Smart Stamp And Coin Investment

Smart Stamp And Coin Investment

The fact that there are far more stamp and coin dealers than

stamp and coin brokers, that few wealthy people hold portfolios

of these collectibles, and that few hobbyists ever live long

enough to get rich from their knowledge, tells us something. It

tells us that this sort of investment, one of the most

accessible for the average person, one of the most potentially

lucrative and one of the safest, pales in comparison to most

other investments in return and is too complex for most people

to attempt. But there seems to be widespread curiosity about

this fascinating topic, and as one who profited from a hobby

collection and learned much about the field, I feel qualified to

give you a good introduction to collecting as an investment.

There are two ways to go about investing in collectible

portfolios

The first is to be a hobbyist yourself. You should be ready to

spend a lot of hours to learn to enjoy the hobby, get involved

in clubs, study catalogs, attend exhibitions and auctions, and

be as smart as possible about your field of interest.

The second way is to make friends with an experienced collector,

which you'll have to do anyway, who can advise you on special

items with promise or long-term security.

In the case of coin and currency collecting, the market is

fairly strong in all segments of the field and trends are

generally established and well known to collectors. So while it

may have long term growth potential than stamp collecting,

windfall profits are rare. Gold and silver coins have intrinsic

value in their metal and tend to fluctuate in price with the

metal markets, which in turn vary with value of the US dollar.

The Krugerrand and the Canadian Maple Leaf one-ounce coin are

the mint coins available offering substantial intrinsic value,

but it is generally agreed that the bullion is a better overall

investment. Neither the Maple Leaf nor the Krugerrand will be

prized for their rarity.

Silver coins at current silver prices, using $5 US per ounce as

a benchmark minimum price and $10 as a maximum, are excellent

long term bets when investing in coins for metal content. Few

bargains in vintage collectible. Coins are ever available, and a

good portfolio should only be selected with the aid of a

qualified counselor. Always opt for the best condition you can

afford, even if it means purchasing a less-scarce coin, since

the mint and proof coins are always in most in demand from

collections and can be disposed of the most quickly when

necessary. For both stamps and coins, it is wise to specialize

in items from your country of residence. They will be the least

cost-effective to purchase, but they will always be the easiest

to liquidate.

It is felt that the market for collectible paper currency will

show better growth than coin markets over the next 20 years. As

this segment of the collectible market gains more public

exposure, catalog values are bound to rise in response, in many

cases out of proportion to actual value. Paper money specialists

are hard to find and most agree that the market is so unstable

that only established issues of value are worth long-term

investments. We advise collecting issues of substantial value,

three figures and higher, which have not shown sharp increases

in book value in the last five years, and again we stress

collecting only the best condition possible. These issues should

provide the best overall long-term growth and best odds on

substantial short-term gains.

Stamp collecting is a much more varied field than most amateurs

realize, and for investment purposes, it is always, always best

to specialize from the start. There is no sense cluttering your

mind and your closet with facts and figures for low-value

foreign issues. They don't pay off and take too much time and

space

The best bet is to specialize not only in your country of

residence, but a specific aspect of that country's history of

issue. You have a lot of choice there. Even specific decades,

types of stamps (commemoratives, definitives, revenues, air

mails, types of perforations, stamped envelopes, first day

covers, plate blocks, etc.) provide wide fields.

Among the best performers are classic series of definitives,

commemorative issues before 1930, varieties and errors in

printing and lately revenue stamps, the types used for liquor,

tobacco and other commodities and excise customs documents,

are getting rosy forecasts from experienced collectors because

they comprise the lowest-priced of the extremely rare issues. They

are low-priced at the present time only because they are not

widely sought by collectors but since there are only so many

rare stamps to go around, anything scarce in a popular field,

whether in antiques or records or stamps will eventually show a

book value comparable to its scarcity. Demand on these issues is

definitely going to increase.

Varieties of certain issues are the second-best bet for

investment. The reason is the work involved in discovering many

of them. It is often possible to find a rare variety of a common

one cent stamp in collector's and dealer's penny-a-stamp boxes

worth twenty to two hundred dollars, and the more you know about

varieties of common stamps, the more frequent these finds will

be. They don't tend to grow in value at rapid rates, but they

provide the best overall chance at windfall profits.

Classic stamps of values over $100, especially in superior

condition, provide the best overall return on investment and

tend to outrun inflation as a rule. The more popular the stamp,

the better it will appreciate, and popularity can be determined

by comparing the catalog price to an actual selling price. When

auction prices regularly go over catalog price, the catalog

prices rise accordingly and if the cycle continues, the issue

will show excellent gains.

As a rule, items such as plate blocks, first day covers,

commemoratives of recent issue (50 years or less) and souvenir

items are not good investments. The visual beauty of these items

tends to artificially inflate catalog prices which in turn

inflates the selling price. They don't tend to show reasonable

advances in value over the long term.

Large lots of cheaper issues can look attractive, especially at

auction where their prices will seem especially attractive, but

when you look around and understand that dealers and serious

hobbyists bid fairly low for these lots, and dealers figure

their profit margins into the buying price, you'll realize that

they are best left to hobbyists more interested in having fun

than making money.

For the same reason, it is wise to steer clear of purchasing

entire collections from former hobbyists. You'll be paying for

the cheaper issues that you won't easily liquidate in addition

to the better issues, and that's a headache and an unnecessary

expense.

It is, however, wise to seek out hobby collectors who are

retiring and selling their collections for income. Frequently

they have already consulted dealers about values and prices and

will frequently offer the private individual a deal comparable

to what a dealer would pay for that little bit of extra profit.

A few investment syndicates dealing in rare stamps and coins

have surfaced from time to time and provide the naive investor

with ready-made portfolio These can work out in your favor in

the long run, but the cost of marketing and acquiring the items

must be figured into the syndicate's selling prices, making the

overall investment higher in proportion to real value than you

could probably make on your own.

Many more syndicates offer "collector's items" custom-made by

the factory, including special coin mountings, metal stamp sets

in gold, silver and platinum and fancy exhibition pieces that

require substantial investment for completion of the series.

Some of these have turned put to be top performers, but many

haven't kept pace with inflation. It makes no sense to put money

into these manufactured collector's items unless you have a

strong sense of trends and collector's demands. When in doubt,

steer clear.

A good rule of thumb is that the collector, not the

manufacturer, sets the true value, and predicting future values

for these items are too extremely risky.

Once you've got a good sense of market values and determining

factors, you might want to consider speculating in new issues

from time to time. Certain items come out of the post office

every few years and shoot up in value phenomenally over the

first year or two. This usually happens because of the oddities

in printing method, limited runs, varieties or errors too

insignificant to result in recalling the issue, or major errors

that result in massive recall of particular issues, making those

in circulation of substantial value almost immediately. If you

can spot these as they come onto the market and invest

substantially in large numbers of the desired item, you can

literally make a killing over a two or five year period.

Investment of this sort does require some skill, however,

because most recent issues actually drop in value since their

face value at time of purchase is higher than their face value

after five years of inflation, and resale at higher than face of

a common item will be virtually impossible on items less than 30

years old.

When investing in either stamps or coins, a safety deposit box

is almost always a must. Stamps especially are subject to all

sorts of damage from environmental changes and a stable

atmosphere especially such as that in a bank vault will provide

the highest degree of protection.