Philately new hobby of smart Indian investors :

CHENNAI: Imagine your nearby post office making crores out of stamps. If you find that unbelievable, sample this. The philately division of the Chennai city region postal department did a business of Rs 1 crore last year.

                "Stamps are an esoteric form of investment," says M S Ramanujan, post master general of the region. It's not surprising that the evolved Indian investor finds stamp collection not just a hobby, but a way to make money when other asset classes offer volatile returns.

According to Madanchand Darda, a veteran collector of stamps, it is a very stable investment. "The minimum appreciation you will get on a rare stamp is 15-20% every year, going by the standard stamp catalogues," he says. "There is very little chance of losing money."

A stamp catalogue is a list of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices, updated periodically. The commonly used catalogues in India are Stanley & Gibbons and Phila India. "Beginning 2010, Stanley and Gibbons has been bringing out a catalogue covering India. Earlier, India was included under their Commonwealth catalogue," says Darda.

N Seshadri, a philatelist from Chennai who has his name in the Limca Book of Records for having a collection of 1.62 lakh commemorative, used stamps of one particular design from different countries, puts the appreciation per annum at 5%. "The stamps are exchanged going by either the catalogue value or the face value. In case of new stamps, the face value method is used while for old stamps, catalogue values are used."

To sell or buy stamps, you can go through the traditional route of dealers you trust or you can take advantage of some of the auction houses that are coming up—for instance, in Lucknow and Kolkata. Auction houses charge a commission.

The value of stamps vary and some of the expensive ones can cost lakhs. A penny black stamp, which is the world's first adhesive postage stamp (issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on May 1, 1840), would fetch between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 4 lakh.

"The stamps issued by the British before independence command a great premium," says Darda. "I know of a collection of 1,000 such stamps whose value is estimated to be in the range of Rs 2-4 crore."

Stamps depicting Mahatma Gandhi fetch a great value since collectors all over the world vie for it. A 1948 Rs 10 Mahatma Gandhi stamp is worth around Rs 12,000 in the current market, making it one of the most valuable in the post-independence era stamps category.

Source: The Times of India, July, 19, 2011