For instance, you may wish your stamps or coins or notes to be sold direct to dealer "X" - and you may have made that 100% clear to your spouse for decades.  NO WAY will the Public Trustee do that automatically, if you have no Will - all stamps then generally go straight to a Public Auction.  Often not even to a stamp auction!

If your family gets only HALF as much nett after the rafts of fees and taxes, than dealer "X" would have paid in cash on the spot - too bad for you.  Your spouse or family gets NO say whatever on this, in most cases.  If the Public Trustee gets involved, they direct all stamps go to auction UNLESS you have very clearly stated otherwise in your Will. 

Even accepting that many adults do not make any kind of Will, I’m darn sure that 90% of those who DO have Wills, and are connected with stamps (even when dealers) do NOT make any specific written arrangements in there, as to the disposal path of their stamps upon death.  Be honest - think about your own situation - how do YOU score here??!!

Sometimes, a family member is also keen on philately, and the stamps are passed on to that person, which is a very sensible and preferred option.  Clearly if that person eventually dies without a Will, the same situation exists, and the scene plays out all over again.

Even if you DO have a valid Will, and even if the Executor is a spouse or family member, is there ONE word in there as to where YOU’D direct your stamps to be sold to?  No - I bet there is not.  Many collectors own stamps worth more than their home, yet make no mention of them whatever in their Wills.

The disinterested family may toss them in skip bins when clearing out the family home for auction. (Happens FAR more often than you imagine!)  Or consign them to an auction like Velvet Collectibles (=Stanley Gibbons Australia) or mossgreen, which of course both went broke, as has been widely reported.

These collapses left vendors with goods that were sold, and often paid for by buyers who then took the goods.  However the OWNERS got zero back, after the Administrators/Liquidator/Lawyer leeches bled the carcass totally dry. with obscene $1000 an hour fees etc.  When the funds run out, these pariahs just move on to the next juicy victim.                             

There are still NO legal Trust Fund requirements for Stamp Auctions here, to escrow vendor monies via audited Trust Accounts, as Real Estate agents need do.  They can sell your stamps, use those funds to pay rent, Director Fees, wages, car leases, utility bills, and airfares etc, and sellers can receive not one cent.  It seems we learned absolutely nothing from history here.

Did any of the Directors and Managers from these defunct Auctions above incur even a fine, or were any charged by any authorities with ANYTHING at all - of course not.  Seems like everyone pretty much went back to what they were doing before, and the hapless sellers were as usual, the innocent victims - for many $ millions.

And many forget that the time lag from lodging auction lots, to receiving your payment can be much longer than 6 months - and can indeed be 9 months, often not an ideal or suitable option when an Estate is being wound up.  However if Stamp Auction is your choice, why not specify a specific reputable firm YOU wish to handle your material?

Over my 40+ years as a dealer, I am privileged and honoured to have had stamp material specified to be sold direct to me in HUNDREDS of cases, via Wills and/or via specific directions left to family members prior to their passing.  Makes life so much simpler for all parties then.

I often have spoken to and/or met the wife and/or family over the period of our dealing relationship, and thus this process is much easier, and far more comfortable and amenable, and smooth for the family, than dealing with total strangers.  Just common sense really. 

An informed collector who chose to deal with a dealer, from a free choice of 100s of stamp dealers, as they felt he supplied nice material at fair prices, with friendly service, is often the obvious source a family is most likely, and most comfortable, in offering those stamps back to - in the event of the collector passing away.

A short simple sentence like this is all you need in your Will to save your family from worrying about disposal of your collection. "I direct that all my stamps and all my related philatelic possessions, be disposed of directly to xxxxxxx, a well-established stamp dealer, that I know and trust."  

I have always had a very personal and “folksy” touch to my business.  Sure I make a buck from stamp dealing, but I make a lot of friendships too, which is a lovely sideline to this most personal of businesses.  I know many clients extremely well.  I share with them many stories about their stamps, their holidays, their families, and even their football teams etc.  

I have been fortunate to have been invited to stay with clients in their homes on 5 different continents when I am travelling.  I've often met their spouses and families, and/or spoken to them on the phone.  You will seldom get that personal interaction with a large auction house!  

Reminding ourselves of our mortality is never a cheerful experience, which is why more than HALF of us have no legal Will, but pure common sense dictates this MUST be addressed.  I do hope some readers take steps to ensure their philatelic pride and joy does NOT end up in the local bric-a-brac shop for a “‘song” in the event of their passing.                         

