I have written several guides on GB stamps and have mentioned "Stanley Gibbons" in a couple of them but only as a reference. As a result of this I have had a few messages asking if I have a problem with Stanley Gibbons but on the contrary I feel that without Stanley Gibbons, collecting stamps would certainly not be where it is today. The catalogues they produce are second to none and are,  in my opinion the best money can buy but is the company itself where I have reservations.

If anyone has ever read the history of Stanley Gibbons then they would know that the company today would be unrecognizable to the great man himself.
 
Edward Stanley Gibbons was born in 1840 in Plymouth and as we all know started his interest in stamps from his fathers chemist shop. He sold the business in 1890 for £25,000 and travelled the world to visit places he learnt about from stamps.

Now the company Stanley Gibbons Ltd has been sold more times than "Nicolas Annelka" and this is where I feel collectors may feel "let down"

Below is just a couple of companies who have owned said S.G. Ltd.

1981 Swedish Company Esselte A.B. decided it wanted to sell S.G. Ltd whom it had acquired when it bought British Letraset Commercial Art Group, as it did not figure in its long term plans.

1998 Flying Flowers who supplied flowers through the post paid £13.5 million for the stamp company.

Now I know business's are "in it" to make money but I would imagine collectors have always felt that Stanley Gibbons was owned and run by fellow collectors and not companies who just wanted to make a "quick buck". Indeed profits for the Stanley Gibbons Group were over £3,000,000 in December 2007.
A clue is in the name "Ltd" as the shareholders would obviously like to see a healthy return year in year out and so prices are likely to continue to rise.

The reason why stamps are valued so high in their catalogues is because the owners have realised that more people have a higher "disposable" income these days and see stamps as an investment rather than a hobby.
So in my opinion pricing out your average collector, this is highlighted as Stanley Gibbons ran a "Rare Stamp Investment Fund" which is now closed where for a £20,000 investment you could see a 10% return over 5 years.

I still feel there is a stigma attached to collecting stamps as with any hobby associated with characters like "Roy Cropper" in Coronation Street. So when I place an order through S.G mail order department I don't want to imagine that the "lady" on the other end of the phone is laughing at me and thinking i'm some sort of "geek" and that she too is a stamp collector. ( I did ask her and she just laughed!!)

I hope I have not offended anybody and if I have it was purely unintentional but my friends think I spend my money on fast cars and even faster women......if only!!!

Thanks for getting this far and hope this light hearted look at todays world of stamps has enlightened you.