Stanley Gibbons

The Stanley Gibbons Group plc (SGI) is a company quoted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange and which specialises in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products.^[1] The group is incorporated in Jersey but with offices in London, Ringwood in Hampshire and Guernsey. The company is a major stamp dealer and philatelic publisher.

History of the company

The company has a long corporate history, having started as a sole trader business owned by Edward Stanley Gibbons in 1856.

The business started when, employed as an assistant in his father's pharmacy shop in Plymouth, Gibbons set up a counter selling stamps.^[2] In 1863 he was fortunate enough to purchase from two sailors a sackful of rare Cape of Good Hope triangular stamps.^[2]

In 1874 he moved to a house near Clapham Common in South London and in 1876 he moved again to Gower Street in Bloomsbury near the British Museum.

By 1890 Stanley Gibbons wished to retire and the business was sold to Charles Phillips for £25,000. Phillips became Managing Director, with Gibbons as Chairman.^[2]

In 1891 a shop was opened at 435 The Strand in addition to the Gower Street premises, and in 1893 the shop and offices were amalgamated at 391 The Strand where the company's retail premises remained for many years until they moved to 399 The Strand.

In 1914 the company received a Royal Warrant from George V.^[2]

In 1989 Paul Fraser first invested in Stanley Gibbons purchasing his shareholding from New Zealand businessman Sir Ron Brierley.

Paul Fraser was appointed Executive Chairman in 1990 and sold his remaining shares in April 2008 to focus on Paul Fraser Collectibles.^[3]

Stanley Gibbons is now a limited company, being quoted on the British stock market and now being a group with a number of subsidiary companies.

Stamp catalogues

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.^[4] 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.

Prices

Unlike other dealers' catalogues, Stanley Gibbons state that their catalogue is a retail price list. In other words, if they had that exact stamp in stock in the exact condition specified, the current catalogue price is the price that they would charge for it. Of course, many items are unavailable or out of stock. Gibbons also impose a minimum charge for the supply of any stamp of £1, regardless of the value given in the catalogue, and they say this represents a charge for service.

This contrasts with most other catalogues which are produced by firms that do not sell stamps and therefore base their pricing on an average of market values in the country where the catalogue is published.

Catalogue range

The range includes the following catalogues:

• Stamps of the World. (A simplified catalogue on which all the others are based.)
• Commonwealth & Empire Stamps. (A specialised catalogue up to, currently, 1970. Known as Part 1.)
• Individual specialised catalogues for Commonwealth countries. (e.g. Canada, Australia. The same content as Part 1 but up to date.)
• Individual specialised catalogues for Foreign (non-Commonwealth) countries. (e.g. France, United States, parts 2 to 22.)
• Collect British Stamps and versions for the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. (Simple colour catalogues.)
• The Great Britain Concise catalogue. (Intermediate level of detail.)
• The Great Britain specialised catalogues, comprising:
  • Vol. 1 Queen Victoria (15th Edition), published in October 2008 ISBN 0852596812
  • Vol. 2 King Edward VII to King George VI (13th Edition), published in September 2009 ISBN 0852597371
  • Vol. 3 Queen Elizabeth II Pre-Decimal Issues (11th Edition), published in March 2006 ISBN 0852596022
  • Vol. 4 Queen Elizabeth Decimal Definitive Issues Part 1 (10th Edition), published in April 2008 ISBN 0852596561
  • Vol. 5 Queen Elizabeth Decimal Special Issues (13th Edition), published in February 1998 ISBN 0852594410 with two loose-leaf supplements in 2000 and 2002
  • The Channel Islands Specialised Catalogue

All are based on the same numbering system drawn from Stamps of the World, apart from the British specialised catalogue which have their own numbering system.

Magazines

Gibbons Stamp Monthly is a magazine that lists new issues and publishes articles of interest to philatelists. Gibbons have published a number of journals over the years but only settled on Gibbons Stamp Monthly as their core magazine in 1927.^[5] On 23 January 2009, Gibbons acquired the philatelic trade magazine The Philatelic Exporter from Heritage Studios Limited.^[6]

Retail stamp business

As well as publishing, Stanley Gibbons is a stamp dealer with a retail business located on the Strand in their Central London offices offering both older stamps and new issues and fulfilling customer want lists. They produce their own line of other philatelic products, such as albums, stock books, and other accessories.

Auction house

The company is also a philatelic auction house.

Investment department

Recently^[when?] the company has started to offer stamps as investments and has set up a special office in Guernsey for this activity.^[7] Sales of investment products have been strong in Asia and the Middle East and through the company's email database, however, sales in the United Kingdom have been hampered by the fact that the company's philatelic investment products are not regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority and therefore UK financial institutions and financial advisers have been reluctant to recommend the products as investors would not enjoy the same level of protection they receive when investing in regulated products. Gibbons have stated that they intend to launch a regulated investment fund in 2009 in order to overcome this obstacle.^[8]

Some financial advisers and stamp dealers have doubted the wisdom of investing in stamps due to the relatively high prices charged by Stanley Gibbons compared to other dealers and the experience of the 1970s when many investors lost out after a speculative bubble in stamps burst.^[9] The relatively high initial costs have also provoked comment, estimated at not less than 20% compared with less than 5% for many retail mutual fund type investments. Gibbons have responded by emphasising the high quality of their items and the long-term nature of their investment proposition. In 2008 a complaint was made to the UK Advertising Standards Authority that the guarantees offered by Gibbons in the advertising for their investment products could not be substantiated. After investigation the complaint was not upheld.^[10]

As recently as 2002 the company's attitude to investment in stamps was different, when the view was that stamps were purely a hobby and many in the stamp business had unpleasant memories of the excesses of the 1970s bubble.^[11]

Other businesses

The company is a major dealer in collectable autographs through Fraser's Autographs and also deals in rare records.^[12] A further subsidiary is Collector Café.

Financial information

The company's accounting year ends on 31 December and in the year ended 31 December 2008 it had total sales of over £19.3 million and a profit before tax of over £3.7 million.^[13]

See also

• List of stamp catalogues

References