The analysis of Australian stamps covered some 2000 issues by Australia and its states between 1840 and 1950 which had achieved a value of $25 and higher. The analysis evaluated each stamp's appreciation (mint or used) over the last 5 and 10 year time periods and compared this across various catalog systems. Spaced does not permit me to go into extensive detail here so I will featuring more extensive detail for each country on my website www.StampFinder.com. Since my focus is on the investment aspects of stamps, I hope collectors will not be offended by this singular focus. Stamps become an investment to the most ardent collectors once they get past the easy to get items and have to budget their funds among numerous items they would like, but cannot afford all. For example, all the +$25 items for Australia will cost you over $2 million. Even the 400 or so items priced from $25 to $100 will cost you $27,000 and all 1200 items below $1000 will cost $300,000. And this for a country that doesn't even make the top 10 in collector interest. Investment buyers will be focused on which stamps have the best potential for appreciation, and every country has a few such. Who would have guessed the most valuable stamp comes from British Guiana!
Overall, Australia showed only a paltry 10.3% overall appreciation rate over the last 5 years, but the growth has been steady for at least 10 years and the data shows numerous candidates for substantial growth in the near future. Pricing was erratic in the early states' issues due in part to the attempt to assign values to a multitude of different perforations and color shades, many of which can be attributed to the primitive state of the printing art in these early years. Most countries have these problems, but some country dealers and collectors carry this to an extreme. I have tended to ignore such sub varieties since the investment potential for such items is limited. Weakness was also noted in the postal use of fiscal stamps. They have shown little upside in the last 10 years and a few are showing large declines.
QUEENSLAND # ITEMS $ AMOUNT APREC.%
MINT ALL 252 $196,155 10.10%
>$1000 40 $137,250 34.75%
>$500 TO <$1000 36 $26,225 23.58%
<$500 176 $32,680 1.74%
APPREC. 10%+ 69 52.41%
APPREC. 0% 120 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 44 -26.84%
USED ALL 198 $132,328 5.95%
>$1000 21 $128,200 99.05%
>$500 TO <$1000 10 $6,900 -3.40%
<500 168 $20,099 -3.28%
APPREC. 10%+ 27 99.33%
APPREC. 0% 121 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 42 -29.21%
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
MINT ALL 258 $394,151 4.81%
>1000 59 $350,675 31.02%
>500 TO <1000 22 $15,800 21.95%
<500 179 $29,831 5.94%
APPREC. 10%+ 143 38.40%
APPREC. 0% 24 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 75 -6.33%
USED ALL 130 $96,851 11.12%
>1000 23 $78,250 19.17%
>500 TO <1000 16 $11,450 7.13%
<500 93 $9,151 9.57%
APPREC. 10%+ 44 65.98%
APPREC. 0% 28 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 53 -28.08%
VICTORIA
MINT ALL 439 $517,231 -0.21%
>1000 102 $436,700 0.61%
>500 TO <1000 46 $33,525 0.00%
<500 296 $52,006 -0.51%
APPREC. 10%+ 0 0.00%
APPREC. 0% 430 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 2 -76.00%
USED ALL 358 $183,247 15.45%
>1000 43 $127,000 0.00%
>500 TO <1000 33 $23,700 0.00%
<500 286 $36,547 19.34%
APPREC. 10%+ 0
APPREC. 0% 350 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 0
TASMANIA
MINT ALL 189 $205,613 15.98%
>1000 33 $152,850 37.45%
>500 TO <1000 44 $31,050 13.64%
<500 112 $21,713 10.57%
APPREC. 10%+ 94 37.24%
APPREC. 0% 68 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 24 -2.67%
USED ALL 174 $178,416 1.66%
>1000 26 $37,750 19.62%
>500 TO <1000 26 $19,175 2.58%
<500 112 $43,881 3.16%
APPREC. 10%+ 49 34.69%
APPREC. 0% 57 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 56 -26.21%
NEW SOUTH WALES
MINT ALL 453 $1,052,683 7.53%
>1000 148 $973,650 28.10%
>500 TO <1000 46 $31,475 10.35%
<500 259 $47,558 -2.21%
APPREC. 10%+ 127 40.44%
APPREC. 0% 211 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 88 -21.69%
USED ALL 394 $231,422 7.38%
>1000 57 $147,425 20.42%
>500 TO <1000 56 $39,950 3.20%
<500 281 $45,047 5.56%
APPREC. 10%+ 51 102.78%
APPREC. 0% 243 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 84 -29.07%
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
MINT ALL 139 $204,434 0.83%
>1000 29 $180,350 2.24%
>500 TO <1000 16 $10,925 0.00%
<500 94 $13,159 3.84%
APPREC. 10%+ 2 55.00%
APPREC. 0% 136 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 0 0.00%
USED ALL 85 $184,725 0.00%
>1000 16 $167,300 0.00%
>500 TO <1000 11 $7,925 0.00%
<500 58 $9,500 0.00%
APPREC. 10%+ 0 0.00%
APPREC. 0% 85 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 0 0.00%
AUSTRALIA
MINT ALL 252 $439,308 -0.13%
>1000 49 $401,500 -0.53%
>500 TO <1000 17 $12,030 1.00%
<500 186 $25,778 -0.04%
APPREC. 10%+ 2 $16,000 29.00%
APPREC. 0% 247 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 3 -30.33%
USED ALL 159 $181,330 1.71%
>1000 30 $161,100 9.87%
>500 TO <1000 9 $6,110 0.00%
<500 120 $141,200 -0.19%
APPREC. 10%+ 2 145.50%
APPREC. 0% 153 0.00%
NEGATIVE RETURN 2 -15.00%