There are plenty of instant Will Kits on sale at bookstores globally etc.  As a personal comment I would advise you instead go visit a Solicitor experienced in Wills.  I paid only a few $100 for mine to be drawn up, which is reasonably complex - and that was the best money I spent all year.  What value do YOU place on peace of mind?

Among professional dealers, the asking price is either agreed to, or dickered down somewhat.  If Kevin Morgan or Rod Perry etc offers me something for $500 nett, I am never going to say - “sorry, but you are WAY too low on that Kevin - I’ll offer you $5,000 for it.”.   And vice-versa! 

This brings me to the point of this article.  After lugging home the 7 cartons and breaking it down into lots for my Rarity Page internet ads, it became quickly apparent a collector with whom I’d dealt extensively by mail, for well over a decade, had formed the collection.

Quite a few stamps and sets were still in stockcards and glassines with my name printed on them. Had I been called in by the man’s family and asked to price the Estate, I can honestly say that the cash price offered would have been many, many, many times more than I paid the smiling ‘bric-a-brac man’, and yet I’d still have made a nice profit, instead of a simply obscene profit.

The buyers go to great pains to ensure the ‘good lady’ doesn’t realise that each month a $250 CTO 5/- Sydney Harbour Bridge, or a 2015 Year album, set of 1994 P.N.G. overprints, or a “Penny Black” etc, is being quietly purchased.  I’m certain EVERY large dealer and Auction house in the world will have clients doing precisely the same thing.

This is WHY absurdly low ‘bric-a-brac Man’ offers are so frequently accepted by widows and families. ”George DID say he never spent any money on them, so I suppose $300 is a fair enough offer” scenario.  For a lifetime they have heard George stress: ‘the stamps are of little value’, or - ‘I only collect the cheap ones, for the fun of it’ etc.

Super low (or negative!) interest rates globally, often nervous and overvalued share markets, and even more nervous real estate markets in many countries, has seen a good deal of savvy money switching into better stamps.  Which often rise 5% or more a year - and that rise is mostly Tax Free, for private collecto

Margo and I spent last Christmas Day at a sunny family BRAAI (BBQ!) in coastal Swakopmund in Namibia (once German South West Africa) a very pretty old town. Days later we climbed the massive red sand “Dune 45” in Sossusvlei at sunrise, and we had a fun NYE in Windhoek. 

Climbing up that massive sand dune we photo’d nearby, is harder than it looks - seemed about a mile long, and you sink to your kneees in the super fine sand with each step.  We’d slept the night before on the hard ground in a tent, so the old bones were not enjoying the 5am workout!

All via the usual whirl of endless flights, and a week visit to Ethiopia (truly fascinating place), China, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbawbe. Flying back we had 44 hours in planes and airports and no hotel beds!  Heaps of pix here of the adventures for anyone interested - tinyurl.com/EithoGlen 

We also visited the vast Etosha and Chobe Game Parks in Namibia and Botswana.  Saw 400 Elephants one afternoon in Chobe, and “The Big 6”, and all kinds of other animals and birds. I’ve been to Africa very many times, but seeing 400 Elephants is always exciting to anyone! 

Then flew to Victoria Falls, and went over one morning and had breakfast literally in the Zambesi River on Livingstone Island in Zambia, and later literally hung right over the edge of Victoria Falls, risking death in the fast moving Zambezi waters!  Getting way too old for this stuff.  25 years back it did not seem so scary!

We travelled an awful lot during this year as usual, domestically and overseas - keeping many airlines solvent!  One real highlight was flying to the absolutely gorgeous, remote Pacific Island Atoll of Aitutaki.  One of the visual gems of the Pacific for sure.

We spend this Christmas in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay Of Bengal, flying in via China and Chennai via a convoluted string of flights.  We later travel across India, later ending up in Nepal for New Year’s Eve, and back home via Thailand and Chengdu China again.

“Thank You” to all readers globally, for the many phone calls and letters and emails with comments - both for AND against what has been written here, over the past year!  All input is greatly appreciated and taken on board.  It has been a most interesting one, and an exciting year for the entire stamp world.      

“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”, to one and all, and to all you and yours.  Be safe, have a great time among your family and friends, and then get stuck into the STAMPS - and enjoy the long holiday break!   We are all part of THE most amazing Hobby.  See you all in 2020.  Glen