sure you can use Scott…but the SG (nicknamed ‘Part 1’) 1840 > 1970 Commonwealth and Empire is a far superior catalogue, whereas few self-respecting collectors of US material living in the USA are going to be buying the SG USA catalogue.

In short specialised home market catalogues are almost invariably superior when home produced. For example, if you collect specialised GB then there is no contest – SG ‘Red’ specialised catalogues are the best as no other is so comprehensive.

A whole article just to establish a few home truths, but one important point emerges – if you wish, for example, to sell your Germany stamp collection in Germany then by all means catalogue in ‘Michel euros’ – but if your collection is not that specialised and you may be selling your Germany in the UK then identify and price in SG £’s … (or of course you can do both).

In my next article we’ll discuss the relationship between catalogue prices and real values based upon an understanding of the catalogue publishers…

Learn the significance of adding value to your collection…

One of the problems of producing a catalogue is that without prices most people will not be interested in buying the catalogue! Even today we refer to 50 year old reference books such as Robson Lowe (Publisher: Billig) – a world famous philatelist and dealer/auctioneer whose name you will find on many expert committee certificates.

You would think that the prices and information in these 50 year old catalogues would be useless but how wrong you would be. Such specialist catalogues are full of information that collectors who purchase SG catalogues today would find fascinating – such as premiums for multiples (always useful) and proofs, essays, forgeries and the like – surely an opportunity there for SG? Quantities printed/issued for example would shed so much light on catalogue values (Michel often includes this).

Prices from 50 year old Robson Lowe catalogues are easily related to catalogue values today. Occasionally even now we come across unpriced specialist catalogues – they may be fine for purists but my experience of collectors is that part of the attraction to stamps is their relative rarity value. We all seek a ‘find’ and many who search diligently will make them… but in practice so many collectors say to me “what is your best find?”, and generally how disappointing the answer is. Full time ‘philatelic professionals’ do not have the time to turn each stamp and check for watermark/specialist varieties – anybody who collects/handles stamps knows how stamps ‘suck’ time and what a wonderful therapeutic hobby philately is for those who are incapacitated.

But to return to the subject of catalogues requiring prices, one must then examine the relationship of the catalogue producer to the actual market place. So often this is overlooked, yet one only has to look at a Stanley Gibbons catalogue to see the ‘caveat’ that their minimum catalogue price does not necessarily reflect value – rather it is the price that the only(?) public listed Stamp Company on any stock exchange worldwide (in stamp terms a large company) is prepared to sell that stamp for. If your company has a market value of £77 million pounds and a yearly turnover of £35 million then you cannot sell 1p stamps for 1p – you are forced to have a minimum catalogue price BECAUSE what many people do not realise is that Stanley Gibbons catalogue price is actually the price that they will supply/sell that stamp in high quality to you. In practise, I believe their Strand shop has long had a minimum selling price per stamp/set of £1 regardless of the stamp’s market value.

So, it follows that if you have dozens of the same stamp and then thousands of different stamps in varying quantity, all catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at say an average of 50p each, making a theoretical total catalogue value of £10,000 – you may have 20,000 assorted stamps but your stamp holding may literally be worth as little as £50 or £2.50 per 1,000 stamps!

It is so easy to obtain thousands of stamps for so little money. For example, our Avon Mixtures business will sell you a packet of over 2,000 assorted stamps (all off paper) for as little as £15 or less to pick through. Just consider how much catalogue value there must be in this packet and how small an amount of money we are charging, and what a small price is asked for so much fun to sort through them. Discover more about our Avon Mixtures: https://www.upastampauctions.co.uk/about-mixtures/

Now, let’s turn our attention to the status of other catalogue publishers. It follows that if you see a recent stamp catalogue with minimum catalogue values of literally a few pence/cents for the most common stamps then this is likely to be a more independent catalogue publisher pricing stamps by scarcity, rather than by a minimum commercial price at which one could theoretically (but not really in practice) handle the sale of such a stamp. Such catalogue producers are unlikely to be able to supply such stamps to you at these prices or indeed may not sell stamps at all – but typically low unit prices are what you may expect to pay for common stamps when purchased in mixtures.

The conclusion to draw is that ‘catalogue value’ depends upon the commercial status of the catalogue publisher and price for cheaper stamps may be totally unrelated to catalogue value.

