The current Stanley Gibbons quotes for the £1, SG 178a is £70 MUH and £75 used …. both absurdly low.  I was pricing up a superb dared cds used set in blocks recently, and it occurred to me this is the ONLY set of used blocks of the thin paper I’ve ever handled. Not surprising really - it was near a MONTH’S wages for a working man!

£7 was an absolute fortune at that time. Several weeks wages for a normal worker. The AVERAGE annual UK wage in UK 1950, was just £100 - I kid you not - tinyurl.com/UKwage - around TWO quid a week gross before tax.  FACT.  (And paid annual leave was typically just ONE week!) That is the average national wage, not the minimum wage.  Ozzie wages were near identical then.

This BBC link outlining the Food Rationing in the UK well after WW2, might also surprise some - tinyurl.com/RationUK - National rationing did not totally end until 1954.  Indeed, meat, bacon, sugar, and butter were all tightly rationed across the UK, right up to the QE2 Coronation year in 1953. 

One wise word when purchasing “Thin” paper Robes issues - buy from REPUTABLE and experienced dealers only.  Some of the cowboys on places like ebay delight in mis-describing "Thick" paper copies as "Thin", and pocketing treble what they should.  Sadly the vast army of clueless ebay Bunny Buyers as always, hoover up the fiction, and grab the “EBaayaarghins”.  Do not join them!

tinyurl.com/RobesTute is a detailed discussion with many images, on how to accurately sort Thick from Thin paper in this VERY tricky issue.  Please do not ask ME for bulk stock of either, as I have almost no stocks.  This is not an ad, but a genuine tip for readers about a wildly under-rated stamp.  The market price for the MUH "Thin" really should be at least DOUBLE the "Thick", i.e. at about the $A200-300 level for nice copies.

Let's be sensible about price levels - the 1935 £1 Grey "CofA" Kangaroo (SG 137) that preceded this Robes stamp sells for $4,000 in MUH – the stamp shown nearby I mailed to a client this month.  ACSC value is $A5,000.  Even so, it is rather plentiful, and 600,000 were printed.  Yet it is valued THIRTY times more than a MUH £1 Robes of the same year???   Quite absurd.

Used copies of the £1 CofA Kangaroo are still pretty plentiful, and yet a nice VFU one is now getting around the $500 mark these days. There is no reason in my mind that a "Thin" paper genuine FU £1 Robes should not be a similar price, as it certainly is many times scarcer.  At bare MINIMUM they should be $A200 with cancels circa 1950s, so snap up any you see at today’s silly low prices.

Warren Buffett is recognised as the smartest living investor, and many books and detailed articles have been written dissecting and studying his successful, logical and very conservative approach to investing, spanning a half century.  The share price of his main company Berkshire Hathaway was $US303,000 or $A450,000 per single share as I typed this.  Buffett apparently owns endless millions of shares - do the math!

He still lives in the modest Omaha home he bought 61 years back.  Buffet’s estimated net worth today is “only” about $US75 Billion, but he has given away $US35 Billion in recent years.  Buffett has indeed promised to give away over 99% of his fortune.  In 2019 so far he has donated $3.6 billion, much of it to the Foundation of friends Bill and Melinda Gates, who also donate much of their immense fortune.

Berkshire Hathaway has averaged an annual growth in book value of 19.0% to its shareholders since 1965 - compared to just 9.7% from the S&P 500 Index with dividends included for the same period.  Berkshire oddly pays no dividends, and yet Buffett is paid only $US100,000 a year, and insists on paying his own postage and phone bills out of that pittance pay.

So clearly much is publicly known of Warren Buffett the mega successful investor, but few realise he ran a postage stamp approvals company when younger, and took ads in the mass circulation “Linns Stamp News” selling his approval selections.  He still has his stamp and FDC collection at his home he confirmed this month in the interview below.

Buffett attended the recent APS National Stampshow at Omaha Nebraska, due to his long held interest in philately, and the photo nearby shows him being interviewed by the APS roving reporter there, and as can be seen, this was all taking place in front of the Abacus Stamp Auctions stand, the well-known business based in Melbourne Australia.

