B. Alan Ltd Closing Down

Yesterday, I received a mail from B. Alain Ltd. The mail stated: "After over 50 years of trading, B Alan is closing down."

B Alan Ltd. is a British dealer specialising in modern GB issues. They had a standing order service that catered for the specialised GB collector. They, also, are the people behind the 'Connoisseur Catalogue' that is a standard work for specialised Machin collectors. It complemented the Deegam Handbook. The latter listed the orientation of printing but no 'shades'. The Connoisseur catalogue did not list printing directions, but did list 'shades',

John M. Deering, who writes 'Machin Watch' for Stanley Gibbons Stamp Monthly magazine used Connoisseur for his new issue service.

After the passing of Mike Holt, about 10 years ago, this is the second new issues dealer that discontinues its business. In 2016, Tony Bellew retired. There remain very few dealers that cater for the Machin enthusiast.

I was wondering if this is perhaps partly a casualty of the demonetization of all the modern GB postage, especially the Machins. I mean if someone is sitting on top of tens of thousands of dollars in face value postage that overnight will have zero intrinsic value, it is a difficult decision to stay in business with all that stock. The classics and varieties will continue to hold their value but the "2x face" baseline for catalog value may no longer have any meaning. A sheet of stamps with £5 face value will always hold a minimum value around £5 if it can still be used as postage, but once demonetized, who's to say the catalog value or retail value won't drop to £1 because they are so common.

I don't know the GB market, but from a US perspective where modern postage in bulk typically sells at a good discount from face value, if the US Government offered to buy my entire stock at face value (in trade for Forever stamps whose value will continue to increase with inflation) I would jump on the opportunity.

Sorry to see that happen. Whatever the reason for his retirement, it is sad to see a dealer hang up his hat. It is hard for a modern collector to find a source to fill the missing spaces, there are very few dealers that have a good or specialized stock of modern material.

https://goscf.com/t/79986&whichpage=1#726160

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/b...RCODEDSTAMPS

This is one of the largest dealers of modern GB stamps. Its stock includes pre-decimal stamps that have long been demonetised. If that would have been a ground, this dealer, likely, would have thrown in the towel in the mid 1970s. Buying stamps at face value to sell them at a discount will never be a viable business model. Demonetisation does not change that.

This dealer also is one of the major new-issue dealers, especially where it comes to specialised material. Demonetisation does not affect that part of the business. Nor does it affect the specialised business.

Decimal postage stamps haven't become redundant - just the Machins, which can still be used for a little while. I usually pick uo decimal material for around 50% of face value.

50 years is a long time. To have the business survive the recession was no mean feat, but perhaps no one was there to keep it going at this point.

They also published a modern British errors catalogue long ago.