Stanley Gibbons Share Discussion Threads

[clocktower] 22/7/2010 16:23

Well with the recent high value sales and the focus on investment growth for those with as little as £5k to invest - it seems the business will take on a new direction.

[riskblue] 22/7/2010 16:15

Interims in a couple of weeks should move it one way or the other.

[jeanesy] 21/7/2010 12:29

some buying going on but still no price move

[hectorp] 17/7/2010 11:26

I sense that the baby boomers , 56-65 yrs old, who are great collecting generation of stamps and old toys trainsets etc, are going to be thinking 'my pension may not go as far as I expected' especially these days. This could start to impinge on stanley gibbons type investments. IMHO.
I am also a collector from my childhood.
But.. private healthcare investments should boom.

[bori5] 17/7/2010 11:20

O/T check out IRG. DYOR & GL

[moathunter] 17/7/2010 11:06

I think the chart needs a defribillator.

[jeanesy] 10/7/2010 08:14

Still no moves. when is the next news due?

[jeanesy] 26/6/2010 21:53

All has been very quiet for a long time, the next move up or down?

[chairman2] 16/6/2010 17:23

spending a long time consolidating at
these levels but its not goiung downhill

[jeanesy] 06/6/2010 10:01

The sg100 stamp index has risen a bit since the start of the year. This should be good news for Stanley Gibbons imo.The SG100 index has been designed to provide the definitive measure of overall market performance and helps to measure individual price increases. We believe that the index highlights the real prices being achieved, especially among the classic Great Britain and Commonwealth stamps.

[robinnicolson] 29/5/2010 09:11

FT article on investing in stamps:

[jeanesy] 26/5/2010 07:49

Does anyone else care about this stock?

[jeanesy] 16/5/2010 14:09

Has anyone been to the stamp fair?

[jeanesy] 12/5/2010 19:29

Rise at end of day. News tomorrow ?

[jeanesy] 09/5/2010 18:54

Any news on how the stamp fair is going anyone?

[tomking2] 14/4/2010 09:08

If you are interested in quizzing management, the company is exhibiting at this show in April: www.masterinvestor.co.uk. They have a few free tickets available for shareholders and other interested parties if you email the organisers at [e-mail] quoting 'Stanley Gibbons shareholder'.

[its the oxman] 09/4/2010 14:00

yes - need to break up clear through 130p and break the downtrend. are we missing something here?

[jeanesy] 09/4/2010 12:57

I hope so Oxman but the trend seems negative to me.

[its the oxman] 09/4/2010 09:14

thought these might of gone higher by now - just a matter of time

[masurenguy] 07/4/2010 11:23

The share price has also slipped a bit since Montanaro announced their disposal of 198,000 shares last week.

[moneybags] 06/4/2010 16:35

These go ex-divi tomorrow.

Regards , Moneybags

[bookworm1] 03/4/2010 15:45

The alternate Chairman's report

It seems like only yesterday when I first spoke to you but my how time flies, three years you say, isn't that amazing. Well for the first time it is now apparent that the group business is moving ahead in line with its board strategy, in all directions.

In a year that has witnessed many other businesses struggle to generate revenue growth, it is pleasing to report substantial growth in both sales and profitability for the year ended 31st December 2009. What's that Mark? Of course I am only talking about actual figures and not percentages. Anyone with a calculator can work that out for themselves.

With the benefit of time, I have gained a fuller appreciation of the power and quality of the groups brands. Wherever I go everyone seems to have heard of Stanley Gibbons. They have not heard about me, but then I did spend a lot of time in the special forces. Anyway it really is quite surprising just how many people there are out there who collect stamps. In fact I am constantly telling my board how amazing it is that there are so many stamp collectors. They are simply everywhere! So I have been convincing your board and am starting to think that we have really got something here. In fact your board would have to be pretty incompetent to screw things up with such a strong brand and business model.

So it is encouraging that profits now reported are stuck... I mean struck after charging a load of extra costs which all support our growth strategy. I mean you have got to speculate to accumulate haven't you, and I don't come cheap either. So we have invested heavily in our marketing activity which culminated in getting rid of our whole internet marketing department. Gosh there was blood on the walls that day but in my experience if you are going to stick the knife in you might as well make a good job of it. Anyway, we are giving that job to an outsider to cut down on costs and so we can have a few meetings out of the office.

The most compelling aspect of the group's performance on 2009 was our ability to generate almost £5 million in cash from operations producing a balance of slightly over £3 million in hand after distribution in tax and dividends. Actually it was quite easy really when you look at how much money we spent last year on stock. So I just hope that no one will look too deeply into this years figures 'cos the Finance Director lost me lecturing me about window dressing but I got the bit about strangling working capital and using creditors to finance the business growth instead of our bank.

The strong performance also produced an increase in net tangible assets from 63p per share to 72p per share, up 14% on last year and 33% since I took over despite a fall in the share price of 36% from 212p to 135.5p. Very Puzzling.

Financials:
Everything was up this year Staff Turnover, Direct costs, Overheads, Directors & non-executive appointments and capital expenditure. That's all you need to know except that depreciation was down.

