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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
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