When Heinrich Kohler Auctions in Germany gets 6 figure sums for the 110+50 pfennig Audrey Hepburn stamp illustrated nearby - Escala benefits as they own Kohler 100%. 

When Harmers Of New York sell stamps for 58 times catalogue value in a major USA sale as per the stamp shown nearby - they are another Manning group 100% owned Auction!

Regular readers of this column know top end stamps and collections are obtaining record prices right now - often running into MANY millions a collection.  Banking a large chunk of each such sale is a perfect business model, as the auction does not own the stock - just acts as the 'middle man' in such sales.

Just four of these Manning Group Auction houses in the USA sold goods worth $US15 million in November 2005 alone. That is a lot of commission coming in as gross profit.  

Large firms like Stanley Gibbons and Afinsa are pushing 'stamp investment' on a scale most readers would not believe.  All readers have heard of Stanley Gibbons, but I bet few have heard of Afinsa.

In truth Stanley Gibbons are just small part time backyard dealers when compared with Afinsa. This Spanish based firm is easily the world's largest stamp dealer, with sales in 2003 reported to be approx 1 Billion Euros, making SG look like a minnow.

Compare this Afinsa turnover to the record year SG last reported, with pre-tax profit rising 42% and annual sales of just £10 million.  Afinsa has 2,400 sales representatives, 600 full-time employees, and 200 offices.

Afinsa is the parent company of Auctentia, which as far as I can work out still owns 69% of massive US auction and collectible operator Greg Manning Auctions Inc, (now called ESCALA) which itself is listed on the American NASDAQ stock exchange. 

Afinsa is reportedly already holding stamps insured for €1.2 billion (=$A1.93655 billion) in a large safe for its investment clients.  This is about 83 times more than Stanley Gibbons annual turnover. 

A sobering thought.  That figure is close to the annual nett profit of massive banks like Westpac Australia or Commonwealth Bank Of Australia.

I stress I am a stamp dealer, not an investment adviser, and correctly predicting a stock to double in price is past history, and might have just been luck.  The facts presented above are as accurate as I can research them. 

You should ALWAYS obtain expert independent advice and do your own research if you plan to buy any stocks and shares based on my comments - or indeed from anyone who is not a licensed financial advisor.  

One reader invested $50,000 in August as he agreed with my prophesy, and the broad reasoning behind it.  He more than doubled his money (after all brokerages)  when he sold in January.  He sent me a case of very nice bubbly as a "thank you", so this de-facto investment advisor role has its upside!

My trading philosophy has always been: "you can't go broke making a profit"  and as he more than doubled his investment in a few months I personally think he was very wise selling when he did.  I certainly would have.

I must stress up front this is a 100% true story.

It might seem like a piece of pulp fiction, but I guarantee you every word is true.

I received a phone call in January from a reader who had seen my then current stamp column.  In that column I photographed a KGV 2d Orange with a Burracoppin Western Australia that had an inverted watermark.  It is illustrated nearby.

A collector had asked me if I would buy that stamp for $12,000.  I had said "YES",  did not argue about the price, and lined up a firm sale for it, which took quite a deal of time.  The seller then got the brain flash to send the stamp to auction where it did not do very well. 

Bottom line - that genius ended up with $3,000 LESS in his hand than he would have received had he sold it to me for cash.  And he received it months later.

I missed out of course on my $1,000 commission on the sale, that would have prevailed had the sale proceeded.  So no-one was happy - except the auctioneer, and even he may have tales of woe to tell us.  

A weird story, and one I hope all sellers of expensive stamps keep in mind.  Auction is NOT always the guaranteed way to get the highest price, or the fastest price, as that story proves for all time.