An interesting question to pose might be… “at what catalogue price level does a stamp actually have real value?” – for example, you are offering a collection of stamps to my company UPA for us to consider purchasing or handling upon a commission basis. We’ll discuss this in my next article…

When does a stamp actually have value? Let me advise…

Following on from my previous tip ‘No Money Spent: little value’, we are finally discussing when does a stamp actually have value? The answer…when a stamp actually has ‘effective value’.

Now when does effective actually become ‘effective’ – if we compare Stanley Gibbons with the ‘kitchen table eBay seller’ then the answer is simply that ‘effective value’ is relative to the overhead/structure of the seller. You can find kitchen table internet sellers offering stamps for sale at 1p on eBay which Stanley Gibbons catalogue at 50p – that’s one fiftieth of catalogue value – but with a postage delivery minimum supply cost of £1. In theory that is Stanley Gibbons minimum ‘Strand’ retail shop price when you select/collect the stamp yourself so you pay the cost of delivery by visiting their shop at your expense, effectively paying for the pleasure of the experience.

Let’s make a simple comparison – our UPA target is to sell £2 million pounds of stamps in the next financial year; that’s one seventeenth of Stanley Gibbons annual turnover and in stamp company sizes UPA must be within the top ten philatelic companies in the UK. So when does a SG catalogue value become realistic for us?? In selling terms we are unusual because we will actually sell you SG 50p catalogue price stamps for 1p without prohibitive delivery cost…provided that you are happy to participate in a mixture selling system – read more about Avon Mixtures: https://www.upastampauctions.co.uk/about-mixtures/

Or, if you are prepared to make a minimum average spend of £12, we’ll supply 10p catalogue stamps for less than 10p in our traditional ‘stamps on approval’ service – read more about Omniphil & Avon Approvals: https://www.upastampauctions.co.uk/about-approvals/

So in selling terms, we handle low catalogue prices by bundling stamps supplied through selling systems…that’s the only way we have been able to devise to supply collectors at lowest possible unit price and to stay in profitable business…and we’ve been doing this for over 50 years.

But what happens when you wish to sell? Here’s our thinking…’effective’ for us is when we purchase a stamp collection for several hundred pounds or more, and we constantly strive to purchase collections from £1,000 upwards.

Now, I can just hear you saying…”how does that break down in practice?”

The answer lies in a combination of three factors:

1) …catalogue value

and

2) …actual demand

and

3) …cost of handling / supply

…which taken together feed into ‘effective catalogue value’.

If we are offered a collection of say classic British Empire, we would consider how much we believe we would have to pay to obtain similar material from public stamp auction – this is the starting point. Then we would examine how well the material actually sells and over what length of time it takes to sell it. If we know that we can sell your stamps to clients literally the next day then we would gladly work upon a very small profit margin. But if we suspect that we are still going to be trying to sell the rump of stamps purchased in two years time, then a price that might be offered would take this factor into consideration…or even if it should be purchased at all!

Let me continue with an example…

We were offered a collection of valuable British Empire high values and complete sets in high quality with hardly an item with an SG catalogue value of less than £100. We paid more than 3 other dealers offered for this collection – £73,000 which was approximately 33% of SG catalogue price. Another B.E. collection catalogued £45,000 we paid 45% of SG catalogue value. (It does depend upon the ‘mix’ of constituent countries and their desirability.)

Let me relate this to everyday material…

Mint British Commonwealth sets catalogued a few pounds each on average – a few pounds for each item is much more difficult to handle and many dealers may not purchase – so this is not really ‘effective’ catalogue value. However, this depends upon whether they are previously lightly hinged, the time span, whether they are desirable or from a ‘Mickey Mouse’ country. You could achieve from as little as 8% – 10%, up to 20%, but at this level they would need to be unmounted mint from desirable countries and have higher catalogue values…does that help?

To conclude…

Effective Catalogue Value depends upon how the purchaser is going to try to re-sell your stamps. In practice, (unless face value is a factor) sets/stamps catalogued less than £10 per item may be factored in as profit and the price proffered/paid may be for the more valuable material only. Therefore, it goes without saying that if you are purchasing low price stamps for enjoyment then enjoyment is your profit, mixed with some financial return…but low priced stamps will never provide an investment as their handling cost is too high.

To hinge, or not to hinge…the answer is simple!

Here’s an interesting subject…hinging! There are so many precautions necessary to take when considering whether to hinge your stamps. The next few tips are much shorter, but equally important when it comes to protecting your collection…

My first hinging tip… NEVER hinge unmounted mint stamps! You may think that this is blindingly obvious but probably once a month we see ‘New Issues’ which have been stuck in with stamp hinges.

