Stamp dealer licks technological age

By Selwyn Parker

"A stamp comes across my desk at 9.30 am," says Warwick Paterson. "I call the seller and buy it over the phone.

"I fax an enlarged photocopy of the stamp to a client in Japan, and by 11.30 am he's agreed to buy it. It's all done on trust."

Mr Paterson, aged 57, is one of New Zealand's niche exporters as well as one of its least likely. He is a stamp dealer with 5000 clients, two-thirds of them scattered around the world, mostly in Australia, Britain, the United States and Japan.

The clients of his family-owned firm, Campbell Paterson, are collectors rather than investors, and are willing to pay big money for the right New Zealand stamp. For example, a stamp from a first New Zealand issue printed in London in 1855 can fetch $35,000.

It is a business that marries the old values of reputation and integrity - the bedrock of international stamp-dealing - with the conveniences of modern communication.

"We use e-mail, fax and other electronic media heavily," says Mr Paterson.

"For most customers we really exist only in cyberspace."

Campbell Paterson does not even put its downtown Auckland address in the phone book.

The firm's web site is the engine of growth, harvesting a steady stream of inquiries and stimulating much business.

"The cheapest form of advertising in the world," Mr Paterson says.

This export business does not maintain an office abroad any more. Campbell Paterson had a branch in London for 30 years. It closed it six years ago, and now retains only an agent to winkle out valuable collections and other intelligence.

The firm employs just seven staff, most authorities in their particular fields of New Zealand stamps, which are the company's sole traffic.

Founded by Mr Paterson's father, Campbell, 50 years ago, the company has many longstanding clients with money to spend on something special.

"There's a small group that are big buyers of stamps," says Warwick Paterson. Some can spend $100,000 a year with the firm.

Competition is fierce for this elite clientele, many of whom are doctors and other professionals who take refuge from stressful occupations in stamp-collecting, even within New Zealand, which is apparently awash with professional dealers, many working from home.

Overseas, more competition comes from the big auction houses such as Sotheby's and the lesser-known ones such as Cavendish in Derby.

What distinguishes the elite dealers from the others is knowledge - the ability to judge the precise heritage and worth of a particular stamp.

Without knowledge, there is no credibility.

"Trust is absolutely fundamental," says Mr Paterson.

"In a field like this, knowledge is power."

But just in case, guarantees also underpin the exchange of stamps.

Its web site aside, Campbell Paterson's main marketing tools are its annual catalogue and monthly newsletter, which is also in its 50th year.

Mr Paterson also does the round of stamp fairs conducted in vast stadium-like auditoriums, visits prime clients and works hard to recruit new clients.

Most stamp collectors are aged 45 to 65.

Campbell Paterson could be more accurately described as an importer/exporter because much of its raw material - namely, New Zealand issues - lies abroad in collections in estates left by avid collectors.

The firm repatriates the collections and then resells them abroad. But still, it is all good foreign exchange.

* Contributing writer Selwyn Parker is at wordz@xtra.co.nz