Stanley Gibbons Share Discussion Threads

[dashton42] 11/2/2013 13:24

Graham1TY - if you've sold c2000 lots via Ebay, I've probably bought c2000 lots via Ebay. Wonder if I've been a customer of yours?!

I think the questions you raise are all to do with strategy, contracts and competitive safeguards, and as I don't work in the City, and only have access to the same news as other non-City bods, I don't know any more about this than any other small PI.

I get your point about a million and one dealers selling their wares through Ebay, Bidstart or whatever, possibly with their own websites. I think the point is that for all the business, from dealers or private collectors, that does go through these mediums, Ebay, or Bidstart skim their listing and final value fees, or whatever their charging structure is.

Why do dealers with their own websites put their stuff through Ebay, despite the costs? Because the traffic's probably greater than on their website, items probably sell quicker, achieved auction prices may be higher, it's easy, you get certain protections, you don't have to have your own website etc.

So now, SGI provides the platform, hopefully tempts some business away from Ebay, and takes its cut. In the States. I don't know the market size, but I'd assume that stamps are big business there.

Regarding your comments about you not being an auctioneer and piggybacking on a site, exactly! That's what it's all about! You're not competing with Ebay * (which doesn't sell stamps, or anything else - just provides the platform), you're competing with other dealers. Bidstart isn't competing with dealers, it's competing with other platforms, like Ebay.

Hope what I've said makes sense, and I haven't misunderstood what you've been saying.

* Erm, unless you have your own auction/buy it now-type website, of course

[graham1ty] 11/2/2013 11:55

Hi dashton

re non-competes, what I mean is how long has bidstart got ? if it is not working, can SGI move on to something else ? have they given Rosenburg 2 years / 3 years ? to make it work ? Can they keep the IT dept in the Uk in case this is not a winner ?

My understanding is that a new IT dept is being set up ( with office and overhead) in Richmond, Mass presumably not the cheapest place to work/recruit ?

I also collect. What I mean is that dealers can easily have their own website and link all that into Ebay/bidstart. You can go straight to their website and just buy stuff. Or do it via Ebay. I have sold c2000 lots through EBay. Does that make me an auctioneer ? No, but i am just piggybacking on their site. Anyone can do that and set themselves up as a stamp dealer. And I have had none of the IT/start up costs. Yes I pay fees to EBay, but that is just part of the cost of selling. if u look at some of the big sellers, theyb have 10000-50000 lots listed. Bidstart/Ebay are not the only places to buy stamps

[dashton42] 11/2/2013 11:18

Graham1TY,

Again, you express some of the concerns I think anyone would have about a venture like Bidstart; as we all know, in the Dot Com days any new internet startup (or even the whiff of an idea of one) would cause massive and probably unjustified share reratings.

One of the things that does concern me is that the IT development for the Bidstart enhancements is happening in the States, or so far as I can tell from the LinkedIn ads placed by SGI.

If it is happening there, it potentially raises issues of control; how is Stanley Gibbons keeping a tight grip on budgets and development milestones, when it's physically removed from what's going on (although presumably Mr Rosenberg, who is now "President and Chief Executive Officer of Stanley Gibbons US Inc" is there to keep (more than) an eye on things, and has a vested interest in not letting things slip?)

I'd certainly never minimise the risks inherant in IT projects, especially when outsourcing and remote working's involved.

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at when you talk about having a non-compete with the new bloke? He works for Stanley Gibbons now, and sits on the board of Stanley Gibbons E-Commerce Limited based in Jersey. For my benefit, can you explain this?

To what extent the rerating is dependant on Bidstart or other factors, I have no idea. Time will tell if it's justified (in light of the eps fall which we know about), and, to state the obvious, I guess whether you're in or out depends on your view of the risk/potential rewards at play with this company.

By the way, I do collect stamps, and while I'm aware of one or two sites of a similar nature to Bidstart, I'm certainly not aware of hundreds who operate in this auction/buy it now format. Happy to be corrected though if they are out there though, and I don't know about them!

