There may be a hint of the anorak about stamp collectors, but with traditional investments looking as solid as a blancmange investors are turning to stamps and other collectibles to protect their wealth. Over the past decade, stamps have outperformed the FTSE 100 index, the British housing market and even gold, and an index of 30 rare stamps sold by Stanley Gibbons, the world's biggest stamp dealer, is showing an annual increase of 39 per cent, taking the cumulative increase over the past ten years to about 250 per cent. Stanley Gibbons, which traces its roots to 1856, when Edward Stanley Gibbons bought a sackful of rare South African stamps from two sailors, reported a sharp rise yesterday in turnover and profits in the first half of this year. Its chairman, Martin Bralsford, said: “The benefits of investing in collectibles...
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