Hinging earlier mint stamps that have been once or more ‘previously hinged’ becomes increasingly acceptable the older the stamp is, but please don’t add more hinging to previously hinged mint stamps – it only lowers desirability and therefore value.

Instead of hinging, my advice is to use Prinz style mounts – they really are worth it:

https://prinzuk.co.uk/3-stamp-mounts

Generally speaking, stamp hinges are for used stamps – buy Prinz mounts directly from us on eBay…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153122246839?hash=item23a6cc10b7:g:3NAAAOSwH~ZbYZPv

Learn the harsh reality of hinging errors…

A few years ago we received a telephone call from a collector who had spent high tens of thousands of pounds on stamp collections and assorted/miscellaneous lots. He wanted to know why it was that the auction company he had bought most from and whom he had invited to view his stamp collection had only offered him approximately 25% for outright purchase of the total amount he had spent? (Note that is 25% of what he had spent – not of catalogue value).

I must admit my interest was piqued. I knew that the company in question is long established and has a good reputation – perhaps this was a valuable collection that a competitor had mishandled and an opportunity for my company. So, naturally, I agreed to go and see, and bearing in mind the collector’s perceived ‘slight’ by our industry, to give a second opinion without charge (a round trip of some several hundreds of miles).

Additionally I learned that two representatives of the stamp auction had visited and had left an offer inside of one hour…something I knew was hardly possible upon a collection of some 80+ volumes. Two hours to view a valuable collection properly is pushing it – most valuable collections housed in dozens of albums cannot be properly assessed in such a short period of time, even when two experienced valuers attend. As an ‘aside’ – personally I hate it when two representatives from a company attend, as the owner – whether it be stamps or ‘double-glazing’, the customer is almost invariably intimidated in his or her own home.

Upon arrival the collection was indeed as described … 80+ volumes all neatly arranged in alphabetical order upon accommodating shelves. How was it possible to lose up to 75% of value buying at a well-known stamp auction?

Sadly it is possible – a combination of adverse factors emerged. First, the collection had no real focus – it was an ‘entire World’ collection. To collect the ‘entire World’ to a high standard requires significant sums of money. Money had been thrown at it but purchasing wholesale cheaper stamps; stamps with no ‘effective catalogue value’. Worse still, where modern mint material had been purchased the stamps had been hinged! (Remember our last tip?)

But…far, far worse than this…the collector had not been careful hinging the stamps and applied excess moisture (too much ‘lick’), so that most of the mint stamps were stuck to the album pages not just by stamp hinges – but also by their own gum! This is an utterly deadly factor literally guaranteed to destroy value…and destroy value it did. The problem is that if you are a seller with scruples, how can you sell stamps that have been stuck down by their own gum…without mentioning it. Would you buy mint stamps that have been lifted from leaves and thinned in the process? Certainly I would if it were the world’s rarest stamp, but on relatively common stamps or even higher values – would you really?

In fact, I valued the collection a few thousand pounds lower and came to the conclusion that the original auction company had deliberately offered a few thousand pounds more in an effort to mollify the collector, as most of the material had been purchased from them. What a pity they left it to another company to explain what had gone wrong…

The moral of the story – apply ‘lick’ sparingly and always ‘lift’ the stamp after affixing in position to ensure that it is dry and ‘free’.

Avoid this mistake at all costs! You’ll thank me for it…

We see this next hinging mistake perhaps once every few months – but in its own way it is almost as costly as using too much ‘lick’ on ordinary stamp hinges applied to mint stamps…

And yet, we’re talking about those plastic mounts introduced in the 1960’s – I remember buying them in my teens (in those days I believe at W.H.Smiths) – then the only ‘name’ market leader was Hawid and I still call them ‘Hawid’ mounts today. For a long while now we have been using Prinz mounts, as they appear to me much clearer and produce better photoplates for our auction catalogues (we have no affiliation but there’s a tip for you – if you use Hawid mounts, try Prinz and see if you agree let us know if you agree that the stamps display discernibly clearer and with crisper visibility).

Anyway, to return to subject – I would strongly suggest that you purchase ordinary mounts – and by that I mean ‘top-loading’ mounts whereby the ‘weld’ is at the base and use them the right way up – heaven knows why some stamp collections arrive in our office with the stamps dropping out as the mounts have been used upside down.