Dividend:
Your board is pleased to recommend a dividend, for approval at the forthcoming AGM that will be held in Jersey 'cos we know none of the shareholders will bother to turn up except for that David Wilmhurst chap who usually turns up and asks awkward questions and expects us to know the answers. Who does he think he is anyway? We run the company!

Outlook:
This is the bit I like talking about 'cos no one can catch me out unless they actually bother to look at my previous statements. Usually I just copy and paste the same material from one year to the next.

Anyway it's all good news next year. London will be busy in the run up to the Olympics so we are going to target all those foreign builders who will be coming over and will be buying stamps to send some money home to their families. Once they realize that they can take advantage of our offshore tax free 12 month interest free money back guaranteed no questions asked, 'bob the builder' investor marketing package they will be queuing up down the Strand.

We have ambitious overseas expansion plans that involve the opening of a new shop in Jersey subject to concluding the purchase of a company yacht. Which will reduces carbon emission collecting the weekly takings and avoid going through customs & excise.

All our shops are now being fitted with the latest high tech equipment so that as soon as customers walk through the door they get a full body scan followed by covert biometrics and in depth financial profiling. We can usually tell how much money they have in their bank account within 4 minutes and can react accordingly. You can get some strange readings though. The other day this tramp walked in and I sent him packing before the system had time to scan him. Turned out he was a multi millionaire. Still you live and learn.

In the second half some important elements of our core strategy should start to deliver returns. If they don't then I'll just keep repeating myself next year because in my experience most investors have the attention span of a gnat and will have forgotten what I said by then anyway. However, we live in hope that we can pull some of these things off. Just to run through last years list again; we hope to have the website all singing and dancing.

We are still optimistic of our ability to launch successfully the long awaited rare stamp investment fund during 2008, working with an investment partner who possesses the required skills and knowledge to avoid causing us too many problems with the regulatory officials. We are currently talking to an Italian wine shipping company that specialize in finding rich investors and are interested in our products and have a diversified portfolio of investments including pharmaceuticals, nightclubs and printing presses. They also like boats but theirs tend to be fast ones like in the SBS (Special Boat Service for those of you who don't come from a service background).

By far the most important emerging market in stamps has been indentified as China. According to authoritative sources, China has lots of people! Representing about a third of the world total. Consequently we intend to gain a presence there pretty quick before someone else gets the same idea. Our longer term plans include communicating with them in Mandarin as it is thought this might help increase our sales. Although I have always found that if you shout loud enough at these foreigner chaps they usually understand what you want especially if you point a gun at them.

Our auction business had enjoyed a very successful year in 2009 with profits up 49%. The success of our auction business each year remains dependant on sourcing suitable collections. The problem is that there are just not enough people dying. However, this is something that I do understand so we are currently retraining all our staff in advanced customer care and how to kill stamp collectors silently and without detection. After all most of them are sad lonely people so in a way we are just doing them a favour and we need the extra stock for the London festival in May. There will be lots of tourists around so if a few go missing here or there no one will really notice.

Values of rare stamps and historical signatures have not experienced any downturn during the recent period of global economic turmoil demonstrating the strength of collectibles as an alternative asset class uncorrelated with many others. Let me explain; when someone comes into your shop trying to sell their favorite stamp collection it is not difficult to convince them to hang onto it once we have told them how much it is worth using our catalogue prices. Should they want to sell then the fact that no one actually wants to buy them is not really our problem is it. We usually make them an offer they can't refuse.

As reported in January, increased sales in our investment products in 2009 were conducted at lower average gross margins as a result of the board effecting a deliberate shift away from investment products linked to future guarantees into others which earn a lower initial gross margin but avoid certain contingent risks. This change improves the long term balance of the Company's return and risks. Personally I thought it was a good wheeze but according to a few stuffy investors and surprisingly our auditors who also belongs to the same gold club as me we had to get shot. Had to put them out of their misery and all that.

Your board is confident in the ability of the group's business to achieve orgasmic growth based on the opportunities already identified as well as a few more that we have yet to identify as well as some unknown unknowns. Hopefully we will have a few more targets that we can line up and take out which will compliment our existing strengths or provide the skills and abilities and an ability to diversify our offering into other areas of collectibles are under review. For example I myself am investigating instruments of torture. I never realised that there was such a market for all that stuff. In my days we never gave such stuff a second thought and just got on with the job. A bit like stamps I suppose each to their own.

People:
The group enjoys the active support of over 100 employees and its network of agents worldwide. But we don't talk about them (need to know and all that!).
On behalf of the board I wish to extend my thanks to all of them for their commitment to achieving the potential of our brands and business by providing a friendly, efficient and experienced service to all our customers. However a few early morning runs and cold dips might perk 'em up and keep 'em all on their toes a bit more.

Board:
Your company's board has recently been enhanced by the inclusion of another member and I can report that we are well on our way to having our own football team. Except for the two who got sent off during the last game. What they've gone? No one told me. Someone give that Wilmhurst chappie a call and ask him if he can play football. If so he is on our team.