Gibbons Does It Again

I really do try to give Stanley Gibbons the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes however, the bonehead stuff they do just astounds me. For a company in the financial situation they are in, wasting money on dumb promotions seems par for the course.

I came home today to a wrapped big glossy catalog from them. I just assumed it was their 2016 supply/publication catalog. Upon opening it I find no- it is a price list of stamp offerings. Apparently at full catalog prices. No kidding- 100 pages. Does anyone actually pay these prices? It must have cost them big bucks to produce this and to mail as well.

Makes me wish I'd have won the 800 million plus Power ball. Someone needs to buy them and save them from themselves.

Doesn't that just save people from having to buy the catalog?

People said that about H.E. Harris for decades, and in current day, Mystic. Obviously there is a segment of collectors perfectly willing to pay full catalog and above for the convenience of ordering from a catalog.

I buy from Gibbons, but it's only the real specialist stuff, the sort of thing that would only pop up in an auction once every 10 years or so. They have been running down their Rest of The World stamp stock for some time now, and even their Empire and Commonwealth is getting a bit thin in places. I have a funny feeling they're really only going to cater for GB or "investment material" soon.

As for the rest of the stuff I collect, I buy it elsewhere at a fraction of the price.

"There used to be a stamp dealer here", one might say. When I visited Gibbons as a spotty adolescent in the 1960s, the shop was packed with stamp collectors and staff. These days, it's a slightly forbidding sanctum with albums, stockbooks, accessories and, perhaps, the odd older, wealthy-looking customer. As Tim says, they're heading somewhere else. The problem seems to be that they don't know quite where, and thus they frequently take paths that lead nowhere.

I agree with you, Geoff. If you have a look at the Web site (good luck with making head or tail of that monster; you should hear SG staff comments on that!) it's clear that they are focussing on Web sales rather than dealing with the likes of you or I. The sales staff these days are (in general) just that. Smartly dressed sales staff. The expertise has either retired or has been put into the back rooms. The Ringwood office is in an even worse state. Changing times, yes, but not changing for the good?

They're lost, but they're making good time?

SG is a good source for quality specialist material, expensive but they usually have the goods. The bulk of the catalog I received is post 1970 mint stuff. It may not actually be listed at full catalog, but is well above most dealer prices, based on a spot check. I have to wonder what genius in their marketing department thought mailing out this thing was going to make them any money? I also have to wondder how many of their staff actually collect themselves?

That type of catalog is standard for a luxury retailer and actually expected by their customers as an indication of credibility, and the cost isn't material compared to their sales volume and margins. In the fashion segment, Burberry, Chanel and Loro Priana do the same thing. Once you realize that SG have countless customers who spend £10,000 per year or more with them, moves like this make sense.

Spink do the same. I've been sent big fat catalogues from Singapore for sales I would never dream of participating in. Imagine the profit margin needed to generate this kind of mail-shot. I'm now off their mailing list and look at the catalogues online. They didn't even have the decency to put postage stamps on the envelope, either.

It will be interesting to see if they are advertising their Marketplace website at next week's Stampex in London. At last Autumn's Stampex I asked them why there was no mention of their new website on the stand. After an embarrassing silence I was told that they would be advertising the site at such shows when the problems that they were experiencing with the site had been solved.

Since then their website has undergone major changes and is now visually better and easier to navigate. I still haven't bought anything though

Mike