CLASSIC LATIN AMERICA

It is now ten years since Stanley Gibbons printed the fourth and current edition of their ‘Part 20’ South America stamp catalogue. And the separate ‘Part 15’ that covers Central America was last published in 2007.

It looks like these are the final editions of these heavily referenced catalogues.

Stanley Gibbons business has gone through well- documented turmoil in recent years with a misguided focus on concentrating its efforts in selling ‘investment grade’ material to a small but wealthy group of spenders.

Combined with a ridiculous vision of attempting to beat eBay at its own game by spending (read “wasting”) over £10,000,000 on a technology platform that never delivered, the company has gone through an extensive period of mismanagement.

Is an updated catalogue still viable?

To produce new versions of the Latin American catalogues would need:

1. Resource, both human and monetary
2. Knowledge – an in-depth knowledge of Latin American philately
3. Access to reliable prices from which to update the existing figures. And after ten plus years, a comprehensive review would be necessary

I discussed this with Hugh Jefferies, SG’s highly regarded catalogue editor during this month’s Stampex in London and although sympathetic, realistically there is no real prospect of a replacement pair of catalogues on the horizon. Gibbons needs to reconnect with its core base of British and Commonwealth collectors and focus efforts on those parts of the business that will clearly generate a profit.

Thankfully, it looks like it is now on that path.

But perhaps it’s no great deal.

Catalogue prices are always contentious, not least in Latin America where demand, supply and ‘value’ can frequently be out of synch with one another.

The core of the catalogue remains the data, the information that allows identification and catagorization. Sure, this can change as new information comes to light but on the whole, the listings data remains fairly stable. As for new issues (a.k.a wallpaper), well, that’s no great loss in my book.

The existing catalogues still imply comparative value, even if the pricing is somewhat questionable. Relying on them as a firm base for value though is steadily becoming outdated.

How long before existing users switch to other catalogues?

How long will dealers continue to use these prices as indicators of value? Five more years, ten more years? There becomes a point where the prices stated are too detached from reality to be used in day-to-day transactions.

Which is why I have a copy of the Scott Classic Specialized on hand which is updated on an annual basis and bears a closer resemblance to market prices. Just.

The irony, of course, is that in an age when actual selling prices, whether via eBay or auction houses, are freely available to all, catalogue prices become less and less important other than as approximations of value.

Price transparency has never been quite so, er, transparent as it is today.

Gibbons appears to have now sold through all copies of both these catalogues (they are not advertised on their website) so your only source is secondhand. I noticed that some chancer had put a copy up on eBay for £140 recently. Or you could try the example for sale at Abe Books at £309.

Perhaps those investors that SG was courting ought to start investing in their catalogues instead.

Although The Mainsheet covered all twenty republics, its focus was primarily on South America.

In 1980, under the editorship of Bernard Davies, The Central American Newsletter was launched as a sister publication to The Mainsheet. Bernard edited until his death in 1985 when Mike Birks took over the helm.

The CAN ran for twenty years, the final 81^st issue being published in October 2000.

All the Central American countries are represented but Costa Rican, Nicaraguan and Honduran collectors will especially find much of interest.

It is worth mentioning that both The Mainsheet and CAN came with indexes for ease of reference. Again, highly recommended.

If there is one thing philatelists are not short of it is reading material.

Decades of book publishing has produced a wealth of literature on every subject imaginable and each month brings a swathe of new titles. Coupled to that, society magazines, articles, catalogues and the multitude of websites and forums and, well…you get the picture.

One particular publication that I think should be high on any Latin America collectors list though is The Mainsheet.

Produced quarterly between 1972 and 2004, The Mainsheet ran to 104 issues and covered every aspect of Latin American philately with a strong emphasis on the early years.

The Mainsheet was launched and published by John and Molly Fosbery with Brian Moorhouse as Sales Manager. Brian took over the editorship in 1981 when John Fosbery stepped down.

The journal of The Spanish Main Society

It was the journal of The Spanish Main Society, a UK based organization that catered for collectors of Latin America and included meetings, an auction, club packet and specialist sub-groups.

Contributors included many advanced collectors of the day who would supplement their own findings with data from the past to provide fresh insights into the key issues with numerous side trips into various philatelic backwaters.

The articles are as relevant today as they were when published: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia and Peru are particularly well catered for although all countries are represented across its thirty-two year existence.

I had amassed a reasonable selection of back issues until I spotted the full series, professionally bound, in a recent auction. Too good an opportunity to miss, the five volumes now provide a readily accessible reference source to dip into.

They still crop up from time to time in stamp auctions and are thoroughly recommended. Get in touch if you are looking for back issues; I usually have a selection to hand.