As we head into 2025 many people will be making plans for their future.
Should those plans include stamp collecting?
We’re in an increasingly digital world.
My own in-real-life encounters with stamps have rapidly decreased in recent years.
But what about the hobby?
And what about stamps as an investment?
Let’s have a look:
A passion that repays you
Stamps are worth collecting if you love stamps.
I do.
And I think that stamps have something for everyone:
History is your passion?
This "primitive" Mauritius stamp records a time when the British Empire was expanding faster than postal authorities could print and send stamps around the world.
You love great design?
King George V's personal enthusiasm for stamps meant those produced during his reign are among the nicest looking in British history.
You’re interested in culture and symbolism?
Can you imagine an image more indicative of China during the Cultural Revolution than this bright red set of "General Issues Directives of Mao Tse-tung" stamps?
You are fascinated by detail and production excellence?
Wonder at the extraordinary detail in this embossed stamp. These beautiful issues were too expensive to produce for long and are now sought-after rarities.
I genuinely find stamps and philately fascinating.
Almost every stamp has a story to tell, and the hobby offers its devotees a hugely broad, but also very deep area of study.
You can design a stamp collection around almost any passion, whether that be printing types, or an affection for a particular species of bird.
There’s almost no limit to where you can take a stamp collection.
Most collectors come to love the act of collecting too.
And philately is one of the best developed, most global, and welcoming collecting communities there is.
Storage, presentation, preservation… they all add extra interest to keeping these tiny, fragile, historic documents safe for future generations.
Stamps are among the defining technological advancements of the modern age.
You cannot understand the world we live in today without stamps.
As a passion, stamps are rewarding in their own right.
Stamps as an investment
A late price rise to 14p means that as few as 10 of these 13p Christmas stamps from 1988 exist. That might make them an attractive investment.
The stamp collecting economy is contracting.
While that’s true it doesn’t tell the whole story.
In a world of flashy attractions, fewer young people collect stamps (that they are much less likely to come into contact with in their day-to-day lives).
But, millions of collectors in China came into the market as that country opened up to the world.
While many shop-front stamp businesses have vanished, it’s never been easier to buy, sell, swap, research, trade, and talk stamps.
Some catalogue values of stamps have proved too high in recent years.
While, the top end of the market has exploded with record after record being set.
A £1-million block of Penny Blacks. Recent history suggests that trophy buys like this are likely to keep going up in value.
What is a prospective collector to make of this?
Stamps should never be your entire investment strategy.
However, there is potential to use stamps as a diversification tool.
Stamps are the sort of investment that thrive:
In times of economic instability: they’re tangible, transportable, rare assets.
In times of high-end wealth: when people with lots of money can indulge their passions, the prices go up. This has been a very visible trend in the rare watch market.
Stamp collecting is often referred to as an ageing hobby. And you may have noticed that there are more older people around. While fewer younger people are joining the hobby, more older people have the time and resources to complete their collections.
Despite all this, the returns on stamps (British collectibles were used as an example) between 1900 and 2008 were 2.9% in real terms - better than bonds, not as good as equities, and about the same as art.
Is it worth collecting stamps as an investment?
Possibly.
If this is your aim you need to become an expert. Or bring in expertise to help you buy.
You need to focus on the very best quality stamps. Condition as well as philatelic quality.
And the top end of the market - older, rarer, more distinguished - is the best target.
If you have the time and resources to play markets, to buy and sell quickly (stamps are not a very liquid asset though), then that too can be rewarding.
The early 21st century saw an extraordinary boom in the value of Chinese stamps.
Stamps like this one saw increases in 100s and even 1,000s of percentage points in the 2000s.
You genuinely could have made a fortune from very little outlay if you saw this coming.
The extraordinary growth of the Chinese economy and that country’s relative opening up to the rest of the world was the big story of that period of time.
Do you think you could spot the next such trend?
A lot of that money was spent by Chinese buyers who saw themselves as repatriating their cultural heritage from the west.
Can you see that happening somewhere else?
The collector’s dream
The collector’s dream can come true.
It’s extraordinarily unlikely. And you should never plan for it.
But, there are undiscovered rarities out there.
You’ll often see the very rarest stamps listed with the legend, “known examples”.
And known is key.
Only six examples of this beautiful stamp are known to exist, but did more slip out of internal revenue offices? There's only one way to find out - try to track one down.
Most stamps were produced in enormous numbers - and this is true from the very first issues.
They’re tiny. They’re easily lost. Or tucked in a book. Or folded over. Or misidentified.
And, if you have the right knowledge and are in the right place at the right time…
Well, why not?
Are stamps still worth collecting?
In conclusion:
Collect stamps if you love them.
Consider them as an investment if you want to diversify and invest in a passion that might reward you.
Look for expert advice and trusted dealers when you do dip into the market.