Unless you are a ‘devotee’ of so called ‘split-back’ mounts, sometimes known as ‘gard’, we would strongly advise against purchase. And the reason? So many collectors use these mounts as they wrap around the stamp holding it nicely in position, but so often collectors are NOT careful with the use of these mounts and over-moisten with the stamp already encapsulated before affixing to the album leaf. The result? Moisture creeps through the split back and creates a fine horizontal line across the gum of your stamps, thereby converting your carefully preserved unmounted mint never hinged stamps into the equivalent of being mint lightly hinged with consequent loss of value.

Perhaps the worst aspect of this is the insidious nature of the problem…collectors only learn of this problem from auctions or dealers who are examining their stamps when put up for sale (so you tell the dealer or auction that your stamps have been perfectly preserved and they tell you that they have not).

Worse still, it is my belief that those selling their stamps ‘entrapped’ in these split-back style mounts probably receive lower offers than identical collections housed in conventional ‘open-top’ mounts. The simple reason being that to examine the stamps in ‘split-back’ mounts takes 3x as long as examining those in ‘open-top’ mounts. The result…dealers give up checking sooner, and build into a lower price offer a contingency element against undetected problems. It may not sound much but when you have hundreds of stamps to examine in those ‘split-back’ mounts…tedium is not the word…and we love stamps.

What type of philatelist are you?

I was reviewing our latest auction catalogue when I started checking the very popular Cape of Good Hope ‘triangulars’, and a small but interesting thought popped up which I’ve never heard from any other in my past 40 years in philately…

“How does a knowledgeable dealer or philatelist approach hinging COGH (Cape of Good Hope) triangulars (or indeed any triangular stamp)?”

The answer is simple…if the stamps are hinged across their ‘apex’ then lifting them to check quality (without removing the stamp from its hinge) will damage the stamp by creasing it.

Knowledgeable collectors (Philatelists) hinge triangular stamps parallel to their upper side – preferably the left hand side, as viewed from the front – so that the stamps may be gently raised without causing damage, when checking for thins/faults/existence of watermark etc.

1. What does this simple ‘clue’ say about the collector?

1. The owner is a more discerning collector likely to possess higher quality/value stamps.

Isn’t it amazing how few dealers draw attention to this…

The trade won’t thank me for this, but have you ever seen or read an article about centring, or as our friends across the pond would term ‘centering’?

No? Nor have I, and that’s in 49 years of full-time philatelic trading and auctioneering!

Why?

It doesn’t make sense does it: Stanley Gibbons has long recognised the importance of centring. Looking back, ever since I can remember SG catalogues for Victoria and early Kings pre-1920 classic GB have always had column ‘footers’ indicating significant catalogue price premiums for well-centred lightly used stamps. Premiums of up to 125% SG catalogue values abound.

That’s because catalogue values for pre-1920 period classic GB are for normal heavier cancelled stamps…

Did you know the Victorians were so pre-occupied by security, that in-order-to prevent stamps from being re-used, Postal workers were instructed to ‘obliterate’ them? In those days heavy ink numeral cancellers were utilised (ironically nowadays replaced by the ubiquitous biro).

The point is that catalogue editors have long recognised ‘The Significance of Centring’, but most of the stamp trade, particularly in the UK has overlooked this. Naturally we are all capable of adding a premium upon a premium stamp, but what about the stamp which has been printed and perforated significantly off-centre? Isn’t it amazing how few dealers draw attention to this (even when the centring may ‘set-off’ another attribute – such as a matching positioned off-centre CDS cancel, and we must all be included… for the temptation to ignore centring in valuing/pricing stamps resides in us all…

Yet, are we missing the most valuable point, which has long been grasped (some would say to excess) by collectors, dealers and auctions in America… where perfectly centred (and graded) United States classic stamps can sell for multiples of 10x catalogue values, and even silly levels of up to 50x catalogue prices of low value stamps.

Bear in mind that when I started in the stamp trade in the early 1970s it was standard policy to ignore centring. There was no real ‘side’ to this, simply, little or no thought was really given to centring, unless that is, the stamp was so significantly off-centre to the perforation that suddenly it was an error!

