Stanley Gibbons Share Discussion Threads

[davidosh] 26/10/2014 11:37

Quite a few of you guys must be serious about your investing so just making sure you know about the three day Mello2014 investor event in November...

www.mello2014.com

Some great keynote speakers including leading fund managers of big and small caps and top entrepreneurs. We have over fifty companies coming including high growth and high yield for income. We do not do resources or mining stocks.

hxxp://mello2014.com/our-speakers/

Use my MELLO-DISCOUNT code if you want half price tickets.

Incidentally SGI had hoped to be at this event but unfortunately recent events probably means they have their plate full

[whackford] 25/10/2014 07:34

Graham - I agree with your statements, although I was unaware of the monstrosity of the Strand property ( do you mean large or just ugly?) - will take a look next time I pass.

Certainly the current Mallett model is not working hence their selling up.

Mallett had a stock clearance sale across the street at Sothebys some years (about 8?) ago, which turned out to be quite successful. Not sure if they can repeat that and turn "lower of cost or net realisable value", which should be in the accounts, into cash. If this turns out to be possible, you would have thought Mallett would have done this again and looked after its shareholders better.

[graham1ty] 24/10/2014 18:02

Whackford, agree totally. Nonsense note. Mallett take pretty good furniture, do a certain amount of cleaning up ( I will not get accused of libel by suggesting they heavily restore) then charge massive amounts at a 100-250% Mark up.

You cannot do that with stamps, and ironically SG have always said absolutely top end stamps are not that high margin: you cannot "restore" and add value, your buyer knows more about the stamp than you do ( never true with furniture) and he will want the providence and almost certainly know what SG paid for the stamp.

The comparison with Dreweatt is not correct. Chalk and cheese. The average Mallett customer would not be seen dead in Dreweatts or Bloomsbury.

SG does not need Dover St or New York. They are already property overweight with an oversize, underused Strand monstrosity.

No synergy at all. If I was cynical, I would suggest SG shut the offices and liquidate the Stock. I used to hold William Bedford. Antiques are held at cost, usually way below realisable value. So a fire sale of Mallett stock would be a great value enhancer......

[qs99] 24/10/2014 16:46

reacted well to that note above, thanks for posting bingaxu as I bought on the back of that!!

[whackford] 23/10/2014 15:36

Bing - For quite some years I held Mallet shares, so know the company quite well. It is a very high class West-end antique dealer.

I don't understand this talk of "...taking on larger auctioneers... etc". Mallett is (currently) a completely different type of business - the opposite end of the spectrum to auctioneering.

I sometimes wonder if "City brokers", in this case Peel Hunt,are capable of any objective thought and merely repeat what their masters (Stanley Gibbons) are telling them whether it makes sense or not.

As an SGI investor I shall watch with interest but am doubtful if this move by SGI has been properly thought through. How are SGI going to use Mallett?

[robinnicolson] 23/10/2014 13:43

Peel Hunt have restarted coverage of SG with a buy recommendation and a 400p price target.

[graham1ty] 20/10/2014 13:27

Dash, sorry am in the Far East. Back end of week. Will restart our correspondence then. I have never "bought" the argument that in times of crisis people buy alternative investments. They buy when they feel flush and think they walk on water and can make money out of any class, IMHO. I also never believed the SG story that stamp prices go up for ever and are a great investment. I backed SG originally as it had a great brand, a great reputation and was punching below it's weight. Now, seems totally confused as whether is trader in everything (Inc furniture, just for the hell of it); an Internet platform; an acquisition machine ; or SG the historic stamp dealer ? None are currently working......

[superiorshares] 19/10/2014 09:57

cheekydollar- I agree with you that demand for alternatives will grow, but I think at a later date. The European farce of a super state, still has the wall paper in place over the cracks, if you follow it, you will see those cracks will come back very much larger than last time . ITS all a question of timing Are you not worried the results will be messy ? I had this for sub 2.50 short/med term, but I think it could fall a lot further yet. For me would need to be on a pe ratio of about nine with a chunky dividend to be a tempter. Without a doubt I will be in for the long term in due course. good luck. STAMPS will be the business.
dyor

[cheekydollar] 17/10/2014 15:24

Well ive topped up. The price is now well below the pre-noble acquisition with the full year results being announced in November I think this can only be a buy at this price. If anything the recent weakness in equity markets will drive investors to other markets such as coins + stamps which are much less volatile.

DYOR

[dashton42] 17/10/2014 15:07

Guess the Blackrock sale explains some of the recent weakness. Hardly a vote of confidence by them.

