Member Info for CarpeDiem1

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The links from Lunq are all very old and legacy issues around investments have been resolved.

The adage never buy into something you don't understand applies to stamp investing as well as crypto investing and most other investments as well. People who post on these message boards are mainly advanced investors who have some understanding what they are investing in.....most people who rely on so called expert advice do not.

There are some positives for SG:
Costs cut to the bone
Legacy issues resolved
Increased internet sales
A white knight stepped in with funding
changeover of stock though an exchange deal
shop refurb

However the bad points:
Insolvent and now majority shares owned by an equity fund.
Ordinary shareholders have no voice
Auctions and face to face sales heavily impacted by Covid
Stock levels cut significantly but still overpriced
Facing a decline in customer demographic

I am sure there are more to add on both lists but both Pearls and Devon make valid points to each side.

A very strong update...I added yesterday by pure chance. The very high dividend looks secure.

I confess, I don't understand the global collectibles market right now. How is a computer generated cube worth thousands of dollars, yet a 2000 year old Roman denarii worth a pound or two. Supply and demand I suppose. I have a feeling when inflation takes off and interest rates rise we will find out where the real value is.

6 trades by 1pm. It's positively less bad than last week.

I do think monday the 12th will be an absolute frenzy in the shops, but I don't think stamps will be top of the list. Anecdotally there were long queues at builders merchants and wood is in short supply around here. If I were you I would buy a few Kingfisher.....

"a number of the catalogues are very out of date"

Pearls, philatelic publishing is not my area of expertise but I would suggest that some of these catalogues are really loss makers due to the time and expense of editing and manufacturing. The Part one and CBS are probably big sellers but not the small sectionals. As a publisher, SG has to maintain some sort of regular catalogue updates, but I doubt these are profitable. I believe more money is made on albums and album supplements.

"My impression is the publishing business is very dependant on a small number of old times. The kind of dependence that's slowly shuffling towards an exit marked retirement and happy hunting ground in the sky. Interested in your comments on that point."

Devon, you are really commenting on the state of the general stamp collecting market. Those collectors who buy one country albums and try to fill up the spaces to the best of their budgets. This has been a large part of the collectors market for many decades and SG used to thrive on selling album supplements and catalogues to those collectors. However, fewer collectors mean fewer album sales and static stamp prices mean collectors do not need a catalogue every year.

I cannot see how they can boost business in this area very easily. They are maintaining sales only because other album/catalogue retailers are going out of business such as Vera Trinder. Eventually lack of collectors will hit this part of the biz harder.

At the top end, philatelists who want high end pieces do not want to pay high end prices, especially as there are no exhibitions taking place, therefore they can bide their time. We have discussed Investments and auctions at length already. The future of SG and collecting stamps is a gentle decline but I am sure there is enough trade to see out my time...

They mention a trade transaction for old stock, presumably very low margin to get shot of it. Also mentions difficulty of getting new material for sale and location impact on its auction business......although I would argue the auctions is very poorly managed and could be so much better.

Latest Trading Update....''less bad''

I think this sums up SGI and Pearl's perceived boom in stamp collecting from SG's standpoint.

"Carp, what proportion of the lots in SG’s auctions do you believe are in house stock rather than trade?"

That is hard to say these days as they have obviously cleared out quite a lot of their own material over the last few years. I remember buying quite a bit of the Murray Payne stock when that was offloaded. They may have bought in some of the collections themselves and sell these through the auction, but I doubt there is much in house material this time, simply because they have not been able to go on buying trips.

Pearls, yes stamps are doing very well, as are all things collectable. I am having record results on eBay.
However I shall point out yet again for the 17th time there is a lack of material coming through to SG auctions and the company results will reflect this. Even if they sold every lot for £1000 they would only make a couple of hundred thousand and how many auctions have they had lately?
They really are a second line auction house. For example Roma auctions who held a coin auction a few weeks ago in London took over £4 million Hammer. Their commissions I guess would be about £1m.
SG I are treading water and it is getting deeper.

"By the way did you see that Volkswagen are changing their name in the US to Voltswagen?"

Just an April fools joke....

I used to have quite large amounts with New City and I was quite friendly with one of the Fund Managers at their gold fund, but I found a change of personnel resulted in variable performance which is one of the risks with a smaller managed fund. Also their charges were quite high so although the yield is around 8% the costs are 2%, so I am not so sure this is a better opportunity than say Barclays. Anyway, if it works for you....then carry on.

As an old curmudgeon, I see cryptos as a gigantic pyramid scheme. The people at the top are doing very well, the latecomers might make some money as the hype continues. I'm too old to suffer FOMO. I prefer real assets. Shares of businesses which actually make money. Gold, silver, antique Japanese swords, something tangible.

So I will stick with my boring Ftse 250 companies and that is that.

Tried to buy through 2 brokers and nothing available on the open market, not even 500 shares. Negotiated trades only.

I am surprised it has dropped back this much but it has allowed me to add a few more.
The drop is overdone and I think it will be rising again soon.

I might add that HNW collectors are not putting their money into GB stamps. Auction prices for general GB is soft compared to say Chinese or Indian stamps. Traditionally during these sorts of periods you have a cartel of certain dealers buying up auction lots to maintain the price . This can only go on for so long. Without exhibitions there is simply no incentive for collectors to splash out on key pieces. Looking at the slow vaccine rollout in Europe, I doubt there will be major exhibitions for many months.

"I always suspect they are losing money on that old SGI stock, even when someone buys it at the expensive SGI price. I'd be interested on your thoughts on that Carpe?"

I imagine they can sell at 70% of cost and break even overall by the time they have added buyers premium. A few will sell better than expected so that always helps the rest. The problem will be the buyers premium will go to the auctions and the rest to the philatelic dept making their figures look worse.

Why are arb people on here? They are messing with my head.