Stamps of a lifetime

One collector's stamp collection is expected to realise some £100,000 (€127,000) at an auction in Dublin tomorrow.

The Irish collector's stamps make up a good two-thirds of the entire postage stamp auction that starts at 1 p.m. at Whyte's in Marlborough Street. The single collection comprises millions of stamps in 320 albums collected over a lifetime, says auctioneer Mr Ian Whyte.

While some people's stamp collections are worth millions of pounds, the £100,000 estimated value is "not too bad", says Mr Whyte.

"It's nice to know that you can build up a collection over a lifetime to get to that amount of money. It shows you that at the end of a lifetime's hobby that you've something to show for it. I mean there's a lot of hobbies you have happy memories and that's it."

The collection is the fruition of some 40 years' collecting, begun in childhood.

So if we collect stamps from envelopes, are we on course for an alternative personal pension? Mr Whyte says: "For the collection to be of value, you're going to have to spend money on it, obviously. This chap obviously spent quite a lot, many, many thousands of pounds over the years.

"You don't get your collection of £100,000 by getting old stamps off your envelopes. And this is a mistake. A lot of people come in to us with collections they had as a schoolboy. And the first thing I'll ask them is: `How much have you spent on it?'

"And they look at you blankly and you say: `Well, you know, you're hardly going to find anything of any use in there.'

"So obviously a collection built up of stamps you got for nothing, unless you inherited some fabulous collection from somebody, they're unlikely ever to be worth anything. I mean they'd be worth a small amount, but certainly nothing worthwhile.

"So a collection, it's almost a pension fund in a way. That you're putting away money, you're buying stamps or coins or whatever it is. You're getting the pleasure out of looking at them and putting them in your album and studying them and doing what you will with them.

"But they're quietly appreciating in value over the years . . . In some cases you might only be just getting the money you put into them back . . .

"In some cases it can be a very good investment. In others, it's just about passable. But at least you've had the hobby. And at the end of the day, you or your widow or your family are going to get a nice return out of it."

Some items in tomorrow's auction include lot 660, a 1931 2s booklet of stamps comprising six at 2d, nine at 1d and six at 1/2d.

Estimated at £1,200£1,400, it cost only 10p in 1931. Mr Whyte says: "There are collectors in the world who collect nothing but these booklets. There's actually a society of booklet collectors."

A first flight cover - an envelope carried on the first flight of a particular plane or air service - between Galway and Berlin in 1932 (lot 642) is estimated at £400£450.

"It went from Galway to Berlin and then it went from Germany down to South America by Graf Zeppelin - so it was a way of speeding the mail between Galway and Brazil."

Two old-fashioned British Empire albums (lots 43, 44) with collections that stop at George V are estimated at £2,500£3,000 and £2,000£2,500 respectively. "Twenty years ago, you'd see lots of collections like that. Now you rarely see them."

Start prices can be viewed on Whyte's website. Prices realised will be posted within 48 hours of the auction: www.whytes.ie, or telephone: 01 874 6161.

jmarms@irish-times.ie