[dashton42] 15/10/2014 06:57

G1TY - have been away from the market for an extended period, now back, and am looking with some concern at the sp! Will be reading past posts and news to try to understand what's going on with this company. I did see the Mallett news, and it was a bit of a head-scratcher for me.

[jadeticl3] 14/10/2014 17:02

Well it appears to me that the main thing happening is that the share value has dropped from 380p in March 14 to 255 in Oct 14. Has this company gone that badly wrong?

[bingaxu] 08/10/2014 10:37

Two nearly half million BUYs this morning. Something happening...

[whackford] 29/9/2014 08:42

Mallett bid comes as a complete surprise to me.
Mallett have finally decided to throw in the towel after a few rough years. I have Mallet book value per share at around 87p per share after paying special divi in June. So a bid of 60p reflects the poor trading outlook.

Mallett has the prestigious Dover St. shop as well as the Madison Avenue shop. Presume both rented? I presume SGI will want to break away from the traditional (mainly art and furniture) Mallett business;will be interesting to see if the Mallett name is useful in the line of business being pursued by SGI.

As you say, a bit of a puzzler.

[graham1ty] 29/9/2014 07:46

Well, buying Mallett. Is this megalomania from Mike Hall ? Why not get value out of Noble first, where we are all still uncertain about the benefits ? Mallett has a very chequered history and is a completely different business IMHO. Wealthy clients, but hardly stamp collectors.....and not the type of people wanting to get a benson catalogue through their door. SGI has got to prove itself as a major stamp dealer (whether online or dealing) and this further confuses the message.

Megalomania

[bingaxu] 19/9/2014 12:41

China's wealthy increasingly looking West :http://mobile.theasset.com/inside.php?tid=27425&utm_source=2014-09-18&utm_medium=Mobile&utm_content=China%E2%80%99s%20wealthy%20increasingly%20looking%20West%20&utm_campaign=Unknown

[bingaxu] 19/9/2014 12:38

Will the 2nd royal baby help with sgi?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/11081800/Which-stocks-could-benefit-from-the-royal-baby.html

[bingaxu] 19/9/2014 12:27

I also think now it's right time to buy or top this share:https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/3-shares-m-convinced-bargains-122402779.html

[qs99] 15/9/2014 10:13

thanks for posts above, very interesting. SGI is on the "watch list" as have had no holding since after latest results....looks pretty poor though in terms of share price dropping off, doesn't IMO bode well and maybe a few people have read the posts above! Let's see how things work out. If they fail on the IT project I am sure there will be a lot of red on screen and institutions calling for heads...IMO

[jeanesy2] 05/9/2014 18:54

Drip drop. News on sales not confirmed so there is no wonder. Will this now move down to yearly lows ?

[graham1ty] 03/9/2014 07:41

Ok, went into bidstart and it asks if u want to test the beta. Slow. And I have only played with it for 2 mins, but is there a UK version ? Is it an SG venture ( to capitalise on the reputation) or bidstart branded ? All catalogue numbers are North American. The stamp description that u see is blunt "Canada 50" with no immediate info on condition, mint used, no link to SG cat numbers. I then tried clicking through, by looking at one particular stamp, to see what further info. All I got was a technical error message.

I have never bought or sold on bidstart (3500 positives on eBay) as do not believe it has the range of stock, sellers or buyers. Have not even bothered to compare costs of selling as, for goodness sake, whatever yr gripes about EBay fees....it actually works, and works well. I just cannot be bothered to move platform.

As an aside, I have spent c£50,000 over the last ten years on stamps. Despite multiple contacts with SG, it has never "picked me up" as a potential client. I can get all I need elsewhere.

[graham1ty] 03/9/2014 07:03

Just logged on here for first time for couple of months. See my post 1307 on the depressing ten year promise of new IT, the new online Market place, the IT teams that have been and gone, and the millions spent.

Now everything I read above is more depressing. Investment IT that is non existent, the new platform beta being useless etc etc. I have had c five meetings one on one with Mike Hall over the last ten years, and have never been convinced that moving to an online trading platform was the best way to leverage on the massive goodwill in the Stanley Gibbons name.

Can someone tell me how I view the new platform ? Could not get beta link listed above to open. Thanks

[jeanesy2] 30/8/2014 10:08

I see someone sold 10k well below bid on friday pm. I would be nervous if i was still invested here. News needed i think to confirm sales now september is upon us.

[eggbaconandbubble] 26/8/2014 12:46

My comment was rather tongue in cheek. But thanks for your post. I will I think steer clear of the shares even, until they can demonstrate they are sorting the apparent mess/ineptitude out.