Chinese Philatelists

The Financial Times ran a brief article last week about the influence mainland Chinese buyers are having on various market sectors. The impact is now beyond the basic Chinese fine and decorative arts, and beyond imperial items which we have seen a willingness to pay almost any amount.

The article shows mainland Chinese collectors are also into stamps, recently setting a record for a set of 4 Chinese stamps from the Cultural Revolution period at $1.1 million. They are also large consumers of fine wine and although not mentioned in the article luxury goods.

The FT states

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The extraordinary price boom in the Chinese stamp world, a small and illiquid market fuelled by die-hard collectors as well as opportunistic speculators, follows a similar pattern seen in the much bigger markets for wine and art.

“The key is [the growth of] the Chinese economy,” said Mr Schneider. He told the FT’s emerging market blog beyondbrics: “People are looking towards collectibles. With the wealth that’s been established, there’s a lot of disposable income.”

The power of Chinese buying hit the art and antiques worlds in December, when Christie’s broke its Asian record with sales of HK$3.18bn ($409m) at its six-day Hong Kong auction. Buyers from the Chinese mainland bought as much as 43 per cent of the total.

In October, its rival Sotheby’s set its own record of HK$3.09bn in its Hong Kong auction.

The Chinese are also rapidly emerging as wine aficionados. At a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong last autumn a bidder paid £43,000 ($68,000) for a case of 2009 Château Lafite – nearly three times more than it would fetch in London.

China is now the largest export market for Bordeaux wines, according to Le Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux, a promotional agency, which says sales of the wine in the country have doubled in each of the past five years.

To read the complete FT article, click HERE.