【英语中国】珍稀邮票成中国藏家新宠

Without rich Chinese collectors, some experts say, stamp collecting would have continued its long, slow decline from mainstream hobby to near-extinction.
At least a third of the world's 60 million stamp collectors are now in China, and the number is growing rapidly, says Stanley Gibbons, a British stamp dealer. China, including Hong Kong, has also become a big stamp-trading hub, with at least six auction houses in Hong Kong and another four major houses on the mainland plus several smaller ones, most opening in the past four years. Stamp shows have proliferated, drawing hundreds of thousands of buyers and gawkers at a time when similar events in the U.S. are lucky to break into the five figures. Online exchanges have also sprouted, with tickers scrolling across the screen like stock markets. Stanley Gibbons says Asian clients now make up 5 percent of the firm's investments in terms of volume--but almost 18 percent in value, as they spend more.

How much more? Three years ago, two sheets of the first ever-issued stamps for Formosa, the name of the island that later became Taiwan, sold to a Hong Kong collector for HK$10.4 million, or over $1.3 million. In 2011, a block of four stamps from 1968 called 'Chairman Mao's Inscription to Japanese Worker Friends' sold for more than $1 million at a Hong Kong auction. The stamps, which feature Chairman Mao's handwriting declaring that the revolution would succeed in Japan, were printed but never issued--except through a post office in Hebei, China, which started selling them before they were canceled. Last year, a pair of 1941 stamps that featured Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary leader who began the Republic of China in the early 20th century, sold for $709,000 at an auction in Hong Kong. Like many other expensive stamps, their value was due to human error: The text and the $2 sign were printed upside down.

Chinese buyers tend to like alternative investments, from art to jade to homegrown liquors--and now stamps. According to a report by the private-wealth division at Barclays, China's high-net-worth individuals put 17 percent of their wealth in these type of investments, compared to 9 percent of America's rich and only 7 percent of the British wealthy. Stamps are also a relatively cheap collectible for countries that have new and growing middle classes. A grab bag of hundreds of stamps can be had for less than $5, which makes it easy for new collectors to get started, and as they get wealthier, they delve deeper into the hobby.

The focus is on the rarest and most valuable issues, some of which had to be sourced from overseas after being spirited out of the country earlier. They find their way back to the country through wholesale dealers like Max Stern, a 92-year-old Czech 钼migr钼 in Australia. He says he started dealing in Chinese stamps in the 1950s and watched the hobby be driven underground during the 10-year Cultural Revolution, when he was barred from doing business with China Post. Now, he says, the backbone of the hobby's growth is the parents who came of age in the 1980s, when stamp-collecting became acceptable again, and now are passing it on to their children.

Still, the market is highly volatile, he says, and he sees prices spike and fall in less than three months. 'There are thousands of dealers, and the big ones hold very large stocks [and] manipulate the price,' he says from his Sydney office.

Many stamp purists are unhappy about all the sales in China--and especially the volatility in prices. Like contemporary art and wine, the Chinese market for stamps shot up spectacularly in the year preceding 2011, then fell by 30 percent the following year, and is now starting to come back up in 2013. Stamp experts say buyers should expect the postal treasures to keep inflating and deflating along with the liquidity of the general Chinese economy.

Other stamp insiders say China's rush into stamps is reminiscent of the 1970s, which also isn't ideal. Many of the popular stamps from that era haven't budged in value from 40 years ago since the Western market crashed in the 1980s. 'I certainly wouldn't want to put 10,000 on Chinese stamps,' says Colin Such, director at Warwick & Warwick, an auction house based in England. 'Philately is a wonderful hobby, and ideally it should just be that.'

