Chapter 4

Let me explain. In the stamp business, as in all other branches of commerce, there are wholesale and retail dealers. The wholesaler buys by the thousand stamps that are printed by the million. I refer, of course, to used stamps. In some cases the price paid per thousand is only a few pence for large quantities that run into millions. The wholesaler sells to the retail dealer at a small advance per thousand. Those stamps the ordinary dealer makes up into packets at a further profit, but still at a comparatively low price. Good copies he picks out for sale in sets and separately. Those have to be catalogued. Therefore, the catalogue price of common stamps bought and sold by the million eventually comes before the general collector at "one penny each," and the man who makes a collection of common stamps of the "one penny each" class can scarcely be expected to realise a fortune out of his stamp collecting. When he offers his gatherings of years to the self-same dealer, and asks, say, only the half of what he paid, he is astounded when the dealer has the audacity to tell him frankly, "I can buy most of those stamps at a few shillings per thousand, and you want an average of a halfpenny each for them!" "But," retorts the collector, "I paid you one penny each for them years ago, and now you won't give me half that amount. A pretty thing investing money in stamps!" The reply of the dealer will be, "My dear fellow, you have put your money into the wrong stamps. I bought, and can still buy, those stamps wholesale at a few shillings per thousand, some of them at a few pence per thousand; but I have to pay clerks for handling them and sorting them out, other assistants for cataloguing them, and the printers for printing the catalogue, so that in the end I cannot afford to sell them _separately_ for less than about one penny each, but if you want a few thousand of any value I can sell them to you at a price enormously below what you ask for your collection." The collector's eyes are opened.

It is impossible to get away from the necessity of regarding stamps as an investment. Even the schoolboy cannot afford to put his shilling into stamps unless he can be fairly assured that he may get his money back at critical periods, which will crop up even in school life. Indeed, it may be said that there are few, if any, stamp collectors nowadays who do not put more money into stamps than they could afford to do if there were not some element of investment in view. In some instances large fortunes are actually invested in stamps, and I was only recently told of a collector who had taken his money out of a very profitable business and put it into stamps, and had netted very much larger profits than he ever realised in his regular business. But to do that sort of thing requires a profound knowledge of stamps and a ready command of a very large banking account.

Generally speaking, the best countries from an investment point of view are British Colonials, especially those of the small colonies that have small populations, and therefore very small printings of stamps. Obviously, countries that put stamps into circulation by the million can never be a very good investment, so far as their common values are concerned. Those who buy with a keen eye on the investment purpose, always buy unused copies of uncommon values. Unused are not likely to depreciate, and they may appreciate.

In fact, it may be safely said that, all round, the thing to do in stamps is to buy _unused_ for investment. When stamps are printed by the million, _used_ supplies will be available for no one knows how long; but in the case of unused, when a new issue is made, the obsolete stamp is on the road to an advance in value. It is true dealers stock large quantities of all stamps, but there are so many countries to be stocked now that no dealer can afford to hoard unused to any great extent, and even if he did, the dead capital would be an item which would compel him to advance the price of unused to protect himself from loss. Let us say a stamp becomes obsolete this year, and a dealer buys £100 worth. It would be a moderate estimate to place the earning power of stamps at 10 per cent. In seven years that £100 hoard would, reckoning compound interest, represent £200, or double face. Of course, no dealer would hoard up £100 worth of a common stamp, but from the day that it becomes obsolete it must be hoarded up by someone, and interest must be accruing on the investment which will have to be added to the value of the stamp, unless someone is to stand the loss. It will, therefore, be obvious that unused stamps must appreciate while used may remain stationary, for the simple reason that the limit of supply has been reached in one case but not in the other.

Taking almost haphazard a few stamps, most of which have been within the reach of all collectors during the last fifteen years, the following table will give some idea of the appreciation in prices which has been steadily going on in good stamps:--