Stamp collectors can even buy a set of 41¢ postally valid American stamps, depicting Warren Buffett, and his lifelong business sidekick, and Berkshire Vice President, Charlie Munger - the two stamps are shown nearby.  The two famously hold court centre stage at the annual Berkshire Hathaway downbeat and very folksy shareholder meetings - that for decades have been investor Pilgrimages!

tinyurl.com/WBstamp is the stampboards discussion on this recent interview, with transcripts of his comments on stamp collecting.  Warren Buffett did say - “Stamp Collecting is a Great, Great, Great hobby”.   As Rod Perry posts on there, such an endorsement should really be used widely by the hobby.  When Warren Buffet endorses anything so enthusiastically, it is well worth repeating, and I do so here!

Even the savvy business skills of Warren Buffet does not mean even he has always picked winners in life.  Buffet in his younger days decided he would try and corner the market in a current USA 1954 4¢ Airmail postage stamp, in the hope of rich rewards - and proverbially lost his shirt!  A true story that makes for interesting reading.

In 1959, Benjamin Graham was scheduled to speak at Beloit College about valuing individual common stock investments and bonds. Buffett wanted to see Graham speak in person, and so he called his friend Tom Knapp who worked at the Tweedy, Browne brokerage house that served as Graham’s broker.

Buffett convinced Knapp to go with him, and on the drive from Nebraska to Wisconsin, Knapp speculated that the current USA 4¢ Airmail stamp “The Blue Eagle” was soon going to be taken out of circulation, and would one day become a valuable collector’s item. 

Buffett was convinced the 4¢ Eagles could someday be worth tens of dollars each adjusted for inflation, paving the way for a possible 1,000% to 3,000% nominal gain, which would create true investment gains of 700% to 2,500% after adjusting for the expected opportunity cost, and inflation - and waiting for the market to develop.

After they saw Graham speak, Buffett and Knapp decided they would stop at all Post Offices on the way back to Omaha, and effectively “corner” the stamp market on these 4¢ Blue Eagle stamps. The biggest haul came in Denver, where they purchased a 200,000 stamp supply for $US8,000 face value.

That is the equivalent of about $US55,000 in today’s dollars.  In total, they bought almost 400,000 of the 4¢ stamps for around $16,000, making a stamp investment worth somewhere around $US100,000, when converted into today’s dollars.

As the years went by, Buffett found himself encountering one tiny problem - the stamps never became a scarce collector’s item!  No one especially wanted the 4¢ Blue Eagle stamps.  The pair had cornered the market they thought, gave the stamps years to mature in value, but the Boom in price never happened.

Eventually, in 1982, 23 years later, Buffett sold his stamps at a 10% discount under face, to a dealer who was active in supplying under face postage.  Knapp held on to his share of the Blue Eagles, ironically using 4¢ stamps in combination as rates rose, as postage for the rest of his life.

Buffett was wise to cut his losses in 1982 - the stamps still sell for pennies retail even today.  He sold his $8,000 investment in 1959, for just $7,200 in 1982, which was truly a $4,000 actual loss when adjusting for inflation - a pretty severe beating on a $4000 initial investment. 

That loss from the stamp investment had a clear influence on Warren Buffett’s approach to investing thereafter.  You never hear about him buying art, or ancient artefacts or other collectibles, a market that has helped create a lot of wealth for those that accurately predicted America’s cultural trends regarding art.

Mark Twain said that once a cat sits on a hot stove, it will never again sit on either a hot stove, or a cold stove.  Likewise, Warren Buffett has never returned to the arena of collectible investing, after his ill-fated 1954 4¢ Blue Eagle foray into new issue stamp speculation.

We seldom see 6 metre long stamp designs on public roads, but visitors to the huge Bunnings hardware store complex at Rydalmere in Sydney have been able to see this huge roadside sign as they visited.  These huge montages have been in place for about 5 years now, and millions of non-stamp collectors have seen them, in this busy suburban area.

This visual public artwork called “Memory Fragments” commemorates part of the history of Australia Post.  The sculpture was commissioned to comply with local Council policy, which mandates new property development invests in public artworks. 