Illustration by Heads of State
有些专家称，如果没有阔绰的中国藏家的参与，集邮漫长而又缓慢的颓败过程本会继续下去，从主流收藏爱好走向几近消亡。

跟不上潮流的人可能认为集邮只是个爱好，但中国一些年轻的投资者已靠投资邮票狠狠赚了几把。《华尔街日报》的Jason Chow解释了是什么让一枚枚小小的邮票价值上百万美元。英国邮票经纪商斯坦利·吉本斯(Stanley Gibbons)说，全球6,000万集邮者如今至少有三分之一在中国，而且这个数字还在迅速上升。包括香港地区在内，中国已成为一个大型邮票交易中心。香港至少有六家拍卖行，中国大陆有四家大拍卖行以及几家小拍卖行，其中大多数都是在过去四年间开业的。同时，邮票展的数量迅速增加，吸引了数以十万计的买家与看客，现时类似的展览能在美国吸引到五位数的观众就算幸运了。此外，邮票在线交易也涌现出来，市场行情会像股市那样在屏幕上滚动显示。吉本斯透露，以数量计算，如今亚洲客户占到其公司投资的5%，但由于他们的投入更高，所以按金额衡量他们所占的比例几乎达到18%。

China Guardian Auctions, Interasia Auctions“无产阶级文化大革命的全面胜利万岁”这张盖销票在上世纪60年代主要通过中国邮局销售，今年以逾100万美元价格售出。他们的投资到底高出多少？三年前，台湾以“福摩萨”(Formosa)的名称发行的史上首款邮票以1,040万港币的价格卖给了一名香港藏家。2011年，1968年的“毛主席给日本工人题词”四方连邮票在香港一场拍卖会上以逾100万美元的价格售出。该款邮票印有毛主席书写的宣称日本的革命必将胜利的手迹。它们在印制后从未发行，只是河北一家邮局在它被禁止发行之前预先售出了少量。在去年，1941年的孙中山（20世纪初开创中华民国的革命领袖）肖像双连邮票在香港一场拍卖会上以逾709,000美元的价格拍出。与其他许多价值不菲的邮票一样，它们的身价源自人为失误：邮票的文字及两美元面额的标志被倒印错体。

中国的买家往往青睐另类投资品，以前是玉石和国产白酒，现在则是邮票。巴克莱银行(Barclays)私人财富管理部门的一份报告显示，中国的高 值人群将他们17%的财富都投入到此类投资品上，而美国与英国的富裕阶层投入的资产比例分别只有9%和7%。对于新兴中产阶级不断壮大的国家而言，邮票也是一种相对低价的收藏品。不到五美元就能买到一包数量达几百张的邮票，使得新藏家比较容易起步。随着他们越来越富裕，他们会更深入地投入到这个爱好当中。

China Guardian Auctions, Interasia Auctions“全国山河一片红”邮票诞生于1968年，主题为庆祝文化大革命。但未能广泛流通，最近此邮票的横版以81.5万美元售出。
焦点是那些最稀有、最珍贵的邮票，其中一些因为早前被人带出中国，因此得从海外寻觅它们。像马克斯·斯特恩(Max Stern)这样的批发经纪商便是把它们带回中国的中间人。这位今年92岁、生活在澳大利亚的捷克侨民说，他从上世纪50年代开始从事中国邮票的经纪业务，并目睹这一爱好在十年文化大革命期间转至地下，当时他也被禁止与中国邮政做生意。他指出，现在推动这项爱好发展的主力军是在80年代，即在集邮解禁时成年的家长们，如今他们把它传给了他们的孩子。

然而，斯特恩指出市场的波动性还很强，他看到邮票价格在不到三个月的时间内就涨涨跌跌。他在自己的悉尼办公室中说道：“邮票经纪商有几千名，其中一些大经纪商持有大量存货，他们会操控价格。”

许多纯粹的集邮者对中国的各宗销售交易，特别是对价格的波动颇为不满。与当代艺术品和葡萄酒市场相同，中国的集邮市场在2011年前一年急剧上涨，到2012年跌了30%，在2013年又开始回升。集邮专家称，买家应预料到邮票会继续随着中国整体经济流动性的变化而上涨或下跌。

China Guardian Auctions, Interasia Auctions图为台湾于1886年发行的龙马票。几年前两版龙马票以130万美元售出，在中国创下新纪录。其他一些集邮界业内人士称，中国涌入集邮市场的情形让人回想起70年代，当时的状况也让人不满。许多在那个时代受追捧的邮票的价值在40年后丝毫未变，其缘由是西方邮市在80年代崩溃。英格兰拍卖行Warwick & Warwick的总监科林·萨奇(Colin Such)说：“我绝对不想在中国邮票上投入10,000英镑。集邮是一项很棒的爱好，理想地说它应该仅限于是个爱好。”