|1875 |1880 |1886 |1890 |1893 |1897 |1902 | |s. d. |s. d. |s. d. |s. d. |s. d. |s. d. |s. d. | Bremen, 1867, 5 sgr., green, | | | | | | | | _unused_ |1 0 |1 6 |2 6 |4 0 |5 0 |25 0 |17 6 | Bechuanaland, 1886, 1s., | | | | | | | | _used_. |-- |-- |-- |2 6 |2 6 |6 6 |30 0 | " 1888-9, 4d., | | | | | | | | _unused_ |-- |-- |-- |1 0 |2 0 |2 0 |3 0 | British Guiana, 1860, 1 c, | | | | | | | | brown. perf., _used_ |3 6 |4 0 |12 6 |30 0 |32 6 |80 0 |80 0 | Cape of Good Hope, 1d., | | | | | | | | [triangle]_unused_ |0 4 |0 6 |1 6 |2 0 |4 0 |8 0 |15 0 | Cape of Good Hope, 1d., | | | | | | | | [triangle] Woodblock, | | | | | | | | _used_ |2 6 |3 6 |15 0 |25 0 |45 0 |90 0 |95 0 | Cyprus, 1880, 6d., _unused_ |-- |-- |1 6 |7 6 |12 0 |30 0 |25 0 | " " 1s., _unused_ |-- |-- |2 6 |10 0 |15 0 |40 0 |55 0 | Danish West Indies, 1872, | | | | | | | | 4 c., blue, _unused_. |0 6 |0 6 |1 6 |3 6 |5 0 |17 6 |25 0 | Danish West Indies, 1873, | | | | | | | | 14 c., _unused_ |1 0 |1 0 |2 6 |3 6 |5 6 |24 0 |32 0 | Egypt, 1866, 5 piastres, | | | | | | | | _unused_ |2 0 |2 0 |5 0 |8 6 |16 0 |22 6 |25 0 | " " 10 " |2 6 |1 6 |6 0 |12 0 |20 0 |26 0 |27 6 | Gambia, 4d., imperf., | | | | | | | | _unused_ |0 8 |0 8 |2 6 |5 0 |6 0 |20 0 |32 0 | Gibraltar, 1886, 1s. |-- |-- |1 9 |3 6 |7 6 |70 0 |75 0 | Hayti, 1881, 20 c., _unused_ |-- |-- |2 0 |2 0 |2 6 |7 6 |20 0 | Hungary, 1871, 3 k., litho., | | | | | | | | _used_ |0 2 |0 2 |1 6 |3 6 |6 6 |30 0 |40 0 | Newfoundland, 1866, 5 c., | | | | | | | | brown, _used_. |1 0 |2 6 |3 6 |7 6 |12 6 |28 0 |25 0 | New South Wales, 1d., Sydney | | | | | | | | Views, _used_. |2 6 |4 0 |17 6 |30 0 |35 0 |40 0 |40 0 | Orange River Colony, 1877, 4 | | | | | | | | on 6d., _unused_ |-- |1 0 |1 0 |3 0 |3 0 |5 0 |30 0 | Tonga, 1892, 8d. |-- |-- |-- |-- |2 0 |5 0 |10 0 | " " 1s. |-- |-- |-- |-- |3 0 |4 0 |15 0 | Transvaal, 1878-9, 4d., | | | | | | | | _unused_ |-- |0 8 |1 0 |1 0 |0 9 |1 6 |20 0 | " " 1s. " |-- |1 9 |2 0 |2 0 |4 6 |15 0 |40 0 | Trinidad, 1896, 10s. |-- |-- |-- |-- |-- |14 0 |70 0 | Turks Islands, 1879, 1s., | | | | | | | | blue, _unused_ |-- |1 9 |2 6 |3 0 |5 0 |20 0 |25 0 | Zululand, 1888, 9d. |-- |-- |-- |1 6 |1 6 |12 0 |17 6 |

Of foolish investors there will always be a generous supply, who will ever be ready to offer themselves as evidence of the worthlessness of any and every form of investment, forgetful of the fact that the shoe is more often on the other foot. In stamps, as in every other class of investment, the foolish may buy what is worthless instead of what is valuable. There are stamps specially manufactured and issued to catch such flats, and they are easily hooked by the thousand every year, despite the continual warnings of experienced collectors.

But if we turn to the result of experienced collecting we find abundant evidence of the fact that the stamp collector may enjoy his stamps and, when the force of circumstances compels him to abandon them, he may retire without regret for having put so much money into a mere hobby.

Mr. W. Hughes Hughes, B.L., started his collection in 1859, and kept a strict account of all his expenditure on his hobby, and in 1896 he sold to our publishers for close on £3,000 what had cost him only £69.

In 1870 a stamp dealer in London, as a novelty and an advertisement, papered his shop windows, walls, and ceiling with unused Ionian Islands stamps, which were then a drug in the market. The same stamps would now readily sell at 10s. per set of three; in other words, the materials of that wall-paper would now be worth at least £5,000.

The late Mr. Pauwels, of Torquay, made a collection which cost him £360 up to 1871, when it was put on one side and left untouched until 1898. It was then purchased by our publishers for the sum of £4,000, and yielded them a very fair return on their investment.

In the International Philatelic Exhibition, held in the Galleries of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in Piccadilly, London, in 1897, one collector marked over each stamp of his exhibit the price which he had paid for it, and the market price of the day. The collection had been got together during the previous fifteen years, and had cost its owner £25 2s., while by the then latest catalogue value it totalled up to £368 1s. 3d.

Shrewd business men are those who frequently invest large sums in stamps. The amounts spent annually by some wealthy collectors range from £1,000 to £10,000. One well-known Parisian collector, whose life has been largely devoted to his philatelic treasures, and who employs two secretaries to look after his collection, has, it is estimated, spent at least £200,000 on his stamps since 1870.

