25 May 2022
Ten-year volunteer Paul Hopley has found a unique way to stamp his mark on his volunteering role.
If you’d asked Paul Hopley five years ago what he knew about postage stamps he would have said “nothing”. But that was before the Hospice Books volunteer and his shop manager discovered a big pile of old stamp albums out the back of their store. Fascinated, Paul took them home and began systematically sorting and cataloguing them. He read everything he could about what made a stamp valuable and a year later, knew enough to begin selling to collectors.
Today Paul will tell you he knows “five times more” than he did back then, and the Hospice Books store in Birkenhead is renowned for being the only place in Auckland that collectors can go to get good-quality second-hand stamps.
The former stationer reckons he’s sold well over 200,000 stamps in the last five years – a mix of mint stamps (brand new) and good-quality used. And he has regulars that he deals directly with when new stamps come in that he knows they’ll be interested in.
“Some are a little bit like miniature works of art,” he says, “and stamps will become very sought-after when they’re rare, or when only one is needed to complete a series or set.”
The day we visited to photograph Paul he was very excited about a collection of stamps he’d put together from early 1900s Papua (its name wasn’t changed to Papua New Guinea until 1972). He’d already called one of his regulars and was confident they’d come in and buy the lot.
With most stamps selling at around 15 cents each, it’s practical to sell them in bundles. Paul has sold the odd individual stamp for $100 or more though, and always has his eye out for those very rare and valuable stamps that would sell for thousands through a dealer.
“We charge about a third of what a dealer would though, because dealers buy their stamps and we get them donated,” he says.
So far Paul has been fortunate to have had a good supply of stamps donated, but now the coffers are almost empty and he is in desperate need of more donated stamps.
If you have stamp collections at home that you’d like to donate, Paul would love to hear from you. Give him a call at Hospice Books on 09 480 2522 or pop into the store at 1 Hammond Place, Birkenhead. All of the money raised from hospice shop sales goes directly into patient care for the community.