However, I would urge you to reconsider the significance of centring, because in our UPA auctions and Top-Up Twenty price-drop systems, I detect stirrings of awareness, and where there is recognition… values may rise –

Sometimes Collectors get a raw deal…

The problem with most auctions is not what they sell, but how they sell it …

Imagine, you drive into a Petrol Station, with fuel at 150p per litre it is expensive, so you limit your fuel purchase by putting £50 worth fuel into your tank. Then you go in to pay, and the cashier asks you for £65 … how can that be? Yes, £15 (30%) more. You are infuriated, £65 for £50 worth of fuel! No chance … you would rather empty your tank first, than pay such an iniquitous premium.

That’s the reason why in 2017 European Auction Selling Legislation introduced – required auctions that charge ‘buyer’s premiums’ to warn the buyer in advance. Of course, we are no longer in the EU, but that has not stopped Buyer’s Premiums and other charges lifting the hammer cost of your stamps, by as much as a further 30% above the ‘hammer’ price that the stamps were actually sold to you at.

You really don’t need to imagine – because this is still what happens in most stamp auctions. Furthermore, there is no distinction between when you are buying stamps that are actually owned by that auction, and when you are buying stamps that are being sold on behalf of a vendor. Is this fair?

That is why Universal Philatelic Auctions (UPA) steadfastly refuses to charge any buyer’s premium or other charges, because at UPA collectors are treated like the Very Important Philatelists (VIPs) that they are. If you feel the same as we do about extra levies upon our philatelic pastime, you may wish to learn a little more about UPA.

Each quarter, UPA offers a 20,000+/- lot auction catalogue with NO extra buyer’s premiums or hidden charges, lightweight auction lots delivered insured and loyalty post-free. Furthermore, ALL lots won are Guaranteed, which may account for why more than 2,000 different collectors from 54 different countries regularly bid in their auctions.

If you would like a complimentary catalogue of their next auction, plus your 1st £55 auction winnings free when you win £75+, please visit: www.upastampauctions.co.uk/catalogue-request

Royal Mail have changed the future of stamps, how will this affect how we collect?

Is this the end of postage?

In January 2022, Royal Mail (The British Post Office) issued an unanticipated major announcement, affecting many of us – therefore being informed now may be important to you so that you can take appropriate action.

The Royal Mail (RM) Announcement: “Non-barcoded stamps can be used as postage up until 31 January 2023. If you are able to use them within this time — that’s great. If you aren’t going to be able to use them up — that’s fine too — you can send them in to us and we’ll swap them out for barcoded stamps. Our ‘Swap Out’ scheme will open on 31 March 2022”

Here’s the unwritten agenda…

How long will RM ‘swap-shop’ operate, when will it close, how will it operate, and will there be ‘minimum’ sending requirements? This could potentially render existing definitives and commemoratives effectively useless in terms of under-pinning usability value, and it is a significant consideration in collecting modern for collectors to know that they can get something back.

On the face of it, it seems all very practical – but how does invalidation of your existing mint decimal stamps impact our hobby? I estimate that this anti-fraud high tech innovation (or invalidation) may save Royal Mail more than One Hundred Million Pounds liability to offer their service to the public (including collectors) against pre-paid unused (non-barcoded) decimal postage currently outstanding in the public domain. £100 Million sounds like a huge figure, but consider UPA has not bought a single postage stamp from the Post Office in the past 10 years – we buy them in collections bought from collectors, and we use more than £30,000 postage face value per annum. Roll this out against a 60 million population and millions of businesses.

Presently, it appears that ‘Special Issues’ (or Commemoratives, as we know them) are excluded, and New Issues of such will continue without barcoding. But, does this mean that if you continue to collect non-barcoded special issues, that ultimately their face value may become useless? Good question.

Ethically there may be issues too – because Collectors (and the General Public) have purchased postage stamps based upon validity – closing the Royal Mail ‘swap-shop’ early, making it ‘inoperable’ (a potentially likely scenario) to collectors and small-holders of stamps (or singles of multiple denominations) by having minimum denomination submissions, or (highly likely) 6 month delays to service swapping. You can just envisage it, can’t you? I can.

Over the years, hundreds of collectors have told me that they intend to continue collecting New Issues for as long as our Queen is on the throne. How do you feel about this now?

Will prices of decimal issues go up, or down? My view is down. I also believe that, as in year 2000, many collectors will draw the line on New Issues now…

Will this affect the market overall? Yes, potentially I can envisage more collector budget being directed into older/classic stamps – rather than stamps that Royal Mail can print for one penny that have a face-value of one pound!!

Finally, I strongly suspect that UPA will have to review their post-free shipping and make a subsidised charge for postage. Don’t worry – no change imminent. This subject will run and run, there will be developments, more will follow…