If investment were the Alpha and Omega of stamp collecting, every collector of standing would bemoan lost opportunities. Many a great rarity of to-day could have been had for a few shillings a few years ago. The Cape errors were sold by Stanley Gibbons at 2s. 6d. each. The "Transvral" error was sold by the same generous firm at 4s., and others in similar proportion in the day of opportunity.

To-day it is the fashion to look back with regret on those lost opportunities, and to nurse the belief that such opportunities are never likely to return. But experience shows that in every decade of stamp collecting the common stamp of to-day may be the rarity of to-morrow. In many a series of stamps some one of the lot from some cause or another gets scarce, and the price appreciates from year to year till the original price paid for the stamp in pence is represented by pounds.

XIV.

What to Collect and How to Collect.

The questions, "What to collect?" and "How to collect?" are much more easily asked than answered. Each individual will differ in taste, in inclination, in method, in time at his disposal, and last, but not least, in the depth of his pocket. The most that can be done is to outline a general plan, founded upon general experience.

Collectors are divided into two classes--the general collector and the specialist. The general collector takes everything that comes in his way, and knows no limitations, no exclusions of this country or that. The specialist, on the other hand, confines his attention to the stamps of one or more particular groups or divisions, or even to one particular country.

The most experienced collectors, whether general or specialist, almost invariably advise the beginner to start as a general collector. As a beginner he will have no experience to guide him in the choice of a particular group or division; and until he has travelled over the ground as a general collector it will be difficult for him to make a choice which he may not have cause to regret. As a general collector he will gather together a general knowledge of stamps in all their peculiar varieties, which can scarcely fail to be immensely useful to him even should he subsequently drift into specialism. Indeed, it is an accepted truism that the man who starts as a general collector invariably makes the best specialist in the end.

Starting, then, as a general collector, the beginner purchases an album--for choice say the "Imperial," published by Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., which on one page has a printed and illustrated list of the stamps of a country, and on the opposite page ruled and numbered spaces for every stamp mentioned in the printed list. A catalogue, setting forth the prices at which stamps may be purchased, should also be obtained.

One of the very first questions to be settled at the start will be the choice that must be made between the collection of used and of unused. The general collector who wishes to collect economically should certainly start with what is cheapest; and as the common stamps are cheapest in the used condition, used should be selected. When a collector can afford to spend his money liberally, the best and safest, and cheapest in the long run, will be stamps unused and in the pink of condition. Such stamps generally turn out to be a safe and not unfrequently a splendid investment.

The beginner will find that he can fill up a large proportion of the spaces in his album with comparatively common stamps, and these are much more economically purchased in the form of cheap packets. The blanks that remain will then represent stamps worth searching for separately, and buying singly as good opportunities occur. Many may be obtained in exchanging duplicates with other collectors.

After some experience as a general collector, preferences will gradually materialise, and the utter hopelessness of making a thorough collection of the postal issues of the world will be apparent. At this stage the collector generally sells the bulk of his collection, reserving only a few countries to be followed up in future on specialist lines. The remedy and the change are drastic, and, like most drastic remedies, are much too sweeping. Wiser and keener Philatelists nowadays retain their general collections, so far as they have gone with them, and upon their basis give play to their specialist inclinations. That is to say, they single out a country, and work at that exclusively on specialist lines; and when they tire of that country, or exhaust it so far as their means allow, they have in their general collection the nucleus of another country with which to build up another specialist collection. On this plan a collector can always be working in sympathy and on the lines of the fashionable country of the day. He can take up and open out whatever country happens to be the vogue. In this way a neglected country every now and again comes to the front, and the nucleus of that country which may be found in the general collection may suddenly acquire an interest and a value never dreamt of. A recent case in point is that of the Orange Free State. Its stamps went a-begging for purchasers. Then trouble, and unrest, and war brought them into notice, and now the almost worthless have become valuable, and the pence have run into shillings, and the shillings into pounds.

For many persons, however, limitations and exclusions are necessary from the start. In their case a choice must be made, and the safest choice will be that of the British Colonies, or, if a still more restricted line must be drawn, one of the Continental groups of Colonies. A glance at a priced catalogue will be the best guide for selection. If it must be an economical selection, the catalogue will speak for itself. There is abundant choice in every direction. There are colonies with few and simple and inexpensive issues, and there are others that require ample means and patient research. But the cheapest countries, from an expenditure point of view, are foreign countries--such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, German Empire, Italy, Chili, China, and so on.

XV.

Great Collections.

