Stamp dealer

Last updated
Advertising for the stamp dealer Charles Nissen on a booklet pane from the 1929 PUC stamps of Great Britain. Great Britain 1929 PUC advertising pane op cancelled SG436var.jpg
Advertising for the stamp dealer Charles Nissen on a booklet pane from the 1929 PUC stamps of Great Britain.

A stamp dealer is a company or an individual who deals in stamps and philatelic products. It also includes individuals who sell postage stamps for day to day use or revenue stamps for use on court documents. Stamp dealers who sell to stamp collectors and philatelists are of many kinds and their businesses range from small home operations to large international companies.

Postage stamp small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage, who then affix the stamp to the face or address-side of any item of mail—an envelope or other postal cover —that they wish to send. The item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark or cancellation mark—in modern usage indicating date and point of origin of mailing—is applied to the stamp and its left and right sides to prevent its reuse. The item is then delivered to its addressee.

Stamp collecting the collecting of postage stamps and related objects

Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is related to philately, which is the study of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service, as a never-ending stream of new stamps was produced by countries that sought to advertise their distinctiveness through their stamps.

Contents

Methods of sale

A large stamp show containing a bourse at which collectors and dealers meet. Spring Stampex 2011 - from the back.jpg
A large stamp show containing a bourse at which collectors and dealers meet.

Dealers may sell by mail order, at stamp fairs, at their own retail premises, through postal auctions or by sending packets of stamps on approval to collectors. Increasingly, dealers sell on internet auction sites like eBay or Delcampe. Dealers also vary in the type of material they handle, ranging from a general stock to highly specialised firms who only trade in particular countries or topical areas.

Stamp catalogues

Herbert L'Estrange Ewen's Catalogue of Postage and Telegraph Stamps..., 4th edition 1895. Catalogue of Postage and Telegraph Stamps 4th ed 1895.jpg
Herbert L'Estrange Ewen's Catalogue of Postage and Telegraph Stamps..., 4th edition 1895.

Stamp catalogues principally evolved from stamp dealer's price lists, though today most stamp catalogues no longer represent a retail price list. The Stanley Gibbons catalogue is an exception that, in principle, still shows the price at which they would sell a particular stamp over the counter at their London shop, or by mail order, if they had it in stock and it was in the exact condition outlined in the notes at the start of the catalogue. In practice, many items are not in stock, or are not in the same condition, or the price at which the stamp is for sale differs for some other reason from that shown in the catalogue. The Gibbons catalogue was originally published as a penny price list in November 1865. [1]

Stanley Gibbons catalogue stamp catalog

The first Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue was a penny price list issued in November 1865 and reissued at monthly intervals for the next 14 years. The company produces numerous catalogues covering different countries, regions and specialisms; many of them are reissued annually. The catalogues list all known adhesive postage stamp issues and include prices for used and unused stamps.

Size of the market

Unlike some other markets, such as stocks and shares, the majority of transactions in the philatelic or stamp market take place informally, by mail order or in retail environments, and therefore the size of the market is difficult to determine. It has been estimated at £5 Billion. [2] In a 2007 interview, Mike Hall of Stanley Gibbons estimated that "About $1 billion of rare stamps trade annually in the $10 billion-a-year stamp market." [3] The number of collectors worldwide was estimated at 30 million in 2004. [4] In 2009, Adrian Roose of Stanley Gibbons estimated the figure at 48 million including 18 million in China. It is not known how many of these are serious collectors. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

Cancellation (mail) postal marking to deface a stamp and prevent its re-use

A cancellation is a postal marking applied on a postage stamp or postal stationery to deface the stamp and prevent its re-use. Cancellations come in a huge variety of designs, shapes, sizes and colors. Modern cancellations commonly include the date and post office location where the stamps were mailed, in addition to lines or bars designed to cover the stamp itself. The term "postal marking" sometimes is used to refer specifically to the part that contains the date and posting location, although the term often is used interchangeably with "cancellation." The portion of a cancellation that is designed to deface the stamp and does not contain writing is also called the "obliteration" or killer. Some stamps are issued pre-cancelled with a printed or stamped cancellation and do not need to have a cancellation added. Cancellations can affect the value of stamps to collectors, positively or negatively. The cancellations of some countries have been extensively studied by philatelists and many stamp collectors and postal history collectors collect cancellations in addition to the stamps themselves.

Philatelic literature

Philatelic literature is written material relating to philately, primarily information about postage stamps and postal history.

Inverted Jenny

The Inverted Jenny is a United States postage stamp first issued on May 10, 1918 in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design is printed upside-down; it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only one pane of 100 of the invert stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in all philately.

Penny Red

The Penny Red was a British postage stamp, issued in 1841. It succeeded the Penny Black and continued as the main type of postage stamp in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1879, with only minor changes to the design during that time. The colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in seeing a cancellation mark on the Penny Black; a black cancel was readily visible on a Penny Red.

