Investing in postage stamps

Postal stamps investing

One of the alternative investments is investing in postage stamps. In the times of email, facebook and mobile phones, we slowly forget how important the kiedis postage stamps were in our lives.

These small pieces of paper provided us with family, friends or distant countries. Why is it worthwhile to remember them?

Today's traditional post office is accompanied mainly by official contacts with the authorities. But if we enter the world of postage stamps, it can also help us in our investments. Stamps, like other collectors' items, can prove themselves as a capital investment.

The investment potential of this market is best illustrated by the results of the GB30 Rare Stamp Index, which is being prepared by the British firm Stanley Gibbons. Over the past 40 years, this index has been offering an average annual rate of return of approx. 10 percent.

Postal stamps conquer the world

The postage stamps system was gradually adopted by successive countries in the 19th century.  Simple and affordable postal charges combined with the development of general education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries led to a significant development of communication. Postage stamps soon became a collector's facility and collection became common in the mid-19th century.

Among the well-known philately lovers there are, among others, the following among them. British King George V, President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin and the last King of Egypt Faruk I. Currently, Queen Elizabeth II is among the collectors estimated at 50 million people.

Price of unique postage stamps

Here we are reaching the moment when collector's passion meets money, because rare pieces of postage stamps can reach staggering prices. There are still many interesting transactions all over the world and it is enough to browse through the auction results of the last month to get to know at least a few of them. For example, on 30 January 2014 New York auctioned the Newfoundland stamp 1927 60 cent black for 45,000 euros. dollars.

It is a rare specimen of Canadian postage stamp used by air mail. It is worth mentioning that only 300 such postage stamps were created, and to this day only 30 existing ones are known.

Only 5 days earlier, a pair of French postage stamps from 1849 was sold at an auction in Geneva for 177,000 euros. dollars. The transaction thus passed the valuation by more than 100%. The stamps entered the market in the same year as the country decided to introduce a payment system based on postage stamps.

It is also worth mentioning that the pair of 1849 tete bethe sold in Geneva contains an error that occurred on only one sheet of this series. These are just two interesting transactions from recent years, and similar transactions occur almost every month.

Postage stamps as an investment

Like most collector buildings, rare, unique copies of postage stamps can work as a capital investment. This is possible because the supply of collectors' copies is limited. You can't move back to 1840 and start printing the black pence paper again.

With time, the availability of many rare copies is further reduced as they are bought into large collections so that they never return to the market again. In addition, some of them are damaged as a result of improper storage or random accidents.

On the other hand, philately is not out of fashion and is good even during the digital revolution. Strong demand and limited supply are therefore a mix that leads to an increase in the value of rare stamps. The best evidence of this is Stanley Gibbons Index results.

However, it is worth remembering that this is an investment for the patient. In addition to choosing the right postage stamp, knowledge is obviously needed. For this reason, such a capital investment should be discouraged from advising people who have never been interested in philately, or should be instructed by an expert.