Great collections of postage stamps, like great collections of pictures, in these days acquire an international rank and reputation. The great stamp collections of to-day are in a few hands, and have been built up by lavish wealth and lavish industry. Wealth alone will not suffice to gather together a really great philatelic collection. There must be patient research, and there can be no research apart from that full knowledge which comes only to the industrious and painstaking Philatelist. The gem that is wanted to complete the finest page in the rich man's collection has not unfrequently to be personally sought for in the byways, the alleys, and lanes of stamp collecting; and despite the keenest search of the wealthy, it sometimes, after all, falls by grim mischance into the laboriously gathered collection of the man of very limited means.

The Prince of Wales is known to be an enthusiastic and keen stamp collector. He is the acting President of the Philatelic Society of London. During his recent tour round the world he displayed his great interest in the postal issues of the colonies which he visited, and brought home much valuable philatelic information and a number of proofs of sheets of old colonial stamps which will help to clear up many doubtful points. H.R.H. collects only the stamps of Great Britain and her colonies, and he possesses many specimens that are absolutely unique.

The collection which was made by the late Mr. T. K. Tapling, M.P., is now in the keeping of the British Museum, having been bequeathed to the nation by its possessor, who was one of the most cultured and shrewdest collectors of his day. His collection was his life-work--from boyhood till his early death in 1891. It was largely made up of the amalgamation of great collections. In his day Tapling had the first pick in every direction, and, as a result, his collection is to-day one of the grandest and richest and most scientific general collections extant. Great rarities may be said to be conspicuous by their prominence and by their matchless condition.

But the greatest collection of all is that of M. Philipp la Renotiérè, of Paris, known to most collectors as Herr von Ferrary. In the course of the last thirty years he has purchased many well-known old collections, amongst which may be mentioned that of Judge Philbrick for £7,000, Sir Daniel Cooper's for £3,000, W. B. Thornhill's Australians, etc. M. la Renotiérè has been a large buyer in the leading capitals of Europe for a great many years. His expenditure with our own publishers is said to average from £3,000 to £4,000 a year. He employs two secretaries who are paid large salaries, one to look after the postage stamps and the other the post cards, envelopes, and wrappers.

Mr. F. Breitfuss, of St. Petersburg, who has been collecting since 1860, is credited with the third finest collection in the world. He is an omnivorous, but scientific general collector.

Mr. H. J. Duveen, the well-known art connoisseur of London and New York, although he did not take to stamp collecting till 1892, has already got together the finest collection, outside the British Museum, in this country. It is celebrated not only for the beauty of its specimens, but also for its completeness, neatness, and scientific arrangement. The value of the collection is probably close on £80,000. It is enclosed in seventy handsome Oriel albums.

Mr. W. B. Avery, head of the well-known firm of scale-makers of Birmingham, has one of the finest general collections. It is justly celebrated for the large number of great rarities that it contains, amongst which are the two rare "Post Office" Mauritius in superb unused condition. The collection cannot be worth at present far short of £50,000.

Mr. M. P. Castle, the Vice-President of the Philatelic Society of London, who succeeded the late Mr. Tapling in office, is one of the keenest of keen collectors. His general collection became so large that he parted with it in 1877, and then specialised in Australians. This latter collection he sold, in 1894, to our publishers for £10,000, at that time the largest sum ever paid for a single collection. He subsequently made a grand specialised collection of Europeans. This, arranged in sixty-seven volumes, he sold, in 1900, for nearly £30,000, and he has now returned to his love for Australians.

The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres is a collector of only recent date, but he has already formed a really magnificent collection based on broad historical lines. He confines himself mostly to the stamps of the British Empire, the United States, and the Italian States. His lordship is a member of the Council of the Philatelic Society of London, and, when in England, a regular attendant at its meetings.

The Earl of Kintore is also the possessor of a very fine collection of English Colonials, etc.; among his greater rarities being the "Post Office" Mauritius, the complete set of Hawaiian Islands (first issue), the 2 cents, rose, British Guiana, and many other gems. He also is a member of the London Philatelic Society.

In France the place of honour, after M. la Renotiérè, is deservedly taken by M. Paul Mirabaud, the well-known banker of Paris, whose magnificent collection of Switzerland was shown in the last Paris Exhibition. It forms, however, only a small portion of his fine collection.

In Italy probably the most famous collection is that of Prince Doria Pamphilj, which is exceptionally rich in the interesting issues of the Italian States.

In the United States of America there are many notable collections, several of them being worth from £30,000 to £50,000, amongst which may be mentioned the Crockers', of San Francisco, Mr. F. W. Ayer's, of Bangor, Maine, and Mr. Paul's, of Philadelphia.

In Germany the greatest collection is doubtless that of Mr. Martin Schroeder, the well known merchant of Leipzig.

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FIVE MEDALS (_Highest in each Class_), GENEVA, 1896.

FOUR MEDALS (_Highest in each Class_), LONDON, 1897.

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