[graham1ty] 11/2/2013 08:26

Dashton

"I guess it all comes down to this question; do you think that SGI has the knowledge, determination and resources to develop this embryo web site into a real, must-visit, revenue-earning collectables website rolled out more widely (or hopefully even globally)?"

SG have been talking of the importance of IT and migrating to an internet platform for over 5 years. Do not forget they had a massive IT push about 3 years ago, and then sacked the department, went to consultants, and wrote off the IT spending.....they have not managed big IT projects well in the past.

I assume they will have a non-compete with this new bloke, so all eggs are in the basket. My worry is that they have lost all "first mover advantage" to everyone, especially EBay. Anyone can now set up a pretty good site, carrying 1000s of stamps that clicks across to the EBay (or bidstart) platform.....anyone can be an online stamp auction house. Some of the big dealers have their own site and then sell across multiple platforms. 5 years ago, bidstart might have been one of just a few......now it is one of hundreds, and bloommin difficult to differentiate yrself and stand out.

I still cannot believe this rerating is just on the back of bidstart.....but I cannot believe this is getting rerated on eps falls for the next two years.

[dashton42] 08/2/2013 07:53

Yep, you've had a right result there, jadeticl. Wish I'd had the same foresight.

Simon Thompson's SGI update in Investors Chronicle is out ("How the 2012 Bargain Shares portfolio fared"). Nothing new there as far as I can see, but he advises running profits on the company.

Which is pretty much what I'd intended to do, although I have been wondering over the past few days if I should realise some profits, and let the rest run. Whatever I do, it'll be the wrong thing!!

btw, off-topic, but good to see NBL features in "Bargain shares 2013"...

[jadeticl] 07/2/2013 13:30

dashton42, wish I had bought ten times more SGI than I did buy when the were 18p. Bought again when they were 89p, so my average buy price is very low. Since then I have just watched with amazement. I can hardly believe they are still climbing so steeply.

[dashton42] 06/2/2013 13:42

Graham1TY - agree with much of what you say - Bidstart is currently tiny, and, as I can testify as someone who's used it, it's not quite the "finished article" yet...

I guess it all comes down to this question; do you think that SGI has the knowledge, determination and resources to develop this embryo web site into a real, must-visit, revenue-earning collectables website rolled out more widely (or hopefully even globally)?

The eps hit over the next couple of years will hopefully be worth it in the long run, if they can make the acquisition work. Who knows what the answer to that one is though. I'm no clairvoyant.

(Wish I'd had my SGI shares since the Flying Flowers days, jadeticl !!)

[jadeticl] 06/2/2013 12:31

OK there is much we don't know, but we do know that the appreciation of the share price has been phenomenal over the last few weeks. I received most of my SGI shares for free when they were split off Flying Flowers. The FBDU shares proved useless, but SGI has been a goldmine.

[graham1ty] 06/2/2013 11:34

Why is this so strong ? eps falling the next two years.

Bidstart is a real gamble. It is TINY. Just one man, Ok the founder, but one man in his garage. Bidstart generated just £200,000 of revenue in 2011. Bidstart had only 60,000 signed up members ( growing fast) but ONLY 1132 sellers in all of 2011. ONLY just a thousand. How many sellers are there on EBay ????? 1 million, 2 million ?>??

How many distinct stamp sellers on EBay ? 10s of 1000s, 100s of 1000s worldwide.

Bidstart my be about to transform SGI.....but we do not know that yet

[dashton42] 06/2/2013 08:31

Indeed - hopefully in time it'll prove to be warranted (I'm assuming that a lot of it is down to hopes/anticipation that the Bidstart acquisition will prove to be a game-changer for the company).

I think that we're going to have to wait a while to know for certain (I know from personal experience how long new IT projects such as the one SGI is setting up to enhance/roll out the website take), but meanwhile, I guess the legacy company will continue doing what it does best, and hopefully some of the cash-related questions which have been raised on this BB will be answered positively.