Director of the site Ross Shepherd was commissioned to develop art concepts based on historical themes and forms.  The postage stamp hoardings reference the establishment of the first Merino sheep farms located on lands adjoining the site, with these well-known classic Australia Post stamps.

Captain John Macarthur, who arrived with the Second Fleet in 1789, is credited with establishing the fine Merino wool industry in Australia, that when mature, largely supported this country’s economy.  Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies, famously said in the 1950s our prosperity “rode on the sheep’s back”.   Macarthur’s first property “Elizabeth Farm” was established in 1793 on the Parramatta River, near where Harris Park is today.  Macarthur died in 1834, and the popular 3 stamp set commemorating his death is well known to all collectors of Australian stamps.                                                          

The South Australia “Departmental” stamps have a keen following.  These 2 or 3 letter department overprints on otherwise common stamps often get 4 figures.  I have been urging SG to price them for years, and the Editor really wants to, and asks me to get the keen collectors to guide him, but they never do, so “Catch 22” sadly, but the demand stays strong.

Abacus offered a nice range mid-year from the Murray Sherry (“Tamiami”) collection, and some very bullish prices resulted, despite all the lots being “T” Lots, where 10% Tax is added to hammer price, BEFORE the very juicy auctioneer “Buyer Fee” is then whacked on top of that.  One that took my eye is shown nearby, and had a pre-sale estimate of only $2,500.

Anyway, despite the pretty silly low $2,500 estimate, it was finally invoiced for around $A30,000 and clearly there was very keen bidding on it.  Centering purists will be horrified!  The American Grading Numbah Voodoo Cultists would grade this maybe 50 out of 100, and I am sure would never be interested, as these are not 98 or 99 graded.

Another to do well was the MAIN ROADS, GAMBIERTON, Black “M.R.G.” overprint on DLR Crown/SA Rouletted 2d orange, with - 'GAMBIERTON/ JY29/70/S.A' cds.  Believed to be Ex Manus (1920s) and Houston Wynn.  Estimate $3000, it was invoiced after all the taxes and fees were added, for about $13,000.

tinyurl.com/SADept is the 100s of post long discussion on these South Australia “Departmental” stamps, and highlights many of scarce ones, and shows many of the recent fakes that ebay is now awash with of course. The Sydney Forger is cranking these out like crazy, and the Ebay Bunnies are buying them with glee.

The IQ level of many ebay buyers does not reach double digits in many cases as we all know, but for those that do pass that low bar, simply google the seller name of the “EBARHHGEENS” and more often than not you will find match #1 is to Stampboards, where their current fakes are being exposed and discussed.  Buyer Beware.

The Americans often take Wacko Pills over their GRAYDEENG NUMBAHS, and pretty common stamps worth dollars to the rest of the sane stamp world, sell for $50,000 or so, to the tiny handful of cultists who cannot see this is all a Ponzi scheme type FAD, that like all fads will crash and burn.

tinyurl.com/GRAYDEENG is a recent discussion where a US GRAYDEENG company PSE, shows a “Perfect 100J” centred 4¢ stamp they were drooling over.  As stampboards members clearly showed via precise diagrams, the stamp was not “perfect” centred at all - not even close.  Some American paid near $A50,000 at Siegel Auctions for a stamp cat $170, that I’d gladly sell for $100.

Two corners are about to fall off as is obvious to all, and if is not perfect centred, but hey the PSE Voodoo GRAYDOUGHMEETAAH says “100J” (impossible to improve on allegedly!) and the rich Texans come flocking like lemmings trusting this nonsense. They should read stampboards and save their $50,000!

It is all a giant Ponzi type scheme in my view, and millions will be lost as prices fall and fall.  Exceedingly common USA stamps worth less than face value in the real word, these Numbah Cultists madly pay 4 figures for, as shown in that discussion.

Folks can spend their money how they choose of course.  Build collections of pet rocks, or Hula Hoops, or Beanie Babies etc.  But when the music stops, you own a box of hyped up material that no-one else will buy for anything like what YOU paid.  You can buy 20 or 30 fresh mint sets of 3 USA Zeppelins for that money, that WILL always be saleable