Stanley Gibbons Share Discussion Threads

[njb67] 16/6/2016 09:22

2m

I tend to agree, I think demographics is working against stamp collecting, it is not fashionable with the young, and this is a long term trend not a recent phenomenon.

It would also go some way to explaining management behaviour over recent years

- focus on the far east as a growth market - with limited success
- talking up the sector with their proposed stamp fund, along with some rather suspect marketing materials and claims
- diversifying into adjacent spaces - badly

[gbh2] 16/6/2016 09:19

Seems to me you're the one with the grudge, suffering big loser syndrome imo!

[2magpies] 16/6/2016 09:13

So why are sellers listing thousands upon thousands of specimens?

Presumably these sellers are collectors who know a thing, or two, about stamps? No?

If 'only a mug would buy from ebay', and there are no buyers, it surely means that there are no mug punters left.

Who's the mug now? The one who's left with a un-sellable collection?

Philately party is over, methinks.

[gbh2] 16/6/2016 09:02

Only a mug would buy from ebay so little wonder there's few buyers around !

[2magpies] 16/6/2016 08:23

Its not the management, its the product: nobody wants it.

Take a look at e-bay.

Thousands of specimens with NO bids.

The philately balloon has been deflating for years, as the Stanley Gibbons party appears to be over.

Hundreds (perhaps thousands) of collections just waiting to be dumped onto an already fetid market - simple demographics.

That realisation is dawning on the (stock) market, as it already had in the stamp market, some years ago.

That's how it appears to me.

[11_percent] 15/6/2016 22:43

No, this layer of management should be making the company work, not strangling it.

5 years ago, this company worked, now it does not.

It beggers belief, that this could happen, it must a deliberate short strategy.

[ltcm1] 15/6/2016 21:25

This is the idea but I don't have all the numbers regarding SGI's position or the valuations of the different businesses they own.

Dreweatts and Bloomsbury would get good offers provided their key valuers are still in place.

Baldwins is another good business.

SG is hardest to value IMO but there is potential with the brand.

To me it seems SG have strangled these businesses by adding a layer of top line expense that isn't needed.

[clocktower] 15/6/2016 20:31

So Itsm1, there is more than enough to cover the lenders loans and pension deficit by your current reckoning then, leaving a good trading business in place, which will be more than its current market value bearing in mind the international goodwill value and other valuables the company has. We can all sleep soundly then tonight. :-)

Talk to you tomorrow hopefully if I wake up.

[ltcm1] 15/6/2016 19:52

Lol - hope that isn't your way of saying the shares are headed to 2p :)

I don't think SG has time though, they need to get on with it. While they have a stable of good businesses an economic shock would make them all hard to sell.

I don't see a bid coming at present for the whole company because all suitors will be thinking they can pick off the parts from the administrator. Unless there is radical action there is a real danger they could go bust.

IMO a break-up has to happen right now or the shareholders will get wiped out and the lenders will grab the assets.

[clocktower] 15/6/2016 18:15

These things take time Itcm1 but how much of an impact would that have if a RNS was issued out of the blue that confirmed a sale of parts of Mallet and Noble at a good price? Or of course a bid for the whole company.

[ltcm1] 15/6/2016 17:05

Understood. A sale of Mallets and Drewetts seems the obvious move to me. It is scary they are holding two largish businesses they know nothing about. They should sell asap before they ruin those too. It is obvious they paid about £20m more than Mallet and Noble were worth and there is no synergy with stamps anyway bar the coins element of Noble.

Also they should get the stamp collection right down by holding a couple of sales a year.

That is just the emergency start but the goal should be to divest and sell the whole lot really because the 'strategy' is madness. There is no connection between people who collect stamps and the antique trade.

Is the debt approx £20m and the pension deficit about £6m???

[clocktower] 15/6/2016 16:22

It seems that most are resigned to waiting for the 24th Itcm1 for the tale to fully unwind but one might be in for a shock turnaround in the share price prior to then.

[ltcm1] 15/6/2016 15:19

Has everyone given up even posting then??? Perhaps this in itself is a buying signal. I would have thought there would be a bit more interest what with the all time low being plumbed.

[ltcm1] 15/6/2016 14:57

I see the BOD don't pay themselves in stamps. Mind you, looking at the value of their stock options they probably wish they had.

[gbh2] 15/6/2016 14:31

If you look at what the BOD have been paying themselves you'd think this company had been a raging success, their performance result indicates the exact opposite may be true.

But then look at the whole market, only the company directors & hedge fund managers have been making money for the last 8 years !

Edit: And MPs of course who wangled a 11% increase and other financial extras.

[ltcm1] 15/6/2016 14:21

Why don't they just sell their stamp collection and pay the surplus back to investors???

Job done.

[ltcm1] 15/6/2016 13:44

Been away from these pages for a long time, can anyone please explain what has gone wrong here??? So a company that specialises in valuation has seen its own valuation crater from 300p to 12p in a couple of years??? At this rate they should call it Funky Gibbon...

Can't help thinking there are some good brands in the stable though. Perhaps Mike Ashley is preparing a bid???

[dlku] 15/6/2016 11:56

board should resign

[2magpies] 15/6/2016 08:53

Play the ball.

[gbh2] 15/6/2016 08:50

Still begs the question of why you're soooooo interested in what you consider to be a failing company?

[clocktower] 15/6/2016 08:46

LOL - Not many but loads of collectables that can be used to cover himself that are highly visible to those that wish too see.

[2magpies] 15/6/2016 08:39

ct

Indeed. They ARE the 'world of stamps'!

One glance at their share price tells you all you need to know about that world.

Down from 300p plus to a placing at 10p! Lorrdeee!

Does the 'emperor' have any clothes?

[clocktower] 15/6/2016 08:34

Few wanted oil or art or gold for that matter when the price was sinking, but like most things they have a cycle ans SGI is made up of a lot more than just stamps it is "The Market Place" . :-)

[2magpies] 15/6/2016 08:28

The only 'data' one needs is: what's happening to the prices!

Take another look at e-bay - no one wants the stamps.

Placees are seeing their paper profit evaporating before their very eyes.

Of course the share price could bounce, but IMHO this is no longer a viable business (except for the coins).

Their stamp stock is in the same position as any other private colletion: holding on, in the hope that some punter will buy at 'catalogue' price!

Markets do NOT like 'hope'.

Cash in hand, or stamp in album? Hmm.