Philatelic investment

Philatelic investment is investment in collectible postage stamps for the purpose of realizing a profit. Philatelic investment was popular during the 1970s but then fell out of favour following a speculative bubble and prices of rare stamps took many years to recover.

Linn's Stamp News is an American weekly magazine for stamp collectors. It is published by Amos Media Co., which also publishes the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers, and the Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940. Linn's was founded in 1928 by George W. Linn as Linn's Weekly Stamp News.

Stamp catalog

A stamp catalog is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.

Cancelled-to-order

A cancelled to order postage stamp is a stamp the issuing postal service has cancelled, but has not traveled through the post, but instead get handed back to a stamp collector or dealer. They can come from withdrawn stocks of stamps cancelled in sheets and sold as remainders or from new sheets for sale at reduced rates to the stamp trade. Postal services of various countries do this in response to collector demand, or to preclude stamps issued for the collector market being used on mail. Some of the history of CTOs is from stamps being given to collectors on an approval basis, in person or through mailings; the first CTOs began in the late 19th century.

Canada 2c Large Queen on laid paper

The 2¢ Large Queen on laid paper is the rarest postage stamp of Canada. Printed in 1868, it was not discovered until 1925, and so far only three have been found, all used. Many more could exist as at least one sheet must have been printed, and possibly many sheets; however, they may all have been destroyed, or lie unrecognised in stamp collections or on cover.

Mauritius "Post Office" stamps first stamps of the British Colony Mauritius

The Mauritius "Post Office" stamps were issued by the British Colony Mauritius in September 1847, in two denominations: an orange-red one penny (1d) and a deep blue two pence (2d). Their name comes from the wording on the stamps reading "Post Office", which was soon changed in the next issue to "Post Paid". They are among the rarest postage stamps in the world.

1935 Irish 2d coil stamp

The Rare 2d Coil was an experimental vertical coil stamp, denominated 2d, issued by the Irish Post Office in 1935 and is one of the scarcest, and most valuable, Irish stamps. It is often referred to by stamp collectors simply as "Scott 68b" or "SG 74b", being the Scott and Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue numbers respectively.

Littleton Coin Company is an employee-owned privately held major American mail order and retail company focused on numismatic (currency) collectibles and based in Littleton, New Hampshire. The company focuses largely on U.S. coins and world coins, as well as a variety of paper money and ancient coins. Largely focused on direct mail, Littleton publishes catalogs several times yearly and has a "coins-on-approval" program.

A philatelic auction, or stamp auction is a sale of stamps, covers and other philatelic material usually run by stamp dealers or specialist collectibles auctioneers, such as, David Feldman, Christie's and Sotheby's, where prospective purchasers place bids in an attempt to obtain the desired items.

Charles James Phillips of London, England, and New York City, was a philatelist highly regarded in both England where he started his philatelic career and in the United States, where he emigrated to in 1922.

Clive Feigenbaum Business person

Clive Harold Feigenbaum (1939–2007) was a colourful and controversial British businessman who was involved in a lifelong series of scandals in the world of philately. Particularly notable was the sale of "gold" stamps from Staffa and his role in the collapse of attempts to list Stanley Gibbons on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1984.

Asian philately

Asian philately, or Far-Eastern philately, is a specialized area of philately which focuses on the stamps of China, Japan, Hong Kong and neighboring countries. Stamp collectors and stamp dealers often specialize in a particular aspect of Asian philately, and many stamp auctions are devoted to this area of interest. Hong Kong is a major center for Asian philately with Chinese collectors and investors some of the biggest buyers.

The Golden Monkey Stamp or Gēngshēn Monkey is a postage stamp issued in China in 1980 of which 5 million copies were printed. Although not rare, the stamp has come to symbolise the strong market for collectable postage stamps in Asia. Demand for the stamp has made it one of the most sought after contemporary Chinese stamps.

Crawford Library

The Crawford Library is a library of early books about philately formed between 1898 and 1913 by James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford. By the time of his death in 1913, Crawford was thought to have amassed the greatest philatelic library of his time. Today, the library is part of the British Library Philatelic Collections.

References

  1. Phillips, Stanley. Stamp Collecting: A guide to modern philately, revised edition, Stanley Gibbons, London, 1983, p. 244. ISBN   0-85259-047-4.
  2. "First class returns for alternative investments" by John Greenwood in The Telegraph, 6 October 2008.
  3. Sandler, Linda (2007-06-08). "Bill Gross's British Stamps Outperformed Pimco Fund (Update1)". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  4. "Stamp your rare individuality" by Nigel Bolitho in Financial Adviser, Financial Times Publications, 25 March 2004, p.56.
  5. "Alternative Investments: Stamp of approval" by Adrian Roose, Investment Adviser, FTAdviser.com, 30 March 2009.