Stanley Gibbons Buys British Guiana 1c Magenta

A HISTORIC MOMENT FOR STANLEY GIBBONS

We are delighted to announce that today we were the successful bidder of the world's most famous and valuable stamp. The unique British Guiana 1c Magenta was purchased at auction in the USA for a total sum of $8.3m (including buyer's premium).

This is a historic moment for Stanley Gibbons and the hobby, and we hope you can share in our enormous excitement.

In addition to making it available for viewing at our flagship store at 399 Strand, it is our intention to make it available for everybody to enjoy owning a piece of this unique and storied item through the increasingly popular concepts of fractional ownership and the creation of digital collections.

For more details about the stamp and to register your interest in learning more about the possibility of purchasing a piece of history, please visit www.1c-magenta.com

We can't wait to welcome you to the Home of Stamp Collecting so you can share our excitement and see this philatelic holy grail.

Interesting. Mr Weitzman takes a hit too.

The other two lots did very well. Gonna see if I can get me a timeshare of them thangs.

Maybe you'll get an NFT with your fractional share of the stamp... but fractional ownership only makes investment sense (cents?) if there is a commitment to sell the item ... at some point.

Ah, timeshares. I remember thrty-odd years abo being plagued by timeshare sellers who'd accost us in the streets of Valletta. Took us about a day to move from politely listening to swearing at them before they'd started speaking ...

Smacks to me of being a superb marketing ploy. However, if they sell it will the "shareholders" get a return on their investment, or even get a say in any further sale? Also, if anyone stumps up for a 51% share will they have the right of refusal on any further sale and could they even engineer a shareholder revolt and take ownership. I'm sure it will develop in interesting ways

Very interesting development and a big feather in SG's cap to be sure.

Interesting that the prices realized from today, for both the one cent and the inverted block, did not eclipse the last round of sales. Noticeably lower than Sotheby's pre-sale estimates.

Was the last round an abnormally high outlier (that is, did he overpay)? Or is this a sign that there's some softening in the higher end of the stamp market? At first I thought that the lower price for the magenta might be due to the big ol' signature he put on the back, but the inverted Jenny block also fell short of expectations. Would be interesting to plot the hammer prices for each of the two items over time, adjusted for inflation; I'm guessing this is the first drop, and a significant one at that once inflation's taken into account.

I know nothing about coins, but the sale of the coin today was an interesting contrast to the stamps. Not sure what, if anything, that says about the long-term market for stamps vs. coins.

A great publicity coup for SG. They have a vested interest in a strong future stamp market, so if this generates some buzz and net inflows of collectors (and their £££) into the hobby, even better.

Don Sundman (Mystic Stamps) sent out a post, inverted block undervalued at sale today.
"I was kicking myself for not regesterring for the sale" . Time will tell.
Cheers

I seem to recall that, after Hind bought the 1c magenta at the Ferrary sale, he tried to resell at auction, but would have made a loss.

Since this was a renowned auction house and a well-published auction it was valued spot-on. Since it was sold against the highest bid, no one was willing to bid more.

So the offer is to own an essentially intangible piece of an item that has seen approx 1/10 of value loss in a 7-year span? I see…

I guess I just find the whole idea less than enthusing and not exactly convincing from an investment standpoint. It's really more of the novelty of it, imo. I'd rather own my own physical stamps I can see in person even if I take a loss on them. But I guess then I can't tell people I own a part of the world's most expensive stamp. But I could just as easily buy an Apple share and say I own part of one of the biggest companies in the world so …

I do like that it's on display, though, for those fortunate enough to see it. That part is cool from a collector standpoint as it's kind of a piece of philatelic art and history.

The Jenny block last sold publicly for 2.97 million dollars to Gross and then was sold privately to Mr. Shoe. How is a 4.86 million dollar sale (plus tip) a disappointment? Forget what Sotheby's estimated. And I have a hard time believing Sundman deciding to think out loud on social media that it was undervalued and he should have bid. Oops. Really? Come on. He can always approach the new Jenny block owner now after announcing that he would love to pay more.

Have they mentioned what kind of conservation (if any) they are planning to do? The stamp has seen some significant changes over time which some would say has detracting from it's desirability.
If you were buying into an investment like a building, you would want to know the plan for avoiding deterioration and maintaining its condition related value.
Don

Don, particularly true for it being on display. Sunlight. Theft. Handling damage. Etc etc etc.

It's interesting, regardless, how it will work. Not for moi though.

Those owner stamps on the back are like those tattoos that you got on that drunken shore leave and when you were positive that Sheila was the one. Ill advised and constant reminder that some vanity is best expressed with monogrammed cufflinks.