Some advice from William Gross

The London Telegraph features an article about bond dealer, multi-millionaire and well known stamp collector William Gross.

In it, Gross (shown at left) is quoted as saying, "In the 1940s, my mother would buy sheets of hundreds of commemorative stamps in the hope that they would appreciate in price so she could send me to college."

He goes on to say, "When I turned 18, she sent me to San Francisco with these stamps to sell them. It was like Jack and the Beanstalk. Unfortunately they offered me less than the face value and I had to take them home again."

"As soon as I had some money I thought I'd better set about doing this right."

According to the article, today Gross's personal fortune is calculated at upwards of $1 billion. He is reputed to be the first person to own one of every stamp ever issued by the United States.

Gross offered up the following tip for those interested in following his footsteps.

"Choose quality over quantity and do your research," keeping in mind "...that the value of a country's stamps tends to correlate pretty closely to the economic strength of the country as a whole."

He also advises collectors to consider stamps from countries such as China, India or Brazil, where recent economic advances could lead to a healthy philatelic market.

No doubt good advice from someone who knows what he's doing.

To read the entire article, click here.