Looking forward to Simon Thompson's SGI update in Investors Chronicle on Friday (I think his column's updated at 7am)...

[jeanesy2] 05/2/2013 19:58

The rise here has been remarkable imo.

[dashton42] 28/1/2013 13:14

Simon Thompson (Investors Chronicle) is to update the investment case for SGI (among others) in his column on 8th Feb. In the meantime, he's sold 4 companies from his 2012 Bargain Shares Portfolio, and SGI is one of the six companies NOT sold.

[dashton42] 28/1/2013 08:42

A recent update on the SGI December auction, which "...achieved a wonderful result":

[dashton42] 11/1/2013 15:42

The share seems to have broken out of its recent sideways trading pattern (at least it looked sideways to me) on this update. Even though it was an "in line" statement, I liked its positive tone...

[dashton42] 11/1/2013 14:55

Thanks robinnicolson, much appreciated

[robinnicolson] 11/1/2013 11:26

The net cash is slightly ahead of house broker Peel Hunts estimate of £6.3m.
They reiterate their buy recommendation and estimate that the shares are supported by 197p of asset backing (173p per share of assets + 24p per share cash).

[dashton42] 11/1/2013 08:23

Bullish update today - I look forward to the results, and hopefully a further, more detailed, update on the Bidstart development plans...

Was the cash balance what people were expecting?

[dashton42] 08/1/2013 09:36

I registered on Linkedin to have a look at these new jobs for SGI. The most senior one seems to have been filled, but here's the preamble from the Senior Software Engineer position:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job Description

Summary

bidStart.com is the collectibles marketplace, recently acquired by Stanley Gibbons, the most well-known, respected and trusted name in philately and collectibles. We're now ready to put our brand and resources behind bidStart to expand the platform, and role it out globally, and we need your help!

You'll be expected to help us re-organize and further develop the codebase at bidStart and create an infrastructure to take over the world (of collectibles anyway!). Having been built from the ground up on primarily PHP, Sphinx, mySQL and mooTools, by mainly one programmer (also the founder), bidStart has been uniquely developed to serve the collectibles market. You'll have the unique opportunity of helping to guide our software's future.

About the Job

The core engineering team at bidStart links all of the pieces of our eCommerce engineering and operations together. They power the back end of everything we do. Organize our codebase; create the code and systems to allow us to provide custom search engine technology exclusively built for collectibles; link together the Stanley Gibbons catalog data to both buyer products, such as online catalog subscriptions and virtual collection management, and seller products such as listing tools and stamp image recognition software; extend our internal and external APIs and much more.

We're setting up a brand new development team from scratch here in Raleigh, North Carolina, and plan to have around 15 full time engineers / developers by the end of 2013. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will ultimately be helping us to Tap into, and lead the worldwide collectibles marketplace, which reaches into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Get ready for an exciting challenge and opportunity for all of us!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[hectorp] 06/1/2013 14:27

very useful, dashton.

[dashton42] 06/1/2013 14:26

SGI is doing some recruitment for their bidStart expansion (I think) - found these in LinkedIn:


Stanley Gibbons Ltd is hiring: Software Engineer (Collectibles Marketplace) in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

17 days ago


Stanley Gibbons Ltd is hiring: Senior Software Engineer - Collectibles Marketplace (Core) in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

19 days ago


Stanley Gibbons Ltd is hiring: Executive Assistant to the Chief Digital Officer in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

1 month ago

[hectorp] 02/1/2013 16:41

So wots happenin' in 2013?

[dashton42] 06/12/2012 07:54

Behind-the-scenes news or rumours not available to mere mortals I expect. I've done a Google search, but apart from an article from yesterday on SGI's legal team for the bidstart acquisition, I've not found anything.

[jeanesy2] 05/12/2012 18:54

New high , but i dont understand why myself ?

[dashton42] 05/12/2012 14:48

For SGI investors who are also philatelists, there are some interesting articles here by various Stanley Gibbons managers: